Rounders England are disappointed to announce that due to the national lockdown* all Rounders activity will be suspended from Thursday 5th November until Wednesday 2nd December at the earliest.
Over the last few months, since we have been able to return to play it has been amazing to see Rounders activity taking place. A sincere thank you must go out to all the dedicated COVID-19 officers, leagues, teams, umpires and coaches that have made this happen – just another example of the fantastic volunteers that Rounders is lucky to have. Following the Return to Rounders guidance has proven that Rounders is a low risk activity in terms of the transmission of COVID. This makes us confident that we will be back as soon as it is safe to resume activities.
As your National Governing Body, we will continue to work with government to provide you with up to date guidance and also to lobby for support to the sport and leisure sector. At Rounders England we are acutely aware of the positive impact playing and being involved in Rounders has on peoples physical and mental health, so the next month will undoubtedly prove challenging once again. We will endeavour to keep you engaged as a supportive Rounders Community and aim to provide you with some virtual challenges once again.
The government indicated that following this lockdown we may revert back to COVID alert levels so we are hopeful that we will be able to resume under our current return to play guidance, should there be any changes we will of course provide updates. As we move closer to Friday 4th December we should understand a little more but please bear with us as we determine the best way to support the reorganising of activities.
Many of you will have now seen that at our live AGM on Sunday 1st November we launched our consultation period for a new strategy for Rounders – Across the Field. Therefore, we will focus our time on consulting with as many of you as possible in order to develop a future strategy that is right for our sport. You can register your interest in joining us at our first focus groups by completing this quick form. In addition, we hope to deliver some more online training and webinars and continue to support you through these unprecedented times. In the meantime, I would like to point you to a petition that we are supporting to #SaveOurSports in calling for government to debate a much needed Sports Recovery Fund. Please see here for details.
*The lockdown legislation is being voted on in Commons on 4th November so is not yet confirmed, however we don’t envisage the restrictions on sport activities changing
