Event will take place behind closed doors and the financial and psychological loss is keenly felt in the town
The blossom is blooming and the crocuses are out. There is heat in the sun when it breaks through but the threat of rain barrelling in from the estuary of the Severn is never far away.
Normally in Cheltenham these are telltale signs that it is festival time, that March respite from daily worries when fans of horseracing descend on Gloucestershire in their tens of thousands.
