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Yes, keep the panic and over reaction going. Ignore all medical advice. That's the spirit!

I can see a marketing ploy here: ”Beat Coronavirus and watch live speedway, the only sport with fewer people than self-isolation!”

Seems to me that schools closing are likely to put many of the more vulnerable in harms way as in so many cases Grandparents will be taking on the childcare. So in a classroom where one vulnerable teacher might be at risk from say 30 students we could have 20 or 30 grandparents at risk from the same children. Whatever measures you take to try and limit the spread will always have consequences and the very best you are gong to do is slow it down a bit. My opinion is that we should let the majority of the population carry on as normal and put all resources into testing and helping the most vulnerable. Those people could be receiving some very good care already if those who are very unlikely to suffer more than a dose of flu weren't so selfish. Speaking to somebody working on the NHS helpline last night and she was telling me how at one time they had 200 calls waiting and dropped 2000 calls. People waiting an hour to chat about their cold and a GP refusing to see a vomiting child supposedly because of coronavirus when it's not even a symptom. How many of those dropped calls were from people in genuine need of help who were put at risk by the same selfish morons that think toilet rolls are the answer? It is mass hysteria whipped up by the press and now politicians have been put under pressure to act solely because of the public concern created.

Don't understand the panic and pessimism on here. Leave it to the EXPERTS who seem to believe that large or small outdoor crowds are not an issue and that for the time being events can go ahead. IF a Speedway rider gets the virus, no doubt his Club(s) should have a different view as Arsenal have had with their manager. Its up to the individual to decide, I'm going to Birmingham if it's on and will take the risk. What's the point of closing schools??. Keep the little blighters together in groups of their own age range and self isolate if any get symptoms. Why, because if schools are closed the little blighters are far more likely to be running about surrounded by older folk like me who they are far more likely to infect in Sainsburys between 9 and 5 if they are unleashed. Once you impose a ban on sport, how long does it last, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks..I think if you ban speedway until July/August, then you will kill half the clubs as people will find something else to do and won't return for a meaningless 1/2 season. If it has to close, it has to close, but panic never won any argument.

I’m happy to say that many Promoters across all leagues are pleased to welcome me to their track.

I think It is blindingly obvious that the season will not be going ahead as planned despite statements to the contrary. The UK government policy at this stage is only delay the progress of the virus as far as possible so that the most draconian of measures are only needed further down the line and for the shortest time posssible. But all the advice they are working to is that it is still inevitable they will come in. In a couple of weeks time that will include all events like speedway for almost certain and the restrictions will they have to stay in place through April and in to May. That is when the peak of it all is expected. Those countries that have set off doing this as early as now will just face having the worst measures in place for the longest duration. But... All sports will be closed at some point soon because the sportsmen and associated workers will be going down with the virus themselves and isolating. That will make the 'sport' redundant. In addition emergency measures relating to ambulance/paramedics (even private ones) will take the decisions out of of the sports authorities hands. Quite quickly we will be recognising just what this means ... No SGB, no SGP and no SON. We are fooling ourselves to think otherwise and should start preparing for a limited sporting schedule in high summer and beyond.

How come Cradley get to ride at Wolves in this league whilst every other nomadic club aren't allowed to? Absolute disgrace.

That don't sound like a statement from a very close person to the Panthers team/owners to me. Very un professional of you

I think that it is naive to think that speedway will be unaffected when most other major sports are being affacted - especially when the majority of riders do not live in the UK.

With the Scottish Government banning all gatherings and sporting and social events when crowds exceed 500 people for the foreseeable , it looks like our season wont commence on the 11th April after all. Edinburgh should be fine.

Well done done to all the riders who are supporting this worthy event...they are hero’s. Shame on the so called ‘top’ riders who couldn’t be bothered.

The problem is precisely that its not being left to the experts and the panic mongers must be appeased.. The media has a section of the public too scared now. Some believe its a death sentence if their 14 year old daughter catches it.. yet there is more chance of them being run over by a car than dying from coronavirus. As for imposing all the bans on sports, realistically, if you're doing that over 4800 deaths.. it should never run again in the winter. I read that the CDC figures showed influenza deaths to be over 60,000 in the same time period as Covid-19 has killed 4800. Forget the differences between the two for a moment, and imagine if the media were hyping 60,000 deaths...

