Hello everyone - I hope you are all keeping well in these strange times. It has been a while since my last note; however, I had held back from sending out an updated message in the hope that we could announce more positive news re our return to rugby.
Unfortunately, we are still at Point B on the RFU’s Return To Rugby Roadmap, but we are hopeful there will be a relaxation and transition to point C imminently. This will allow us to start up some rugby training activity although this may be different to what we have become accustomed to as a normal preseason.
I am sure like me, you find it very frustrating when we see other sports like football, cricket, and tennis well ahead of us coming out of lockdown. That said, I can think of no other sport which has the contact of rugby, so I guess it is no surprise that we find ourselves at the end of the queue.
Being ever hopeful that we will reach point C sometime in August, Alan Lowe and his team have been working on a strategy for how we manage playing to ensure we maintain all safe distancing guidelines, pitch allocations, drop off procedures etc., so we are fair to everyone. To help us work out what the best practices are, we have agreed that Bath Academy can run some short courses over the next couple of weeks. A case of watch and learn.
We are conscious that several other clubs have returned to training and have not been fully following Government & RFU guidance for Covid restrictions or RFU’s age grade out-of-season summer activity guidance. As this invalidates our insurance policy, this is not a path we have chosen to follow, and we will ensure we do not put any of our players or the club at risk by doing so.
When we do return, we will be doing our absolute best to ensure the activities are not only Covid safe but also engaging, active and fun for all our players. We will look to support their participation and hopefully help manage their time through to the beginning of the season when we will be able to start some contact training and preparation to lead us into full fixtures.
In terms of senior rugby the league fixtures have been released, however, as the RFU have advised they will give a 6 week lead-in time for preparation before the first fixture is played, it is difficult to see any league resumption until October at the earliest – just as experts are predicting a second wave to hit the UK! Whatever happens, I can certainly see the season being extended into May at least.
From a commercial perspective its been a very strange scenario. Virtually all current bookings have been cancelled or postponed but enquiry levels for summer 2021 have been extremely positive and the longer-term outlook is encouraging. Some of our regular corporate clients are beginning to return, however there is an understandable reticence from others to book external venues when home working is still the norm.
Anyone looking at the pitches will not fail to be impressed with their standard. Posts have been removed and painted and the scoreboard has been updated so it is radio controlled and no longer relies on intermittent Wi-Fi.
SSE are due to visit the club on 26 August to upgrade our transformer. This will allow us to press on with the electrical works for the new gym, so we can bring this facility online as soon as practically possible as it could provide valuable space over the winter months. I am pleased to say that Richard Crapper continues with his invaluable funding support towards this project.
As I mentioned previously, Terry and Georgina have worked tirelessly over the summer seeking the return of funds paid out for tours and The Clash booking with total success. Whilst I will not name names, I would like to say a big thank you to those parents who donated their refunds back to the club as a fantastic gesture of support during these challenging times.
During lockdown we have made use of the government’s furlough scheme to support our staff and we will continue to do so for as long as we are able to. At this stage we have chosen not to open the clubhouse until we have some greater visibility re return to playing. We are now in the “closed” season in any event when activity at the club would be exceptionally light.
Finally, we have provisionally booked 9th September as the date of our delayed AGM and we hope to see as many as possible there. We have made the decision in advance of the AGM not to change membership fees for the coming season. We appreciate that times may be tough, but if people are able to support their club with the early payment of their membership subscriptions it will have a huge impact on our ability to sustain ourselves until we get to grips with what will be the new norm.
