Good afternoon folks,
Hope you are all enjoying the mini-heatwave!!!
Unfortunately, we have had a formal warning from the Cricket Centre as to some members not conforming to Covid-19 procedures, as advised in numerous previous emails and as per the latest update from the Hertfordshire police - see the attached.
There is a very real risk that the Centre may request that we do not play at the Centre, at least until this pandemic is over, if we do not adhere to the Government and ECB guidelines.
Each and everyone one of us has a responsibility to ensure things do not get that far.
Can I please remind all of you playing over the weekend as well as those watchihng your games that you MUST:
- Anti-bac the toilet and any other Centre facilities used by anyone immediately after use;
- All players and/or people watching a game MUST socially distance;
- All players must abide by ECB rules in terms of anti-bac’ing every 6 overs/20 minutes, cleaning the match ball, where batsmen run etc.;
- Please have players and supporters take away all empty food/drink cartons/bottles and ALL rubbish with them when they leave the centre – in other words, please do not leave anything behind, even if it is all neatly bagged up;
- Similarly with the car park, please take all rubbish away with you, and if you see someone else’s, please take that rubbish too and dispose of it yourselves off-site.
As some of you know, Arthur Falcao, (our groundsman), is the only Centre member of staff on-site at present, so we need to try to be fair to him too.
By way of a background as to "why now" am I circulating this email - as you all no doubt know, there are a number of local spikes around the country, (Luton, Greater Manchester, parts of Yorkshire etc.), with more restrictions starting to come back into place. The "R-Number" in London and in parts of Hertfordshire is creeping back towards 1 again, which may lead to further local lock-downs. Secondly, the Centre is working towards the re-opening of the venue and the Cricket Club has been warned as to the consequences of the local authority not allowing the Centre to re-open as a result of the cricket club’s non-compliance adaption of Covid-19 protocols. Geoff and I can only pass on the information or request we get, but we ALL have responsibility to all Club members to make sure we comply.
Good luck to everyone tomorrow, and please, if you are playing at the Centre over the weekend, take a few minutes to stop and think about the positive difference you or members of your family/friends watching games, could make.
Thanks in advance to everyone,
Kind regards, George.