September 24, 2020

The Promoters and Directors of Plymouth Gladiators Speedway have reluctantly decided to cancel the proposed Challenge Match v Leicester Cubs Select on Tuesday 28th September, but remain cautiously hopeful that further Fixtures scheduled for October may be able to take place.

The Club explained the reasons for their decision:

“Following the statement by Boris Johnson to the House of Commons at 12.30pm on Tuesday 22nd September, we were initially instructed to postpone that evening’s Fixture v GB Young Lions Select.

There was naturally a lot of confusion in the immediate aftermath; and only the intervention by our local MP Gary Streeter, who was able to clarify that our DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) and Council and Sport Regulatory permissions would remain at that time unaffected; were we able to finally confirm that we could legally and ethically go ahead at about 4.00pm that afternoon, an hour before the Gates opened. 

We were delighted with every aspect of the Match on Tuesday night and thank everyone involved for their support, cooperation, and positive feedback.

We have subsequently confirmed with Gary and the DCMS that as of today; that those approvals are still in place. However, we have been made aware that there can be a time delay of up to a week, between an announcement being made by Government Ministers and the specific and often complex details being passed even to the Statutory Department (like the DCMS) for final publication and implementation.

We do not wish to therefore commit to a Fixture; book Riders; sell Tickets and spend considerable Meeting set up costs, until the situation is 100% clear.

We hope that everyone will understand both the stress that we went through on Tuesday afternoon fearful of letting everyone down, even if outside of our control, by not therefore rushing to potentially have the same scenario next Tuesday.

We feel that our 2 recent Meetings have left a very positive impression locally and nationally, and we don’t wish to tarnish that perception.

Once we have the final confirmation that our status to continue is intact; we will seek to confirm our October Fixtures, if our status to stage Fixtures under our current Covid 19 Regulations and approvals change we will of course inform you of that too.

We are very concerned about the rise in the rate of Covid infections nationally, even if locally the South West seems to be less adversely affected at this time, and the local and national rate and public perception of that rate, will very much drive our decision making for October. 

We would anticipate giving a further update no later than Friday 2nd October.

Please stay safe and abide by Government and Local Guidelines in the meantime and we hope to see you all at The Coliseum again in a few weeks time and remember the safety guidelines and objectives HANDS, FACE, SPACE, RACE..  

Mark Phillips – Promoter/Director

Mattie Bates – Co Promoter

Ian Jordan – Director

Image Credit: westcountryseen