Mads Korneliussen is chasing a place in the finals of the World Under-21 Championship when he rides in Austria this weekend.

Newport's dashing Dane appears at the Wiener Neustadt with the top eight qualifying.

The other semi-final is at Vetlanda in Sweden with the final in Wroclaw, Poland, on September 11.

Pavel Ondrasik is competing at a European grass-track championship meeting in Folkestone with a number of British-based speedway riders also taking part, including Theo Pijper and Sebastian Tresarrieu.

The final of the event is on August 22 at Eenrum in Holland.

l Craig Watson, Wasps skipper, rides for Sheffield at home to Exeter tonight in the Knock-out Cup and tomorrow evening he makes the short trip to Somerset, again in Sheffield colours, for a Premier League meeting.

And then, on Monday, he's off to Reading with his own club which will be a tough test for the Wasps against a side chasing Premier League honours.

Watson believes they were unlucky not to pick up the valuable bonus point against Edinburgh last Sunday. A tactical ride by Frede Schott helped Edinburgh to a 7-1 heat win with four heats remaining and it stopped Wasps in their tracks.

Watson said: "I think the tactical ride makes it a farce. If Pavel (Ondrasik) had not suffered injury in the first heat it would have put us in a good position for the bonus point."

l Teenager Matthew Bates is set to make his GMB Mavericks debut at the end of the month in the away Conference League meeting against Rye House, who won 52-41 at the Hayley Stadium in mid-April.

Bates, who lives only a back straight away from the track at Exeter, will be 15 at the end of the month, the earliest age he can ride speedway competitively.

Bates first gained an interest in the sport when he heard the bikes roaring around the County ground track. He is competing in the British Under-15 Championship and after four rounds is sitting in fourth place on 39 points, ten adrift of leader Josh Auty.

In the fourth round, at Buxton earlier this month, Bates finished fourth with 11 points and the next meeting is at Carmarthen on August 8, just after he returns from holiday.

Mavericks' Sam Hurst is in tenth place with 24 points.

Bates rode at the Wasps' winter training school and promoter Tim Stone said: "The young riders get plenty of track time with us and we ride in all conditions - but they don't mind. All they want to do is ride, ride and ride.

"We can offer three tiers of speedway, enabling them to progress from Conference, Premier and hopefully to Elite League. We run winter schools when other people do not and now Matthew wants to ride for the Mavericks and he will get his chance."

l The funeral service for Alby Golden, who died last weekend aged 73, is to held on Tuesday at St. Mary the Virgin Church, Eling Hill, Totton, Southampton.

Golden's speedway career began at the Ringwood track in 1954 and he went to Southampton in 1956 until the Bannister Court track closed in 1963.

Golden - christened Albert Edward Stanley - was a sheet metal worker in Southampton docks before moving to Newport and then Eastbourne, where he ended his career.