THE Somerset Rebels suffered the heartache of a second successive runners-up spot in the Premier League Pairs Championship, held at a packed Oak Tree Arena.

The group stages saw the King's Lynn Stars and Somerset dominate Group A, the Rebels coming back from a shock 7-2 reversal against the Stars in their opening ride to remain unbeaten from their following three rides to eventually finish a single point behind as both teams booked their places in the semi-finals with relative ease.

However, after seemingly cruising through to the semi-finals, the first chinks appeared in the Stars armour in their last group outing when the precocious Darcy Ward came to grief trying a wildly ambitious move to pass Scunthorpe's Magnus Karlsson.

Group B saw Workington head and shoulders above their opposition, dropping just one point from their four outings, but the battle for the other semi-final spot saw plenty of excitement.

Initially Redcar put themselves in the box seat, but then the wheels fell off the Bears' wagon as they found themselves on the wrong end of two maximum 7-2 heat defeats against Workington and Birmingham, allowing Edinburgh to move into contention, but inconsistency was to cost the Monarchs dear, leaving Birmingham to sneak up on the rails and go through to the semi-finals.

The first semi-final saw the Brummies against King's Lynn, the experience of Birmingham's Jason Lyons coming to the fore as he out-witted Ward as they headed down the back straight, relegating the King's Lynn youngster to the back.

Desperate to get back past Lyons, Ward steamed under his adversary as they took to the first turn on the second lap with the inevitable consequence of Lyons hitting the deck and Ward earning an exclusion from the re-run.

This left Birmingham needing simply to make sure that both riders finished the race to book their place in the final.

The second semi-final between Somerset and Workington was, given the Comets' form in the group stages, a somewhat surprisingly one-sided affair as, at the second time of asking, Johnston and Kramer sped away from the tapes to take a relatively easy victory and a place in the final.

If the home fans were hoping that the Rebels would go one better than their second-place finish 12 months earlier, those hopes were dashed in the first 30 metres of the start as Lyons and Piszcz made by far the better get-away and, although Johnston finally hunted down and passed Piszcz, it was a case of too little, too late and, with Lyons taking the race win, it was Birmingham that were to take the top spot on the podium.

Somerset Speedway have announced that Jay Herne has been released from their team.

General manager David Croucher said: "This is absolutely no reflection on Jay's performances for the club – this is based simply on an attendance issue.

"Because of Jay's commitments to his parent club, Bournemouth Buccaneers, he has missed three out of our last four meetings and has not ridden at home for us since June 3.

"I fully understand that this situation is not of Jay's making. It is the result of a congested fixture list and riding in two leagues.

"All of us here are very saddened that we have had to part company with Jay and we know many supporters will feel the same way, but we have a duty to the club and its fans to field the strongest team possible within the rules and, quite simply, we have not been doing that recently.

"We have used Brendan Johnson on three occasions now when Jay has been absent and, despite Brendan's full commitment and effort, it is obviously a little too early in his career to expect him to take up a position in the main body of the team and score well.

"This again is no criticism of Brendan and we fully expect him to develop his talent, and feel sure he will be a big part of the Rebels' future in years to come.

"When the new averages come into effect on July 1, we will have around 5.20 points with which to find a replacement for Jay, and we are actively seeking a suitable rider to strengthen up the team for the remainder of the season.

"In the event that no such rider becomes available immediately, we have a contingency plan in place to bring a temporary replacement on board."