Chris adds Courage to Wasps

Rye House meetings against Newport always seem to have a certain resonance which you don't always get from the visits of other teams, possibly due to the history between the two clubs when they didn't quite see eye to eye in the 1999 season.

The Wasps are a much-changed team from the 2003 septet. Powerful Aussie Craig Watson has returned to spearhead the team and both Tony Atkin and Carl Wilkinson were in the line up last year, but those three apart the team is a different blend.

Promoter Tim Stone unveiled the signing of former World Under-21 champion David Kujawa in the winter, but after just one meeting for the Wasps the two have parted company and Stone has now brought former Trelawny heatleader Pavel Ondrasik into the team. Ondrasik will provide heatleader support for Watson and Mads Korneliussen.

With the dependable Atkin and the steadily improving Wilkinson in the second string berths, the Wasps have a solid if not spectacular top five. And as well as a revamped line-up they bring with them a secret weapon in the form of former Rocket Chris Courage who was tempted back into the sport following practice spins at Weymouth and quickly snapped up at reserve by Newport.

Rye House Team Manager John Sampford said: "Chris looks like good value on a three point average. He was originally scoring much higher than that when he was at reserve for us before he retired but then he suffered an injury and didn't come back the same."

"He could well prove to be a thorn in our side in the same way that Daniel Giffard was when he returned to Hoddesdon with Stoke last year. But I have been very pleased with the performance of our own reserves this season as they have started the campaign strongly and we will be looking to them and the senior members of the team for more of the same this week to keep the Wasps at bay."