There is mixed news on the the situation of Monarchs riders wanted on loan by other teams.

Barry Campbell

Sources close to Belle Vue confirm that Barry Campbell has signed for the Aces for the 1999 season. He appears likely to be joined at reserve by Jarno Kosonen, his former riding partner at Monarchs in 1997.

Barry will need to improve his gating to score points in the Elite League. This may be exactly what Barry needs to sharpen up his game prior to, hopefully, returning to Monarchs for the 2000 season.

Vesa Ylinen

The move by Reading Racers to take Vesa Ylinen on loan has hit a snag. Vesa's last average was the 5.67 he achieved with the Scottish Monarchs for 1996 in the old Premier League. To convert this to the current Premier League average, it was assumed that the 1.5 multiplier would be applied to give 6.80 after a 20% reduction for being out for two years. The rather dubious ruling by the BSBA is that a multiplier of 2 should be used pushing him to 9.07 even after the 20% reduction.

It appears that Reading are to appeal against this decision as it has totally wrecked their team building plans. If this appeal is unsucessful, Vesa and several other riders who have not ridden in the UK since 1996 face being frozen out. It is doubtful if any Premier League promoter will sign Ylinen on an average of over nine points when they can sign the next Nicki Pedersen on eight points.

Other riders

Robert Eriksson and Paul Gould have both signed for Newcastle on loan for 1999. Eriksson is already pencilled in for a return to Monarchs in 2000 to replace either James Grieves who looks set to return to Wolverhampton or Peter Carr who may decide to retire.

Other Monarchs assets include Mike Faria, Robban Johanesson and Robert Larsen.

While Mike Faria is unlikely to return to ride in the UK he is still as good as anyone in the US domestic scene.