WORLD Cup winner and former Danish U21 champion Charlie Gjedde has joined the Wasps to replace Kyle Legault who injured his throttle hand in a crash at Edinburgh last month.

Club boss Steve Mallett said: “We have had to run with a six-man team since Kyle’s accident and it cost us a potential victory away at Ipswich as the rider replacement points by no means matched what Kyle was capable of scoring.

“We have recently strengthened our team and did not want to lose momentum so have made this decisive move. Charlie has an excellent pedigree racing at the highest level both in this country and abroad and will no doubt make an impact.”

Gjedde, who was riding for the Belle Vue Aces in the Elite League, will make his Wasps debut tomorrow night in the home Premier League fixture against the Glasgow Tigers at Queensway Meadows with tapes up at 7pm.

The Scottish visitors will track one of this country’s outstanding speedway riders of recent decades as their number one rider.

Joe Screen is in his first full season in the Premier League having joined Glasgow mid-way through the 2010 campaign.

In his career he has been British champion, Division One Riders champion and World U21 champion as well as being a multi-capped Great Britain international and former Grand Prix rider.

At team level he won Elite League Championship medals with Belle Vue, Bradford and Eastbourne.

He leads a team that will test the new-look Wasps as in support to him are James Grieves who has ridden undefeated in the past at Newport’s 285-metre shale oval plus Josh Grajczonek who is a rising Aussie star and former Wasp Michal Rajkowski who launched his British career in stunning style at Newport in 2006.

Wasps team manager Kevin Brown, however, is confident: “Since Jason Doyle and Justin Sedgmen joined the Wasps team a few weeks ago there is a completely different feel about our prospects. We took care of a very good Sheffield team in our last home fixture and ran top team Ipswich close away with a depleted side that night.

“There is no doubt that the Glasgow management have put together a very competitive team and they have won at Redcar and Berwick already but we are looking forward to a close encounter with every opportunity for more league points.”

Both sides will be missing at least one rider with Kyle Legault still not recovered from his finger operation while opponent Christian Henry made an unsuccessful comeback from injury last week and Tigers reserve Nick Morris is a doubt.

NEWPORT ‘MIKE MANNING AUDIO’ WASPS: From: Robin Aspegren, Jason Doyle, Mark Jones, Todd Kurtz, Leigh Lanham (Captain), Justin Sedgmen.

GLASGOW TIGERS: From: Josh Grajczonek, James Grieves, Nick Morris or guest, Theo Pijper, Michal Rajkowski, Joe Screen (captain).

Newport Speedway is beginning to plan for the Welsh Open Championship at Queensway Meadows on Sunday June 26 at 1pm.

This annual event follows the staging of the British round of the World Championship Grand Prix series at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff the night before and traditionally attracts fans from home and abroad who make it a weekend of Speedway in South Wales.

Already confirmed are David Howe of the Scunthorpe Scorpions/Great Britain and Ryan Fisher of the Coventry Bees/America.