Edinburgh promoter was delighted that Postman Will Beveridge had agreed to join Monarchs. He told the Edinburgh Evening News:
"I think he will do very well for us."
The concerns expressed that Glasgow Tigers, who hold the contract of the 24 year-old might wish to include him in their own team were dismmissed by Campbell:
"Glasgow have a gap of nine points in their side and have better riders than Will to fill that gap. In our situation, Will is the best rider available to fill the five point gap we have."
"From June 1st when Blair drops down to reserve, we will have a rider of reasonable quality at number seven. We will have a race winner in heat two, home and away on most occasion. Who knows what will happen in July? Blair, Ross Brady, and Will all ahve roughly the sae average. Anyone could end up at reserve."
The intention is to bring Beveridge in to replace Davidd McAllan, who has yet to start a meeting since he came in for Brian Turner. Unfortunately Monarchs will not have the points available to make this change until the new Green Sheet Averages become effective on 1st June. If Beveridge is to come in before that, this will have to be at the expense of Blair Scott, Ross Brady or Kevin Little. No change will be made for the final Premier National Trophy qualifier against Hull on Friday.
Monarchs commence their Premier League campaign at Arena Essex on Saturday and are desperate to start out with an away win. The desision has been made for Beveridge to replace Blair Scott in this meeting, although Blair will be able to come back into the team at reserve in the first home Premier League match against Reading. John Campbell defended this decision:
"Last year Blair got three points from six rides at Arena Essex, Will got nine from four. Blair is upset but it's better for the team on this occasion."
Edinburgh certainly need a win at Arena Essex if they are to make any impact on the Premier League. It is probably the away track most similar to Armadale in terms of length and space. Last year Monarchs won at Arena Essex but only won two further Premier League matches on the road, at Workington and Stoke. Arena Essex are currently crippled by injuries with number one Leigh Lanham and key reserve Nick Simmons both out injured long term. Jan Pedersen has has come in as a temporary replacement for Lanham while Jon Underwood is covering for Simmons. The latest blow was an injury to Matt Read who is likely to be out for a month. The patched-up team suffered a 75-15 humiliation at Exeter recently. Nevertheless with riders like Colin White, Troy Pratt, Gary Corbett, and David Mason, they are not easy to beat on their own patch so Monarchs have to put out their strongest team.
Will Beveridge has had a torrid time at Newcastle over the last week or so. He started out with an average of 6.25 reflecting his best ever season for Glasgow in 1999. He, like the rest of the Newcastle team, struggled in the early stages of this season. This saw his average drop somewhat to 5.09.
Then Newcastle decided that changes had to be made and had the opportunity to bring in Elite League rider Savalas Clouting to temporarily replace the injured Jesper Olsen. Will had to be sacrificed to keep this within the points limit. No sooner had these changes been publicized when Newcastle were alerted to the availablity of their former rider André Compton who had been released by Peterborough. Newcastle then aborted the Clouting deal and brought in Compton, who was a sensation with champions Sheffield last year. They also planned to retain Olsen in the line-up and use rider replacement until his return.
The problem for the Diamonds was that Compton's average was higher than that of Clouting. The solution they came up with was to drop Grant MacDonald and put Will back in. This saga took a further twist when it was discovered that the projected team was still 0.01 above the 45-point limit. The next rider to be sacrificed was reserve Jamie Smith who was to be replaced by Mark Blackwell. As it happened this also freed up enough points to enable Grant MacDonald to be squeezed back in. This meant that Will had been sacked for the second time in a week.
It would be understatement to describe the antics of the Newcastle promotion as ham-fisted. To be sacked, then reinstated, and then sacked once more within the scape of a few days would wreck anyone's confidence. They were clearly 'thinking aloud' and kept publicizing proposed line-ups without chacking to see if they worked. That came after being left out by Glasgow after three years with the team and adding the best part of a point to his average in 1999.
Will commented:
"I've put Newcastle out of my mind. But I didn't want to go back to Glasgow. I did well for them last season and felt that I should not have been excluded from their plans this year. I'm grateful to Edinburgh for giving me a chance to prove myself."
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