A glorious afternoon saw Somerset travel to Newport for the restaging of the M4 Trophy Challenge - the second leg of the original staging had fallen to fog. Due to a Polish League engagement, guest Chris Neath of Rye House replaced Rebels' skipper Magnus Zetterstrom at number one. Neath has had several good meetings at the Queensway Meadows circuit recently, and he started well by taking the first heat from the Newport pair of Coles and Lund. It was clear from early on that the track was causing problems for some of the riders, and they came to the fore in heat three. After making a good start, Paul Fry passed both Wasps' riders exiting the second bend, onto the back straight. Newport's Mads Korneliussen quickly challenged and came inside Fry off the last bend. Both riders drifted wide, and Korneliussen clipped Fry's front wheels, sending him into the safety fence; Korneliussen was excluded. After being attended to for several minutes, Fry regained his feet, and took part in the re-run, finishing second, but it was his last involvement of the afternoon. After the match, it was confirmed that Fry had sustained bruising to his coccyx. He will be out for the Isle of Wight meeting. The incident changed the complexion of the meeting completely, with the reserves having to take his remaining rides. The Rebels also lost Ritchie Hawkins later in the match, with an aggravation of an old shoulder injury. By heat seven, the Wasps had opened up a 10-point lead, and the Rebels threw Jamie Smith in on a "tactical" ride. After the first bend, Smith was trailing in third place, but produced a superb ride. He first passed Lund on the second lap before chasing down Ezergailis, and cutting inside him off the last two bends to take the six points. Newport continued to press home their advantage, and at heat 10 they were 15 points up. Heat 11 saw Neath take the "tactical", but he couldn't get the better of the superb Craig Watson and had to settle with second. He was followed home by Jamie Smith to give the heat to the Rebels 3-5. Heat 14 was the high spot of the day. Lee Smart, the 17-year-old Rebels' reserve, shot underneath both Wasps' riders - Collins and Atkin. He easily held Atkin at bay for all four laps to take a fantastic win. He also accounted for another notable scalp earlier in the match, when holding off the experienced Michael Coles; he took third place in Heat 6. The loss of Fry early in the proceedings made the task doubly difficult for the Somerset Rebels. This combined with a track that caused problems all afternoon resulted in an easy 57-38 win for the home side. It leaves the Rebels with a great deal to do in the return. What is probably worse than the result are the injuries to both Paul Fry and Ritchie Hawkins before a difficult trip to the Isle of Wight for the next match in the Premier Trophy competition. | 
