DC2

Is a scoreboard necessary if the PA announces the score after every race?

I know he had a bad season but Surprised that Kildemand doesn’t make the top 50.

Collins only 9 for skill? I’d have thought 9.5, but only 8.5 for equipment.

Yes, I can see that there would be a complete lack of atmosphere in the stadium, but TV companies have a way of recreating that for the viewer, like canned laughter for comedy programmes. It would be pretty easy to match previous soundtracks to the live sport on screen.

Is it not feasible that there will be some sport behind closed doors? Will not some TV and betting companies be keen to fund it? Maybe not speedway, but Champions League football, Indian League cricket and some international matches in football, rugby and cricket? Oh, and horse racing. And possibly some cycling, such as the TDF (although strangely rearranged to clash with the second biggest race, the Vuelta), due to being outdoors rather than in the confined space of a stadium. In fact, less coverage could wet some new appetites.

I think it’s more down to how close people are likely to come into contact with each other when attending an event. You’d need two metre spacing marks for all queues, toilets, food and drink outlets and parking spaces, seating areas restricted to one person in every four seats and designated spectator standing positions throughout the stadium with yellow sprayed dots that individuals stand on and no standing in close clusters of family members or friends. On a positive note, speedway is so poorly attended that it might have the space for that!

I doubt that any events in stadia will return this year.

Thank you. Apparently one season Nielsen averaged a perfect 12 away from home?

Out of interest how do Hans Nielsen, Penhall, the Morans and Gundersen compare?

And that’s just the Honda workers.

You could be right. Presumably they’re in the Legends Lounge munching on prawn sandwiches? Or should I say prawn and avocado on sourdough with a pinch of saffron and a soupcon of lemon zest?

I applaud your idea, but yes you might be aiming too high. And I can’t see many speedway fans being able to afford a Morgan. A mouth organ maybe. Or a mobility scooter.

Haha. Why not question our wildlife? How many animals have become extinct from the UK? Think also of how domesticated our animals are. Cats, dogs, chickens, horses, cows, sheep, pigs, goats. All kept as pets or food, none truly running wild with the exception of a few horses. What do we have left as truly wild? Some deer, badgers and small mammals. Many animals, including all of our domesticated ones and water buffalo roam free in Vietnam.

No, it’s not true. We certainly saw wild monkeys there.

Unless you paid by credit card.

Stannah stair lifts?

Spanish flu killed 100 million worldwide. Covid has killed 115,000. That’s perspective. Put in the current flu and pneumonia figures and you’d have a much more up to date perspective that people could relate to. Unfortunately that does not suit the agendas of the government and the media, to control and scare the public.

Yes, we seem to remember only living memory. That’s why politicians and the media keep talking about “unprecedented times” despite pandemics happening before. Has none of them studied the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic?

Liking the sound of that, but speedway is so ad hoc it doesn’t seem to have the expertise to do this.

Surely every human being feels some sorrow when anyone dies, possibly less so about the enemy in times of war. And while it’s right that the politicians should address this in their daily news conferences, I want them to be clear-headed in dealing with the crisis, not grief-stricken.

I actually view the others as feigning empathy.

Two very good posts. In the second post, rather than working out an average of deaths per day over the year I believe the ONS can do it for specific weeks (useful because flu is seasonal) and quite probably specific causes such as contagious or pulmonary illnesses (flu, pneumonia, bronchial, asthma etc). Having said that, a month on month general comparison might be better because Covid is being put on death certificates like confetti, whether or not it was a cause of death, contributory factor or coincidence.

Apparently BWitcher manufactures it from a very small factory in Portugal.

That’s the accepted wisdom, isn’t it. But the daily new cases and daily new deaths graphs for Spain have the same shape for the same days, not the deaths one lagging behind by several weeks. Have a look. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/spain/

2 or 3 men shaking hands? You might have a point if they were all 90 and carrying ventilators. Otherwise, not!