On Wednesday 3rd June, the club received updated guidance from the RFL following the Government annoucement about permitted non-contact outdoor activities.

Having reviewed this update, the club's Covid-19 response team has decided to maintain the current restrictions and determined that it is not possible to resume training. The reasons for this decision are:

Training in public spaces is not allowed as club insurance will be invalidated. The Cheshire County Sports Club remains closed at present.
Facilities must be marked and signed for social distancing with cleaning stations and frequent hand washing. We are unable to accomodate this currently.
Activities are restricted to small groups of five players and one coach which cannot be mixed during the session. We have insufficent coaching cover to facilitate this across the club.
Police have increased measures to enforce this guidance. This presents a risk to the club and our reputation within the community.
The health and safety requirements include registration logs and risk assessments for each session which are open to RFL and Goverment audits. We do not have the volunteer capcity currently for this additional administration.
The club is responsible for ensuring all participants are able and comfortable returning to activities to ensure we do not exclude anyone. We will be running a club survey to help us understand if this is the case within the next week.

This week we took part in a conference call with approximately 200 fellow clubs and the RFL. During this call a number of concerns were raised about the lack of consultation with clubs before releasing the guidance given the challenges and complexities it presents for volunteer-led organisations.

The RFL acknowledged that not all clubs will be in the same position with respect to resources available so it is down to each individual club's to decided whether it is safe and appropriate to resume activities.

The RFL has promised further guidance which we are keen to review before making decisions relating to each section of the club: junior; open age; masters; and touch. We expect to receive this information within the next week and shall review the club's position on a weekly basis in conjuction with the RFL and our home venue The Cheshire.

We are all looking forward to the return of rugby league, however the health and wellbeing of our players, parents, coaches and volunteers is paramount so we must ensure that we only do so when we feel the time is right.

We are grateful for the continued understanding and support of our members. If you have any questions, ideas or would like to get involved with the club, please email paul.foster@chestergladiators.com.

In the meantime, we encourage you to continue with individual fitness activities and keep safe.

Thank you for reading this update.

Paul Foster, Jim Green, Graham Calvert and Ben Follows

Chester Gladiators Covid-19 Response Team