Barry Campbell was dropped by Belle Vue to make way for former Glasgow rider Kaj Laukkanen.
Barry has been tipped to return to the Premier League. There is, however, some dispute over which average he would come in at.
Last year, Barry averaged 5.25 for Edinburgh in the Premier League. This year, his average in the Elite League with Belle Vue was 1.20. In accordance with BSPA rules, riders drop down on twice their actual Elite League. In the case of Barry, this would be 2.40 rounded up to 3.00.
According to the Edinburgh Evening News, Monarchs acted to bring Barry into the Monarchs' team at reserve in place of David McAllan. This move was blocked by the BSPA who argued that Barry should instead come in on his old average of 5.25. Monarchs are appealing against this decision to clarify this situation. Edinburgh promoter John Campbell commented:
"At the moment I am happy with the team the way it is. I was disappointed with our display at Sheffield but I'm not certain that Barry would have made any diffeence to our performance despite his excellent showing in the recent British Under-21 Final at Peterborough. Other than that I've not been unhappy with the way things have gone so far."
Any suggestion that Barry would return to the Monarchs on the higher average in place of Stewart McDonald were dismissed by John Campbell:
"Definately not. There is no way Stewart is leaving the team. He's had bad performances, but he's also had good performances. In my opinion he is getting better all the time."
"Barry's whole situation revolves around his average. If he has a five point Premier League average from last season, he will not enhance our team."
The indications are that if the appeal is successful that Barry could well come back at the expense of McAllan. If the old average applies then he is unlikely to return short of something such as long term injury to Blair Scott or Stewart McDonald.
Meanwhile David McAllan responded in the best way with a paid 10 points and a man of the match award against Stoke at Armadale last Friday.