Newport Wasps skipper Craig Watson looks certain to continue riding for them next season following talks with promoter Tim Stone.

And the Wasps could have a new face in their line-up next summer.

Stone said: "Whenever Craig and I have had negotiations it has never been difficult to reach agreement and I don't think this time will prove any different."

Watson has since returned to his native Australia where he will be competing during the winter.

l Wasps will be striving next season to avoid the struggle they experienced last season when they just avoided the Premier League's wooden spoon and Stone was this week in negotiations with a rider which could be satisfactorily concluded by the weekend.

Stone said: "He was riding in the Premier League last season and we may be able to announce our first signing very shortly.

"He telephoned me earlier in the week and enquired about the chances of riding for the Wasps next year to which I said 'very good.'

l Relations between M4 rivals Newport and Reading have become distinctly strained, the Berkshire club promoter Pat Bliss claiming "Reading fans were not welcome at Newport."

Bliss said: "We were quite pleased with the Knock-out Cup draw although our first opponents, Newport, were far from happy having to face Reading or the Reading supporters who it is made clear are not welcome at Newport."

Stone maintained the bad feeling emanated from the British Speedway Promoters' Association annual conference last year when moves by Reading to stage the Premier League pairs meeting on the same day as the Welsh Open were rejected out of hand by fellow promoters.

Stone said: "Her move was unanimously voted against so that our club could keep its prestige Welsh Open on the Grand Prix weekend, which is a needed financial boost during the middle of the season. When the vote went against her she walked out of the meeting.

"I'm afraid that's what it comes down to - and really we won as much as Reading last season - nothing!"

Reading fans were understood to be upset when they had to pay additional entrance money when their league meeting was restaged as a double header with Berwick and Stone added: "I had no alternative but to run the two meetings together because of the time factor.

"BSPA regulations stipulate that tickets issued for rained-off meetings are valid for the next three meetings. The restaged meeting was after that period so it was my gift to the Reading fans, something I need not have done because it was not in the regulations - and they saw five races of the abandoned meeting.

"Some even complained about having to pay the Severn Bridge tolls again, but I can't be held responsible for that."