BWitcher

120,000 a year die from flu/pneumonia in UK on average.. Let's see what Covid-19 reaches.. and if it comes back every single year... What's staggering is how such large scale deaths are dismissed as meaningless by folks such as you. Young children and babies in that figure.. all dismissed. Of course Covid-19 is serious, for the elderly and seriously ill. For the rest it quite simply is not. It is the elderly and seriously ill that need protecting.

Very poor actually, very one dimensional, seems to be trying to insinuate that every excess death is Covid-19 when clearly that is not the case. The majority of them are Covid-19. Some recorded as Covid are not Covid. Some countries won't be revealing their true Covid figures There will be many excess deaths caused by lockdown that aren't Covid related.

Fair point.. but even less Under 50 as you say.. and given most speedway riders are under 40, even less still.

And even less when you add in 'fit'.. i.e. no serious underlying condition.

That has absolutely nothing to do with the conversation at all. You've made claims that are false, been shown to be wrong and are now trotting out nonsense. No disrespect is being shown to anyone who dies, death is always tragic, whatever the circumstances. Sorry to hear of any loss you have had.

I already have. Now go check it against the number of under 50's dying from other things and learn some context. If you're under 50 and healthy you have more chance of being killed in a car crash than dying from Covid-19. It's nothing to do with 'respect'.. it's to do with reality.

What risk would the riders be taking? I wasn't aware we had many 65+ aged riders.

This planet, it's a fact.

I must have missed the NSS packing out the crowds every week. I'm not arguing against the racing there.. but the argument that great racing means great crowds is factually incorrect.

Sad news. Related to past issues?

Decimated? Hmm 320+ pages of intelligent discussion and still going strong. You've often told us to ignore averages, results, titles etc. So, let us in on the secret.. how do you judge riders, bearing in mind winning races isn't part of it? That's an honest question.

You're right Sid, your old motto of who wins races isn't relevant. Ignore titles. Ignore averages. Ignore race results. Just listen to Sid!

Gundersen was an elite rider though was he not? He'd have rose to the GP's just the same in my opinion. So although you might expect Nielsen to have won more, it may not have been the case..

I understand what you're saying.. however, it doesn't always work that way. A GP is still a case of 'rising to the occasion' and we've seen since the advent of the GP series certain riders tend to do that. Rickardsson was never the most dominant in league speedway.. he was of course very good, but not to the levels of a Nielsen in his pomp. But when a GP rolled round, he stepped up a gear. Yet someone like Leigh Adams who you would have thought a GP system would suit due to his ultra consistency.. never won a GP series. I strongly suspect someone like Gundersen would still have won titles under the GP system. Strong argument that Ermolenko would have been favorite in 91/92/93 or certainly very close to.

We're joined at the hip Iris! Sid's come out with some crackers in his time...

That wasn't the question.

Was he the best rider in the world that year?

There are qualifying rounds every year, if they're good enough, they'll qualify. Would Egon Muller have won a GP series? Or Jerzy Szakiel (excuse spelling!)?

Dress it up all you want, the series now has close to the best riders in the world.. No World Final ever had that. As for harder to win, it's a totally different thing, but easier to win on one night than over a series.

Possibly.. they would need to do something.

Sport behind closed doors is absolutely awful. Even from my own teams (Wolves) point of view. We played Olympiakos away in the Europa League. An absolutely massive game for the club, one of the biggest in recent history. However, it was played behind closed doors and it was awful viewing. I don't know of a single fan who enjoyed the game (and that's including thousands in social media groups). It simply wouldn't last.

Of course not, soon everyone will be expected to get back to work, kids back to school... but have no sport, no cinema, no pubs, no restaurants, no beach, no holidays. For the 'rest of the year'... oh.. and it's winter again then you know.. where thousands die from viruses passed from human to human.

That's brilliant business, more companies should try this! Let's introduce a lower selling product to kill of our biggest seller ...

How will they justify early 2021? Be in winter then with thousands dying from viruses again...

No, it was bloody awful wasn't it. The crowd booed and stormed out of the stadium never to return. It's pretty clear you're just trolling now. I'm no Harris fan but that was one of the greatest moments in recent speedway history... in fact of all time.