Benjamin Mark "Benji" Compton (born 17 September 1986, in

Playa de las Américas Playa de las Américas is a purpose-built holiday resort in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands of Spain. It is located in the southern and southern-west part of the Municipality of Arona, close to the adjoining Municipality of Adeje in the west ...

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

) is a Spanish-British

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 anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

rider.

Career

Compton has ridden for

Buxton Hitmen The Buxton Hitmen were a speedway team in the British National League (formerly the Conference League) from 1994 to 2018. The club stopped racing in the National League after the 2018 speedway season. History The team's inaugural season was i ...

in 2004, Scunthorpe Scorpions in 2005, Sheffield Tigers in 2006 as well as Berwick Bandits and King's Lynn Stars in 2007. He won the

Premier Trophy The Major League Tournament (formerly known as the Premier Trophy) is the main domestic first-class cricket competition in Sri Lanka. It was established in 1938 and has existed under a number of different names. Matches before the 1988–89 seas ...

in 2007 while riding for King's Lynn. His parent club is Sheffield Tigers who in 2008 granted him permission to ride for Scunthorpe Scorpions who had moved up to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

from the Conference League. Compton had ridden for Scunthorpe in the Conference League from 2005 to 2007. In May 2008, however, it was revealed that Compton would be leaving Scunthorpe as part of team strengthening. Compton subsequently rode for the

Redcar Bears The Redcar Bears are a British speedway team who currently compete in the SGB Championship (middle tier of the British speedway leagues). Their major team honour to date is the SGB Championship KO Cup win in 2019 against rivals Newcastle Diamo ...

for the remainder of the season. In September 2008, Compton won the

Conference League Riders' Championship The National League Riders' Championship is an annual motorcycle speedway contest between the top riders (or two riders) with the highest average points total from each club competing in the third tier league in the United Kingdom. The same form ...

at Rye House with a 14 point tally. Compton is the first speedway rider with Spanish citizenship to have signed a contract with a Polish club (

Polonia Piła Polonia Piła is a motorcycle speedway club in the Polish town of Piła Piła (german: Schneidemühl) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population as of 2021 was ...

for the 2009 season). In August 2009, he joined

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

team, the

Weymouth Wildcats The Weymouth Wildcats were a British motorcycle speedway team based in Weymouth, England, who raced in the National League (speedway), National League. The Wildcats won the first Conference League (speedway), Conference League Championship in t ...

. Compton took some time out from speedway to concentrate on his budding career in hairdressing, but returned in 2013 with

Kent Kings The Kent Royals (formerly Kings) are a British speedway team formed in 2013. Through 2021 they competed in the SGB Championship but also run a junior team in the National League. They were based at Central Park Stadium in Sittingbourne, with a t ...

in the National League.Kings Call for Compton
, speedwaygb.co, 16 May 2013. Retrieved 16 May 2013 In 2021, he rode for the

Belle Vue Colts The Belle Vue Colts are the junior youth development team of the Belle Vue Aces, one of the World's most famous motorcycle speedway team, based in Manchester in the northwest of England. History Belle Vue first operated a reserve team during the ...

during the

2021 National Development League speedway season The National Development League 2021 is the third tier/division of British speedway for the 2021 season. Due to pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic it was decided that the league would be decided by the final table standings only, with no p ...

Personal life

Compton was born in

, Spain. When he was four years old, his family was moved to Great Britain. He now lives in

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, England and has two citizenships; Spanish and British. Compton is the younger brother of former Sheffield Tigers captain Andre Compton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Compton, Benji 1986 births Living people Spanish motorcycle racers British speedway riders Belle Vue Colts riders Berwick Bandits riders Newcastle Diamonds riders Sheffield Tigers riders Scunthorpe Scorpions riders Redcar Bears riders