Newport skipper Craig Watson, pictured, is worth a little flutter to lift the Premier League riders' crown at Sheffield on Sunday night.

He is quoted by the bookies at 10-1 - and at those odds it's worth a bet.

Australian Watson has a distinct liking for the Owlerton track, guesting for Sean Wilson who broke his neck by in early May. Calls from Sheffield to South Wales became regular until the averages precluded Watson from riding as a guest.

Watson twice hit double figures, 11 from four rides against Hull and a paid 11 against Exeter.

But the biggest threat to Watson in the 16-strong field is likely to come from bookies' favourite Simon Stead of Workington who also guested for Sheffield, scoring double figures on his five home appearances.

But before arriving in Sheffield, Watson has the matter of two crunch Premier League meetings in as many days, to try and keep Wasps off the bottom, a place now occupied by Newcastle.

Wasps ride at Stoke tonight and Rye House in a double header (GMB Mavericks in the Conference League) and Watson said: "We have a got a fair chance of avoiding bottom spot and if we can win at Stoke that will just about do it for us."

Watson won the Champions' Chase meeting at King's Lynn earlier in the summer and that's another reason for the bookies to put him well up the field in the betting, but he was doing his best to play it down.

Watson said: "The riders are all of a similar ability and that makes it hard to pick one out of the field - just as it was for the Champions' Chase.

"I have ridden there frequently and maybe that gives me a bit of an advantage but there are too many good riders in the field for it to make much of a difference.

l Newport's Danish double act of Mads Korneliussen and Kristian Lund, along with former Wasps' rider Niels-Kristian Iversen, now at Oxford in the Elite, team up to ride in fellow countryman Frede Schott's testimonial meeting at Edinburgh a week today.

l Newport's Karlis Ezergailis was a surprise inclusion in the Speedway Star's team of the week, guesting at number eight for Rye House in their mutilation at Exeter on Monday night, beaten 75-18.

Speedway's specialist magazine declared: "For probably the first time in record book history we have extended our team of the week to take into account a performance by a number eight.

Nothing too startling for the Australian youngster with his four-point tally, except that, as number eight, he took five rides, including a tactical substitute outing, and was the Rockets second top points scorer in their "County ground massacre."

Brent Werner and Tommy Allen both scored five points apiece for Rye House.