Edinburgh chairman Alex Harkess has blamed British Speedway Promoters Association head and Wolverhampton promoter Chris van Straaten for inadvertently creating the unseemly row that ended with Grieves renaging on his verbal agreement to stay with Monarchs and move west to Glasgow.
The whole scenario started back at the home leg of the Premier League Cup final at Armadale when van Straaten who was present in his capacity as BSPA Chairman announced in response to a question that "James is safe for another year at Armadale". Monarchs soons decided in the light of a likely 45 point limit being agreed that the 2000 team would be built around Peter Carr, James Grieves and Ross Brady. Other members of the 1999 team including Kevin Little and David McAllan were thought to be in contention although doubts were raised about the future of Blair Scott.
The first, and so far the only, rider to agree terms was James Grieves who took the initiative to seek an early deal. After terms had been agreed, Monarchs approached van Straaten for clearance to release this information. Grieves himself was on holiday but senr his father Jimmy to the Monarchs Dance to announce the news. Harkess commented in the Edinburgh Pink:
"After James had verbally agreed terms to race for us next season we informed Mr van Straaten, who gave us permission to announce the news to our supporters. In fact it was James's father who made the annoucement."
"Glasgow then got in touch with Wolverhampton and were told in an off-the-cuff way be Mr van Straaten that they could talk to James but were warned that he had already decided to stay with Edinburgh. This would have been enough to deter most clubs, but not Glasgow."
"Mr van Straaten is chairman of the British Speedway Promoters and should have been more careful with his reply. He should have turned down Glasgow's request flat. Mr van Straaten has aften warned if rising costs in the sport. By telling Glasgow they could talk to a rider who had accepted terms with another club, you do one thing - push up costs."
"However James is now history and Edinburgh must move on. We have already spoken to a possible replacement. But in view of last week's events we will annouce nothing until pen is put to paper."
Chris van Straaten was unavailable for comment.