Swapping speedway for zuzel, the eerie return of sport behind closed doors

Artem Laguta of GKM Grudziadz speedwat team

Social distancing and the Covid-19 pandemic have so far kiboshed the first half the season. Right now, three of the ‘What The Fork’ Monarchs are back home in Australia, another is in Finland, two are down south and our lone Scot is in Auchterarder. The logistics of bringing them all back to Armadale for a curtailed season has not been ruled out but is surely fraught with complications.

Other than following the Monarchs (witnessed my first match aged of 13 at Powderhall Stadium), I’ve never really thought of myself as a big sports fan.

Lockdown has made me rethink that. Without speedway and baseball (my other sport, ‘Let’s Go blue Jays’) to follow, suddenly I have evenings free that shouldn’t be.

To fill the void, I looked to Poland earlier this month, where their speedway season has finally been allowed to start. It was an indicator of what could happen here when sporting events return with meetings being run behind closed doors and teams and mechanics gloved, masked and social distanced in the pits. The number of masks worn over the mouth only and torn gloves on view, however, makes me wonder if the measures will ever be fully enforceable, at such close quarters, social distancing certainly isn’t.

Broadcast live, there was something quite eerie about the 80’s pop that echoed around the vast empty ‘Marie Celeste’ of a stadium when I tuned in. Nevertheless, I’m sure the speedway fans of the world have been turning to Poland for a fix of the death-defying spectacle. With two teams of seven, racing four at a time around a shale track on 500cc bikes that have no breaks and a fixed gear, how else would you describe it?

Anyway, to make it interesting I decided I had to pick a Polish team to support. I need that emotional investment to make it worthwhile. GKM Grudziadz (pronounced Grudzonts) got my vote for three reasons. First, they ride in blue and yellow, which is close enough in colours to Monarchs’ blue and gold. Second, I’d just won a Grudziadz pennant from the mid-80s in a fund-raising auction for my Edinburgh team. And three, they had an interesting squad of riders, many of whom I’d not seen race before.

Some I had, there was an archetypal ‘bad boy’, always good to watch both on and off track, a reportedly disgruntled star, another story to watch evolve, and an under-performing senior attracting the ire of the fans. There were also some stars of the future who it will be good to watch develop over the weeks.

As luck would have it, the first Grudziadz match was rained off - sounds familiar - and in the re-running they got beat, although a phenomenal ride in Heat 14 by Nikki Pedersen and an immaculate 18pt maximum (six wins in a row) for Artem Laguta made it worth watching.

Can you tell I’m missing my sport? Now all I need is for the MLB to get baseball back on track.

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Swapping speedway for zuzel, the eerie return of sport behind closed doors - Liam Rudden