Craig Watson (born 6 August 1976 in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

) is an Australian former

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider. Watson was the winner of the 1996 NSW State Championship. He is also a triple Australian Longtrack champion, having won the championship in 1997, 1998 and 2002.

Career

Watson spent most of his career with the

Newport Wasps Newport Wasps were a British motorcycle speedway team based at Somerton Park and then the Hayley Stadium in Newport, Wales, Newport, South Wales, from 1964 to 2012. The Wasps logo incorporates the traditional black and amber colours of the City ...

. He failed to agree terms with the Newport promotion for 2007 and was eventually signed up by former club

Poole Pirates Poole Pirates (also known as Poole Speedway) are a motorcycle speedway team based in Poole, England, competing in the SGB Championship. The club have been the champions of the United Kingdom on ten occasions. Poole Speedway is promoted by l ...

in the Elite League. However his scores were low and when he suffered an injury early in the season his replacement,

Piotr Świst Piotr Świst (born 20 June 1968 in Poland) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Poland. His surname "Świst" means 'whizz' in Polish. He earned 18 international caps for the Poland national speedway team. Career Świst spent his first ...

, did well enough to keep his place. Watson signed for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

team the Glasgow Tigers for the rest of the 2007 season and had a successful spell with the club. At the start of 2008, Watson was again signed by his parent club the Poole Pirates to ride for them at reserve. However, the

BSPA The British Speedway Promoters Limited (BSPL) organises the domestic motorcycle speedway competitions in the United Kingdom. They are also responsible for the promotion and running of the FIM meetings staged in Britain. Wimbledon controller Ronn ...

found that his greensheet

average In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...

was incorrect and therefore his average would be too high for him to fit into the Poole squad. Watson was left without a club, but soon after once again signed for Premier League team Newport. Newport closed in May following the death of their owner, and Watson joined the

Birmingham Brummies Birmingham Brummies are a British Motorcycle speedway, speedway team founded in 1928. They were inaugural members of the Southern League (1929–31), Southern League in 1929. The team have twice finished runner-up in the highest tier of Britis ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Craig 1976 births Living people Australian speedway riders Motorcycle racers from Sydney Poole Pirates riders Glasgow Tigers riders Australian expatriate speedway riders in Scotland Newport Wasps riders Expatriate speedway riders in Wales Birmingham Brummies riders Australian expatriate speedway riders in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in Wales Australian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Sportsmen from New South Wales