Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

FAREWELL TO UNCLE B

NEWS Monday 31st August 2015, 9:41pm

by John Campbell

  Edinburgh Monarchs

I must be honest and say that when Brian Gray came forward and offered significant financial support for the Club during our very difficult period at the end of the 2012 season I didn’t know him at all. I knew that he was a long time diehard supporter of Edinburgh Monarchs but other than that he was a mystery to me.

However, as soon as he started attending our board meetings it was obvious that he had tremendous enthusiasm and backed that up with a willingness to get involved. Being younger than most of his fellow board members was also a positive in my eyes. Soon it became obvious that we had one thing in common, we went to the same school but as Brian was a little older than me it was difficult to remember if we had even crossed paths in the corridor.

One of his first suggestions was to be the Meet and Greet man at our admission gates and he quickly formed a formidable partnership with Ed the Monarch to welcome our supporters into the stadium. Not only did Brian perform this duty at Armadale but he and Ed made many appearances elsewhere to promote the name of Edinburgh Monarchs and revived our attendance at the local gala days this year.

His Greetings article for this website each Monday also started in 2013 and appeared without fail every week, even when he was on holiday. He used this article to comment on things he may have been approached about the previous Friday and what was coming up at the next event.

He took over the job of staff controller and sent me an update every week of who would be there and who he had found to replace the missing ones. It can be time consuming but Brian enjoyed the challenge.

More recently Brian took a very active interest in helping to develop young Scottish speedway riders. For various reasons the number of second halfers had dwindled on a Friday night but Brian had offered encouragement and most recently the numbers had risen again so that we have a group of about eight riders who were fairly regular in races this season.

He was also a significant sponsor of many of our senior riders.

Singlehandedly he took it upon himself to open a new training track in Scotland and for more than a year was visiting many sites in Scotland before he secured the site at Avonbridge just a few weeks ago. He seemed to set an impossible timescale to get that up and running and although he suffered delays he was due onsite last Monday to meet with a contractor. Unfortunately ill health did not allow him to attend that meeting.

There was deep shock in the stadium on Friday over his untimely passing and many tears also. In a very short period of time in the public eye Brian had become a very very popular character and I will miss him greatly. I’m sure you will all feel the same.

Rest in Peace Brian