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FORMER Newcastle skipper Christian Henry is to return to the club next season.The Australian spent four years on Tyneside between 2005 and 2008 before seeing spells with King’s Lynn and Glasgow cut short due to injuries.Newcastle co-promoter Darryl Illingworth said: “Christian had developed a very fast outside line, especially coming off our second bend, and won many of his fine points using that technique.“We welcome him back fully in belief that he can rekindle his excellent form that made him such a solid scorer round our place last time he raced for us. What makes for successful teams are those who have riders capable of increasing their statistics in their colours at the start of the season, and Christian is a prime example of one who we think can do that very effectively. ”

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SCUNTHORPE will host a World Under-21 Team Cup semi-final next year on May 27.It will be the first time the Eddie Wright Raceway stages an FIM World Championship event, and there are several candidates for the Great Britain team with Scunthorpe connections.Promoter Rob Godfrey said: “A large percentage of the young riders in this country have spent a lot of time racing at our track and our own Ashley Birks, Steve Worrall and Richie Worrall have to be strong candidates for team places whilst Kyle Howarth, Joe Haines, Jerran Hart, Ashley Morris and James Sarjeant are others who qualify and have ridden for us over recent seasons.“It would be great if Denmark were drawn in our semi-final because Thomas Jørgensen should hopefully ride for them. That said, the prospect of seeing the Swedish or Russian Under-21s in action on our track is just mouth-watering, and I feel the British side will have a great opportunity to advance to the Final.”

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NEWPORT have added two Swedish riders to the line-up for the New Year Classic at Queensway Meadows on January 2. Wasps favourite Anders Mellgren will race in the popular event, and he will be joined by highly rated youngster Andreas Hertzberg, who has been recommended to the club by Swedish scout Peter Jansson, leaving just two spots to fill in the line-up.Co-promoter Nick Mallett said: “We have a list of riders who have been in touch and ones Laurence (Rogers) and I have spoken to, but unfortunately with the format of this meeting we only have twelve spaces available and ten of those are now confirmed. “This is the first year for a while we have had this luxury and it will be a hard decision of choosing which riders gets the final places. All I do know is that we have a quality field of true racers and I would not like to predict who will win this one.”