The BSPA couldn’t be any clearer tho. Any team not in satisfactory active search for land cannot ru. Pearson and Co have already said they aren’t looking anymore. So I fail to see how an exception can be made for one team yet others who ARE still looking for land (Exeter, Southampton and Reading come straight to mind) have been deemed not able to. it frankly stinks.

On this occasion it seems to me like someone telling it as it is

££

Unbelievable, it's just to get Cradley fans in. It's Wolves juniors so should be called Wolves

Has an actual speedway official honestly just said this in a press release? "In a few years time people will have forgotten about Danny (Ayres) and his family, Ricky (Ashworth) and Garry (Stead) but the Ben Fund won’t. And like all the paraplegics from speedway in the country they will be looked after on a regular basis." Absolutely disgraceful. http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.37968

Disgusting that other teams have been driven from the sport whilst the rules can be bent to suit the PL clubs. Hang your heads in shame Bspa

I agree with City Rebel. The responsible thing to do is to postpone the start of the season. Its a no brainer, the less people you meet the less likely you are to contract.

My earlier post was neither expressing panic nor pessimism ... Just the reality of the world situation we are now in for the next few months. Not days and weeks. I wholeheartedly agree with the ridiculous business of closing schools ... But once they are closed at the levels of infection we have on closure date It will be a impossible to open again until the infection levels are actually REDUCED ... That will not be until mid summer. Varadkar is saying they are shut in Ireland until March 29 ... Utter BS. The infection rates then will be greater on that date than today. The truth is that than once the decision is taken to close the same people will not be able to open again until the end of the school year has arrived. The UK approach so far seems the most sensible. But the plans we have in the UK will still involve these major closedowns in the weeks to come. And that is not because of media led panic. That is what the science does predict.

With Jonasson's average removed from the original septet there is 7.64 available for team building, where is the sense in signing a rider a rider on 5.38. Ludvig Lindgren, Victor Palovaara & Dimitri Berge are three riders who do not have a Championship ride and all averaged more than Grobauer in recent years. I know signing a Dane is not ideal due to race night but there are a host of Danish riders who also fit.

I’m with Steve brum on this one, I was once a fan of Jonasson but he’s taken the piss one too many times now. Farce of a scenario and an awful replacement.

With my train tickets and hotel non refundable (like cardiff with its roof it's very unlikely to be postponed ...) I ve already made the decision to still go out and enjoy the city if the speedway does get ditched. Unless of course there is a blanket travel ban in place at the time.

Just as a matter of interest, How will medical cover be affected, will medical cover be available to hold meetings? The way things are going it's going to be" all hands on Deck" to keep the NHS running.

He must have learnt from Mike Parker who loved throwing the press out of his Stock Car meetings. Reason I know that is that at one Crayford meeting he threw me out three times before start time and I still saw the whole meeting thanks to his staff letting me back in each time. He would have been even more annoyed to find that I was being let in for free every week!

Didn’t think there would ever be a more mind numbing thread on this forum than gavan arguing with poole fans but some how this one has managed it

Yep, same here plus tinned Fray Bentos pies!

You only have to look around a read the news to see that you couldn't say that anyway. It's bad now and only going to get worse before it gets better. Premiership will not start on time, if at all.

I don't think we can wait to long. Even a month could pile up the fixtures if the weather don't play ball. Fingers crossed.

This could result in the end of Speedway in this country

Thats what I thought

i too had the same reaction from the Hawkstone International moto x people when they made a comment about fans that did not turn up because of that first storm . and classed the fans that did turn up as true fans ! we were travelling from cumbria to Shrewsbury . by the time we had reached kendal we were already 1 hour behind in time . the driving wind and rain made it impossible to get to the mx meeting in time , so we turned back home . i think the wording true fans is quite awful really . we all love motorsports in one way or another . we are all true fans. . just because people cant make it , they are still TRUE FANS ..

Think you will find after the Ben fund meeting runs tomorrow, there will be no more speedway for a good few weeks

Just ignore Dick usually calls everyone one on here forum fannies then posts on here himself.

As this could be the only speedway meeting in the UK for months,! I'd certainlysuggest as many fans as possible get to Scunny tomorrow..

James will be riding for Newcastle, do keep up. I think that anyone wanting to see speedway should be at Scunny tomorrow, it might be the only meeting any of us see live for three months!!!!!!

