James Robert Grieves (born 28 September 1974), is a former professional
motorcycle speedway
Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...
rider from Scotland.
Career
Born in Paisley, Scotland in 1974, Grieves took up speedway at the age of fifteen when he attended one of
Olle Nygren
Harald Olof "Olle" Ingemar Nygren (11 November 1929 – 13 February 2021) was a Swedish speedway rider who reached the finals of the Speedway World Championship five times. Nygren was Swedish Champion in 1949 and became Nordic Champion in 1960. ...
's training schools at
King's Lynn
King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...
.Rider Index , speedwaygb.co. Retrieved 20 June 2013
After practising on a 125cc bike built by former Glasgow Tigers riders Colin Caffrey and Kenny McKinna, he progressed to a full size machine and had second-half rides at Tigers matches before making his debut in the team in 1991. He became a full-time Tiger in 1993, the season that the team won the Premier League Championship and Knock-Out Cup double.
He won the double with the team again the following year, and in 1996 moved to Wolverhampton Wolves, with whom he won another league and cup double.
Grieves stayed with Wolves for two seasons before losing his place in July 1998, signing for Berwick Bandits a month later. He moved on to Edinburgh Monarchs in 1999 where he attained a real-time average of 9.16.
In 2000, he returned to Glasgow Tigers, a season that ended with his testimonial meeting in October, and he stayed with Glasgow for four more seasons, also riding as number 8 for Wolverhampton in the Elite League in 2003 and 2004.
He moved to Newcastle Diamonds in 2005, and again rode for Wolverhampton, and moved on to
Redcar Bears
The Redcar Bears are a British speedway team who currently compete in the SGB Championship (middle tier of the British speedway leagues). Their major team honour to date is the SGB Championship KO Cup win in 2019 against rivals Newcastle Diamo ...
in 2007. After a second season with Redcar which ended with the club's future in doubt due to financial problems, he again returned to Glasgow Tigers in 2009. His 2010 season was interrupted on 6 June, when he sustained a foot injury in a league match against Scunthorpe Scorpions. As a result, the club signed Joe Screen to replace him. At the time, he had represented Glasgow on fifteen occasions, scoring 124 points for an average of 7.94.
The injury was less serious than first feared and Grieves rejoined Redcar as a replacement for
Henning Bager
Henning Bager (born 18 February 1981) is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Denmark.
Biography
Bager was born in Esbjerg.2011 Premier League speedway season, which included victory in the
Premier League Pairs Championship
The SGB Championship Pairs Championship formerly the Premier League Pairs Championship (from 1997 to 2016) is a motorcycle speedway contest for the second tier teams in the SGB Championship in the United Kingdom. The teams consist of the top two ri ...
(with Screen) at Somerset, and Tigers ending the season as Premier League champions. On 15 July, Wolverhampton added Grieves to their squad in a 'doubling-up' capacity, alongside Ludvig Lindgren. He continued to ride for Glasgow in 2012 and 2013, a season which he announced would be his last.
He is the second highest scorer in Glasgow Tigers history.Rider Profile: James Grieves , Glasgow Tigers. Retrieved 20 June 2013