After a relatively light racing schedule of late, the 'Cases' Somerset Rebels have three matches in as many days this week which will see their home match against Rye House on Friday night sandwiched between away encounters at Ipswich and then the return fixture at Rye House.
Having already dispatched their old foes, the Rye House Rockets, in the League Cup earlier in the season, the Rebels now face the Rockets in the Premier League.
But both teams will be missing personnel from this match with Nick Morris riding in Germany for Australia in the semi-final of the Under-21 World Team Cup Championship that weekend, a meeting that also claims the services of Rye House's Jason Garrity who is in the Great Britain quartet.
Somerset have, however, booked the services of Newcastle's Stuart Robson as guest replacement for Morris for both matches, while Rye House will use the rider replacement facility to cover for Garrity's absence in Friday's match at the Oaktree Arena.
The return fixture at Hoddesdon will see Rye House also devoid of the services of Frenchman Mathieu Trésarrieu who is riding in the Grand Prix qualification meeting at Berwick the same night and have booked Plymouth's Zdenek Simota as a guest replacement for Trésarrieu while Ipswich's Ritchie Hawkins will step into the breach as Garrity's replacement.
There will not, however, be a return to the Oaktree Arena for ex-Rebel Stefan Nielsen, who has recently joined Rye House, as his 'fast track' commitments with Belle Vue on Friday and Saturday night take precedent over his Rye House duties, and so Coventry Storm's Dan Greenwood will ride in Nielsen's place in Friday's meeting while Ben Morley will be his guest replacement in Saturday's return fixture.
"It's going to be a busy 3 days, but one that we are more than capable of dealing with," said Somerset team manager Garry May, "the aim at Ipswich on Thursday will be to keep the scores as close as possible ahead of when we stage the 2nd leg, before we then take on Rye House home and away."
"Of course it is not ideal to go into the two matches without Nick [Morris], but it is an honour for him and the club to be part of the Australian side and in Stuart Robson we have a rider who has already covered for us to good effect when Nick was previously unavailable for us."
"Having already beaten Rye House home and away in the League Cup earlier in the year, it does perhaps give us a bit of an advantage, but by the same token Rye will be looking to avenge those defeats so we cannot afford to take their challenge lightly."
Before the Rockets fly into the Oaktree Arena, however, the Rebels have a trip to Ipswich on Thursday night in the 1st leg of their Quarter-Final KO Cup tie against the Witches, Somerset will be looking to keep things tight ahead of the 2nd leg back which is back at the Oaktree Arena on Friday 13th June.
Somerset are forced to go into this 1st leg encounter without Swede Pontus Aspgren, the fixture clashing with a Swedish Allsvenskan League match, the only 'facility' available to the Rebels is to bring in a National League rider to ride in Aspgren's place, Somerset having secured the services of Kent's Ben Morley for the meeting.
