EDINBURGH Monarchs speedway chief Alex Harkess today insisted the Capital outfit are not on a collision course with their young star Thomas Jonasson over his Swedish League commitments.
Monarchs tried to reschedule their washed-out Premier League fixture against Newcastle Diamonds for Armadale tonight –but failed – and they won't be in action at the Lothian Arena until next week.
But Monarchs clashed with Jonasson's home club Ve
tlanda over his availability to ride. The 20 year old will race for Vetlanda in a friendly match in Sweden this evening but only after Newcastle turned down Monarchs' re-staging request.
A British Premier League match takes precedence over a Swedish friendly but the Swedes argued that, because Monarchs attempted to re-arrange the Newcastle match with only seven days' notice, this rule didn't apply.
Both countries' governing bodies, the BSPA and Svemo, were embroiled in the row and eventually the Swedish viewpoint was upheld. But Harkess claims Jonasson will not become involved in a tug-of-war in the future, because Monarchs will take care to avoid any other clash of dates.
Harkess explained: "The trouble arose in this instance because we tried to put on a fixture at short notice. There is an agreement between Britain and Sweden. Ultimately we now don't have a fixture at Armadale tonight but Vetlanda do. We just wanted clarification over where Thomas would ride. If he was happy to ride for us or them. Thomas didn't want to be caught in the middle and we, as a club, didn't want to be caught in the crossfire either.
"The Swedish Federation got their way but, had the Newcastle match been one which was originally programmed, we would have got our way.
"Thomas's meeting in Sweden tonight is only a friendly and that is why we contested it. At the end of the day Newcastle couldn't come back and we didn't push the matter any further."
Meanwhile, Monarchs could be without two riders for next week's Premier League Knockout Cup tie against Berwick Bandits at Armadale. William Lawson is competing in the British Under-21 Final at Lakeside and team-mate Andrew Tully is one of three reserves for the individual showpiece.
Harkess: said "We are permitted guests. William is straight forward, he is actually in the field. Andrew is not. From what I can gather, Andrew is on call and cannot be released until early afternoon. So we could fly him up from London to get him here on time to face Berwick, or it depends on the standard of guest we can get.
"There are three reserves for the under-21 meeting and all three won't be used. I've already asked about Andrew. It's up to him if he wants to fly up providing he gets clearance."
The full article contains 468 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
