Cameron Woodward

Born: 8^th January 1985

Nationality: Australian

Appearances for Country: 0

Points for Country: 0

Start of season average: 5.33

Eastbourne Career Statistics

Appearances: 143

Points: 757

Average: 5.66

The last 9 years - Elite League Career Averages

2006 was Cameron’s first full Elite League season.

Profile

Three-times Victoria State Champion Cameron Woodward returns to the Arlington Stadium for a fifth consecutive season.  The Australian backed his 2008 improvement for the Eagles with another solid year in 2009, although a small dip in his average leaves bosses confident that he can make significant improvements in 2010.  So much is their confidence in the 25-year-old, he seems set to become one of the youngest top-flight Eastbourne captains ever with his predicted appointment ahead of the season.

Woodward’s Elite League career began with the Poole Pirates in the short-lived British League Cup competition, but he is now firmly entrenched in Sussex folklore, following victories with the club in both the Knockout Cup and the Elite Shield.  In fact, the latter proved the team’s only fruit of the season, paid 9 points from Woodward helping the side to the title, much as his 10 points in the Knockout Cup a year before had made him the unsung hero of said competition.  2008 had proven a year of great improvement, starting with a burst onto the television screens with an impressive ten point score at Coventry.  Initially shooting up the Elite League rankings with back-to-back double figure scores, his average eventually levelled at almost seven points per match, making him a heatleader from the very early stages of the season.  Eventually, he was to represent the Eagles in the Elite League Pairs Championship: just one year after reaching his first Heat 15 in a season-closing meeting against Reading.  At international level, Woodward has rarely caught the eye of national bosses, except at Under 23 and, more recently, at Under 25 level, where he has always impressed.  But steady improvement throughout the Australian Championship over the winter suggests he is ready to impose himself among the wave of Australian talent set to battle for test match and World Cup caps.

Of course, it has been well documented that Woodward had seemed set to be lost to British Speedway when he was omitted from the Edinburgh Monarchs team, when teambuilding constraints saw him on the sidelines for 2006, after two years with the club.  After Woodward’s ‘SOS’ was answered and he was introduced into the side’s line-up, wouldn’t it now be fitting if the Australian could repay the favour by leading the Eagles to silverware, in his first season as captain, some four years later.

Alex Raby