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53 minutes ago, leander said:

Not entirely. Reporting methods need to be taken into account. In England if you've had covid 19 and recovered over a month ago, then get die from other causes (i.e. road accident) then it is still recorded as a covid-19 death. In Scotland and Wales it is only recorded as a covid death if you've been tested positive within the last 28 days. According to one newspaper today the English death count is over estimated by approx 4000, because of this. 

Speedway won't be back this year in the UK. One positive covid test in Poland resulted in a 50% cancellation of this week-ends fixtures, and it could  be worse depending on the test results taking place tomorrow (matches I've watched on tV seem to have an awful lot of mechanics, officials breathing through their throats judging how some seem to wear the masks). If riders start flying here, there, and everywhere again one positive test could result in matches being cancelled all over the place.

It's an invisible disease, so if you don't know its there, you don't know if it's not. ;)

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On 7/19/2020 at 7:21 PM, leander said:

Not entirely. Reporting methods need to be taken into account. In England if you've had covid 19 and recovered over a month ago, then get die from other causes (i.e. road accident) then it is still recorded as a covid-19 death. In Scotland and Wales it is only recorded as a covid death if you've been tested positive within the last 28 days. According to one newspaper today the English death count is over estimated by approx 4000, because of this. 

Speedway won't be back this year in the UK. One positive covid test in Poland resulted in a 50% cancellation of this week-ends fixtures, and it could  be worse depending on the test results taking place tomorrow (matches I've watched on tV seem to have an awful lot of mechanics, officials breathing through their throats judging how some seem to wear the masks). If riders start flying here, there, and everywhere again one positive test could result in matches being cancelled all over the place.

I just had a phone call from a guy I have become friendly with at Sittingbourne and he says that he's heard that no racing will happen there until 2021.

Has anybody heard the same ?

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2 hours ago, East End Fan said:

Thanks.  Common knowledge now of course and no surprise really.  Note the optimism at Central Park already announcing their opening

date next year !!!!

Defeatist and brave in the same breath. But what else can you do?

I've watched speedway at Central Park a few times but can't now recall: is it a greyhound track?

If so, no surprise they have bailed out of 2020.

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13 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

Defeatist and brave in the same breath. But what else can you do?

I've watched speedway at Central Park a few times but can't now recall: is it a greyhound track?

If so, no surprise they have bailed out of 2020.

Yes it's a greyhound track - what's more, it's currently one of the busiest closed-doors greyhound tracks with 6 meetings a week (mid-morning into lunchtimes every Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu plus both Friday & Sunday nights), each of those meetings on its own being worth more in betting industry tv-fees than a speedway meeting's rent plus catering profit.

Let a crowd in for speedway and risk the news a couple of days later of a covid-positive spectator ? - if that scenario happened, that's a fortnight's quarantine for anything at the stadium and so, given their hectic dog schedule, bang go 12 greyhound fees !!   

Are you still wondering why any of the greyhound landlords that enjoy the bonus of speedway revenue have had to protect their bigger (and all-year-round) revenue first ? !!

Edited by arthur cross
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55 minutes ago, arthur cross said:

Yes it's a greyhound track - what's more, it's currently one of the busiest closed-doors greyhound tracks with 6 meetings a week (mid-morning into lunchtimes every Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu plus both Friday & Sunday nights), each of those meetings on its own being worth more in betting industry tv-fees than a speedway meeting's rent plus catering profit.

Let a crowd in for speedway and risk the news a couple of days later of a covid-positive spectator ? - if that scenario happened, that's a fortnight's quarantine for anything at the stadium and so, given their hectic dog schedule, bang go 12 greyhound fees !!   

Are you still wondering why any of the greyhound landlords that enjoy the bonus of speedway revenue have had to protect their bigger (and all-year-round) revenue first ? !!

Are the public allowed to attend dog meetings ?

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48 minutes ago, East End Fan said:

Are the public allowed to attend dog meetings ?

No they're not.

What's more, not even greyhound owners are currently permitted to attend the tracks to watch from the stands whereas horse racing is permitting a very heavily controlled return of its sport's owners to their grandstands (and did so as early as the Derby & Oaks day at Epsom on 4th July).

Instead, the greyhound tracks are requiring confirmation the day before of exactly which trainers and kennelhands will be attending each upcoming meeting while the racing office staffing is at its minimum - overall, that's meant more animals than humans in attendance with at least one track managing to stage 14 races (84 dogs) while keeping its human register below 50 people despite that number needing to cover trainers,, kennelhands, track staff, racing staff and management. 

