Craig Watson (born 6 August 1976 in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

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 who rode for the

Newport Wasps Newport Wasps were a British motorcycle speedway team based in Newport, South Wales from 1964 to 2012. They were the 1999 Conference League champions. The Wasp logo incorporates the traditional black and amber colours of the City of Newport. ...

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 ...

Belle Vue Aces The Belle Vue Aces are a British speedway club, based in Manchester. The club hold the record of having won the top tier League championship 13 times. They currently compete in the SGB Premiership, racing at The National Speedway Stadium, wi ...

, Glasgow Tigers and

Birmingham Brummies Birmingham Brummies are a British speedway team founded in 1928. They were inaugural members of the Southern League in 1929. The team have twice finished runner-up in the highest tier of British speedway, during the 1952 Speedway National Le ...

in the Elite League. 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

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

in the Elite League. However his scores were low and when he suffered an injury early in the season his replacement, Piotr Swist, did well enough to keep his place. Watson signed for

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 ...

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. Each club has a promot ...

found that his greensheet

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Craig 1976 births Living people Australian speedway riders Motorcycle racers from Sydney Poole Pirates riders Glasgow Tigers riders Newport Wasps riders Birmingham Brummies riders