Sympathies all round on this one, I can readily see that Simon feels that he has had the rug pulled from under him, but Bill has had a strong interest in Lightnings for a very long time, as seen every month in MPH, for Bill it must have seemed like discovering another version of the Mona Lisa that had lain undiscovered for many years, and a little difficult not to release details in all the excitement, aren't there some lucky people in life to discover this one out of the blue.
That does throw a different light on the situation, perhaps Simon should have kept the details a little closer to his chest before he shared the news. If you want to keep a secret best not to tell anybody.