New Plymouth Gladiators signing Anze Grmek with promoter Mark Phillips(Image: Plymouth Gladiators Media)
PLYMOUTH Gladiators have recruited up and coming Slovenian rider Anze Grmek to fill the void left by Tobias Thomsen, whose injuries in the Good Friday crash at Poole Pirates have ruled him out for the entire season.
It was on the first lap of the first heat of the first meeting of the year that Thomsen suffered a nasty crash which left him with a broken leg, broken ribs, fractured eye socket, a punctured lung and a bleed on the brain after being caught from behind by Poole’s Richard Lawson.
Thomsen, 31, remains in hospital but after drafting in Simon Lambert for the return match against the Pirates 24 hours later – and adopting the rider replacement facility against Oxford Cheetahs – promoter Mark Phillips and team manager Garry May have sought a more permanent solution.
“Everyone remains focused on supporting Tobias and his family during what will be a slow but hopefully steady recovery and we look forward to the day when we can welcome Tobias and his family back to Plymouth to meet the OBM Gladiators supporters once again,” Phillips said.
“In the meantime, we will shortly be commencing our League and Cup programme and it is important that we found a suitable replacement for Tobias for the remainder of the season.”
Grmek is very highly regarded in both Slovenia and European speedway circles and gained significant experience across Europe, competing in the Polish Leagues and at home in Slovenia. He has been involved in the Speedway Grand Prix 2 Series and been very competitive against riders based in the UK and further afield, and shown more than enough to suggest that, once he becomes acclimatised, he can better his initial starting match average of four points.
“He has represented Slovenia at team and individual levels and at 21 years of age is very keen to come to the UK to further his experience and to improve himself as a rider,” Phillips added. “He comes to us very highly recommended by some significant observers, including my good friend and former Trelawny Tigers star Matej Zagar.
“Once all of formalities have been completed, we look forward to Anze making his OBM Gladiators debut next week, and he is in the process of traveling over to the UK in the next few days in order to get settled in his Cornish base and the get in some practise laps at the Coliseum and other UK tracks.”
Meanwhile, the row over rider insurance between Plymouth captain Ben Barker and the speedway authorities continues.
Barker was critical of the new insurance policy arranged by the British Speedway Promoters Limited (BSPL) and Speedway Control Bureau (SCB) for riders, which was considerably worse than what had previously been in place, with risk management insurance brokers Attis, prior to the start of this season.
The authorities have instead opted for a policy with the ACU (Auto-Cycle Union), with British speedway chairman Rob Godfrey claiming it is the ‘best available at this time’ and accused Barker of causing a ‘panic for nothing.’ He has, however, admitted it is not as good as before, which has led to some clubs taking out their own policies to care for their riders.
Barker has been asking for clarification from the BSPA, but has publicly said on his social media channels that he is still awaiting a response from them.
WMN Sport contacted the BSPL for clarification less than 24 hours after Thomsen’s Good Friday crash, but were told our questions had been passed on to office manager Nikki Jamieson on Saturday, April 4, who would respond after the Bank Holiday weekend. We asked to what extent riders are covered and what the insurance cover is exactly and why the BSPA felt a need to change insurers, but despite a follow-up to our questions on April 8, we are still awaiting a response.
The Gladiators are back on track tomorrow night when they head to the Oxford stadium to take on Oxford Cheetahs in the BSN series. Having comfortably won the first meeting 57-32 at the Coliseum, the Gladiators know that they will collect the bonus point if they score more than 32 points themselves.
Glasgow Tigers are next up at the Coliseum on Saturday with tapes up at 7pm.
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