James Grieves gave Monarchs an early boost by agreeing terms for a second season at Armadale. Grieves's former club Glasgow Tigers were reputedly interested in the 25 year-old Paisley based rider .
James will come on loan from Wolverhampton for a further year. There was never a prospect of James leaving Wolves on a full transfer at this stage as he will be due a Testimonial for ten years service. James served five years with Glasgow before the former promotion went bust at the end of the 1995 season. His contract was sold to Wolverhampton for the 1996 season. The five years service in this case can be added to what will be five years at Wolverhampton. The Testimonial is due to be held next Summer.
James commented to David Kinvig in the Edinburgh Evening News:
"I enjoyed my first season with Monarchs and I'm delighted that I'll be riding for them again. I wanted to know where I'd be racing before the end of the year, so it's very pleasing to have everything tied up so quickly."
James has proved a lucky mascot in the past. Glasgow Tigers won successive Second Division League and Cup doubles when James was riding for them in 1993 and 1994. Then Wolverhampton took a top Division double in 1996. Monarchs won the Premier League Cup in his first season. Monarchs will be hoping that he can inspire Monarchs to a first championship win in 2000.
Alex Harkess was delighted to have James on board so soon into the close season. He is expected to team up again with Peter Carr to spearhead Monarchs millenium title challenge. Harkess added:
James will remain on loan from Wolverhampton, who will stage a testimonial meeting for him which he has qualified for. But they were quite happy to give us an agreement to sign James for another season. And I'm very happy about that.
Harkess alluded to the problem of filling the number one slot in the 1998 team when neither Peter Carr nor Kenny McKinna was happy there. James was the first to settle in the position after the departure of Robert Eriksson.
"James had no problems riding at No. 1 and coming out in the opening heat. There are some riders who don't like that slot, but James is comfortable with it."
"He is also goig to Argentina during the winter to ride on some big tracks which he hopes will help him conquer problems he has at places like Sheffield and Exeter in this country. James was extremely consistent round Armadale as his average proved. He was slightly unhappy with his away form especially on the larger circuits."
"However, if he does well while in Argentina he should move on from that and he certainly has scope for further improvement."
Assuming that Peter Carr does sign on as expected, Monarchs next task will be to secure a deal with Ross Brady and his parent track Peterborough.