Points re Speedster. " We have a terrific group on PPSSC" "Close Personal ties with owners and sponsors" " Myself and everyone else involved with Peterborough" Claims to know Mimmo Has GCSE in Computer and IT GCSE did not start till 1988 , computer exam somewhat later

Or... you might get more semi regular/lasped fans come as they aren't spending their money elsewhere..

Saw something on the news earlier, but I'm sure the reporter said the Scottish government had "advised" to not go ahead if 500+. Even if mandatory, with speedways well-known aversion to making attendance figures known, it will likely be the case that, remarkably, all fixtures will have an attendance figure of 499.

BRITISH SPEEDWAY STATEMENT: CORONAVIRUS UDPDATE Friday March 13, 2020 A NEW season of British Speedway will start as planned this weekend. The British Speedway Promoters’ Association can confirm there are no plans to cancel, postpone or otherwise change the running of our fixtures at this moment in time. We are closely monitoring the situation and it is business as usual following the information broadcast by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday afternoon. As an association we will continue to work from the advice handed down by the government regarding the ongoing situation. We would urge all riders, staff and supporters to continue to adhere by the advice regarding frequent washing of hands in soap and water and avoiding contact with anyone who has a fever or cough. We also remind people of the government advice regarding even mild symptoms, if you feel this is the case please stay at home for seven days. In the meantime, we look forward to a successful staging of the Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund meeting at Scunthorpe on Saturday and hope substantial funds are raised for this most worthwhile cause. Share This:

make cl affordable for aspiring clubs - pl/cl much too close, be great to see Mildenhall, IOW and Plymouth back. Would also protect cl clubs from making too many losses and guarantee their future

I would have thought that the Peterborough Telegraph and BBC Radio Cambs don't need the speedway at all anyway if the club want to be funny about it. Plenty of other minority local sport to report on. We know that this isn't a golden era for our sport and I wouldn't imagine that the media regulary comes knocking? Also a story from those media outlets explaining that the were not welcome at the club and explaining why would potentially be more damaging for the business of Peterborough Speedway rather than a couple of local media outlets that are unlikely to lose any significant reader or listener numbers on the back of it?

Speedway should take a lead and delay the start of the season. The sport has the mentality of a non league football club. No one goes, so no one will be affected.

I totally disagree. Without the THJ potential X factor, Brummies now look the weakest team.in.the league except for possibly Newcastle. Two heat leaders in CH & JG who often miss the gate. Probably the weakest third heat leader in the league. AM & JS are returning from injury

It's a balancing act. If you close schools then people have to take time off work which hurts the economy and people who work in healthcare are not available at a time when the health service needs them most. Given that we are 4 weeks behind Italy we have a nice little case study we can follow. If our infections rates continue at the same rate as Italy's were 4 weeks ago then we know we have to take decisive action and the timings of Italy's actions show us when we should take certain steps. As it stands our infection rate is growing at around 20%, whereas Italy's was 35% before they announced their effective shutdown, which suggests we are no where near in as bad a state as they were.

Whilst I don't want to get into an argument about the sport of Greyhound Racing, that comment just isn't true, last summer during the warmest of weather a number of meetings were cancelled in the South of the country for welfare reasons.

When was the last time owners were told not to walk there dogs ..have you got the links with the dates etc was there a time limit etc on how long they were allowed out .. thanks in advance

You're so infuriating at times. That's not a discussion. It's them telling you what they've already said without you questioning it (as you had the perfect opportunity to do what you've just told me to do).

I can honestly see some major incidents ahead. People are starting to panic already. I've come across several screaming that it's a 'fatal disease' that is spreading 'tremendously fast'. It will soon be at a point where if someone coughs they'll be, as you experienced, told to get lost, leave, stay out out our street.. even get out of the house next to us.. if we reach a point of shops being restricted, food shortages etc, it will be even worse... people will react, fights break out etc. Yes, the problem is serious. No, the death rate is not 4% or whatever figure keeps being quoted. No, everyone isn't going to die. The media will keep whipping up a frenzy and the **** will hit the fan.. that concerns me more than the virus itself.

It should be perfectly workable, and effort and communication before considering what should have been considered as the most drastic option might have helped to find an acceptable solution for all.