Popular Australian Christian Henry is Newcastle's first signing for the 2007 season fresh from picking up the Rider of the Year award as voted for by thಞe fans at the End of Season Dinner Dance last weekend.

Henry will fly back to Australia'ꦜs Gold Coast in a few days time, but both Darryl Illingworth and George English were keen to sort things out before he left.

The two sides quickly reached an agreement and English said: "The key element was that Christian wanted to come and ride for Newcastlꦡe agains just as much as we wanted him, so it took no time at all to finalise a deal."

Henry's eye-catching performances this year had a few other clubs keen on acquirin🍃g his services but the Diamonds' bosses quickly g🍌ot permission from his parent club Edinburgh to open talks to pave the way for a third successive year with Newcastle.

English added: "Christian scored over 300 points in 40 matches for us and has the potential to improve further next season, so we were very keen to get him on board. This g🉐uy is too good a catch to let go!"