At least most (probably all) tracks are insisting that a senior management member is effectively the on-track referee of the meeting, making sure the greyhounds and their kennelhands parade far enough apart pre-race, that the greyhounds are loaded into the traps either 2-or-3-at-a-time to create some social distancing rather than all-6-at-once and that the kennelhands only gradually collect their greyhounds on the back straight after the race rather than the usual rush of everyone-at-once.

Greyhound racing made a big effort to make sure it could re-open closed-doors immediately it was allowed to do so on 1st June (even explaining its case and then getting a special 2-week exemption before that for its tracks to be used only for time-trial sessions in that fortnight to comply with that sport's rulebook about making sure the runners had up-to-date form and were closer to race-fitness) - having worked so hard back in May to secure such an early closed-doors return (which has protected most of the betting-televised meetings, therefore around two-thirds of the overall pre-covid total), it's now being very careful how fast it does any degree of open-doors.

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16 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

Defeatist and brave in the same breath. But what else can you do?

I've watched speedway at Central Park a few times but can't now recall: is it a greyhound track?

If so, no surprise they have bailed out of 2020.

Sensible. Not defeatist. 

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27 minutes ago, Ben91 said:

Sensible. Not defeatist. 

All negativity hides behind "realism". 

No doubt we'll soon hear calls to give up on the 2021 season :-(

 

Edited by RobMcCaffery

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50 minutes ago, RobMcCaffery said:

All negativity hides behind "realism". 

No doubt we'll soon hear calls to give up on the 2021 season :-(

 

No it doesn't

The world record for the long jump is 8.95m. So if there is a canyon which is 9m wide and someone say's they are going to jump it, the chances are fairly slim that they could make it even if they held out their arms and tried to grab hold of the other side. So it is pretty idiotic to attempt . It was fairly clear where we were heading from the off with Covid and it was realistic to mention this and say the chances were slim of a proper season. As things developed it looked fairly unlikey we woukd even get a shortened season and it was idealistic bordering on stupidity to think otherwise

Not sure what the point is of someone who doesn't go to speedway trying to have a pop at someone else's opinion ? I don't get any satisfaction about being right on this forum very early on. I was actually looking forward to the season getting underway. Vojens (which is easy for me to get to) were entering the Danish Superliga for the first time in about a decade,plus Wittstock were/are entering the Polish div 2 and had one of their early meetings planned for my spring holidays. I was looking forward to seeing some great action. All lost now. When and if it all starts it will be very difficult for me to attend. Atm I am not allowed into Denmark unless I have 6 nights booked in a hotel, which I can't do just to attend a speedway meeting, where I would have travelled to and back in a day without spending a single night in a hotel....as for Wittstock, atm the one meeting I could attend happen to be on my partners birthday, so a no-go

Edited by iris123

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Me or we too, in addition to the nearby Scunny we had plans to take in Sheffield, Belle Vue, maybe Redcar & Peterborough and possibly Wolves.  Though Peterbrough soon became a 'prob not' due to the disabled parking issues; no iffs or buts sadly it would likely have been too far for my mate's dad to walk from the parking area to the stand, or at least the stadium section.  One solution for you, Iris123, though would be to take your partner to Wittstock speedway for a birthday treat you would both 'just happen to enjoy'.  Go on, you know you want to and you may just 'get away with it' :D.  (English humour in the realms of a disppointing situation for speedway)....

 

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5 minutes ago, martinmauger said:

Me or we too, in addition to the nearby Scunny we had plans to take in Sheffield, Belle Vue, maybe Redcar & Peterborough and possibly Wolves.  Though Peterbrough soon became a 'prob not' due to the disabled parking issues; no iffs or buts sadly it would likely have been too far for my mate's dad to walk from the parking area to the stand, or at least the stadium section.  One solution for you, Iris123, though would be to take your partner to Wittstock speedway for a birthday treat you would both 'just happen to enjoy'.  Go on, you know you want to and you may just 'get away with it' :D.  (English humour in the realms of a disppointing situation for speedway)....

 

No chance. I have made that mistake already and taken her to a meeting. I doubt I would get that chance again, and certainly not on her birthday :D

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Yeah you can't play the same card twice, won't work, oh well.  Maybe next year though :D....

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