NEWCASTLE captain Christian Henry misses both the weekend’s Premier League matches against Rye House but still hopes to ride again later this season despite damaging his left knee ligaments in Thursday’s defeat at Redcar.
Glasgow’s Craig Watson will guest for Henry when the Diamonds visit the Rockets tonight at Hoddesdon while Edinburgh’s former Diamond George Stancl will be the guest for the return fixture at Newcastle Stadium tomorrow evening (6.30pm).
Watson’s been a heat winner in all of his last four trips to Rye House dating back to September 2004 while Stancl stood in superbly for Henry seven weeks ago in the home victory over Stoke.
Diamonds co-promoter and team manager George English said: “Christian was very depressed in the pits at Redcar but we’ve enough meetings left to give him a target for a comeback, especially as there are still four weeks to go to the Premier League Riders’ Championship at Swindon.”
Rye House were league champions in 2005 and they’re among the contenders this year after demolishing another of the title favourites Isle of Wight 69-21 on Monday.
English added: “I watched some of that match when I got home from our own win over Glasgow. I saw enough within a few heats to realise we’re in for a tough weekend.
“They’ve the hottest 16-year-old in the country, Tai Woffinden, and one of their reserves, Adam Roynon, is in flying form.
“But they’re not guaranteed to make the top four for the league play-offs and we’re still good enough to put a dent in their title hopes when they come to our track.”
Meanwhile, Redcar’s Chris Kerr is set for plenty of travelling as well as racing this weekend as he’s guesting for Andreas Bergstrom in Berwick’s home meeting tonight against Stoke before hurrying to Newport with the rest of the Bears tomorrow afternoon.
Bergstrom’s missing for the Bandits because of a clash with the Swedish national championship while Redcar will be using the rider replacement rule tomorrow to cover Mat Tresarrieu’s appearance for France in the Longtrack World Cup.
