Starting the new season.

link - to be fair it is a pilot event. Hopefully the data will come back that properly managed this type of spectator event is not at risk of transmitting Covid-19. If this data takes a few weeks to come back and be analysed then you can see why the club are advising PSFs will be behind closed door. Just waiting to see what full coverage on the club website means?

Harlequin’s stadium capacity in just under 15000 so this event is looking at crowds in a stadium just under a quarter full. Smaller clubs at step 3 and below are looking at an initial -15% and 30% which equates to no more than 300 and then 600 fans and have be given the go ahead due to the lower risk. It may be that there will be smaller percentages allowed as you go up the pyramid and maybe we are looking at 25% at our and lower leagues level?

I am with Alpine Joe with this really and that is a rare event! I am conservative in a political persusaion but have not been convinced by what has happened. I don't actually blame them too much because it was all a strange unprecedented situation. However deaths are going down while positive results are going up (which you would actually expect as in March it was impossible to get a test unless you were about to die now you can just turn up in a car park and have a swab thing stuck up your nose!) I do think they are trying to manipulate the scare stories to keep the pressure off. However if you want to read even more barking stuff go on the original Torquay fans site on the Plopside section. You will have hours of amusement at no cost to anything other than your sanity! If you think register is barking then just go over there and you will see him differently as a completely well rounded individual. As for the other openly racist site......not worth the effort!

Anyway Harlequins can do spectators next weekend so my original question is still valid. Why not a National League club for a friendly game. Alpine has it right. Yes there is a virus and some people will die. Happens with other viral infections that have been around for years. I am getting fed up with knowing all the rules and policing myself and watching others do exactly as they want.

Anyway....just my opinion

Don’t get me wrong, I agree the economy should be opened up, however with measures to keep the R rate as much as possible around one as opposed to between 3 & 4 which happens with no measures. If you look across the channel there were over 7000 positive cases in France yesterday and consequently their daily rate of deaths will go up in the next few weeks. Something similar here will have an impact on football so shows how we need to be vigilant.

I think a limited number of spectators at our PSFs would have been a good test event for the season but I do have sympathy with the government as they are in a very difficult position as ultimately they are in charge of getting a grip on this virus which means making unpopular decisions.

Think the change Louis took for plopside posts to not show up in recent posts has worked really well as his site now looks like a football site again!

Yes that was a good move....visitors to the site can still access it if they go looking for it, but posts on the Plopside have been blocked from showing up on the recent posts section. One poster had created several different threads and was up early every day adding a new post to each so that was all that showed up.

I would not disagree with your observations about the virus pandemic and in particular the need to be vigilant. At my age I won't be rushing back as a spectator at either football or rugby. We have though had 2 months now of pubs and restaurants being open, lots of people returning to the workplace, and thousands of holidaymakers packing Devon & Cornwall and of course changing each weekend. positive tests have gone up but most cases had mild symptoms or no symptoms at all, and the death rate is not rising. An interesting statistic I think is that for several weeks towards the end of the lockdown the number of deaths in the UK was well lower than in the equivalent week in past years. The conclusion drawn by medical and scientific experts was that was because thousands of people had died a month or two before they would have been expected to, causing an initial peak but then a big drop. What is certain is that whilst I am very interested in hearing the views of others we will not solve it on here, and I feel sorry for the Prime Minister as with the enormity of the task he faces it is a thankless task and he can't win whatever he does. As I expected Smarmy Starmer has proved adept at criticising while providing absolutely no evidence that he is a future prime minister.

Strange how these days people still think there are only 3 Torquay United sites, although I did not help by inadvertently typing site rather than sites in my post. I am registered with several in all areas of social media, though I have never managed to access the dark web so don't know if there is a site on there! Some I rarely look at (there just aren't enough hours in a day) but they will come in handy if I do not feel comfortable about attending in person for a couple of years.

link - Torquay TV with training ground action.