I am extremely pleased to confirm that club plans to resume club nights on Monday 28th June (subject to restrictions and continuation of government roadmap) and I hope to see as many of you as possible on court. We do still have to await further updates from the government between now and 21 June so we will reconfirm the date closer to then, but please put the date of 28 June in your dairy and keep your fingers crossed.

When you come along you will see procedures in place to help protect you from the spread of Covid – hand sanitiser applicators and name recording on arrival and social distancing off the court, which we know you will all respect, and I believe it goes without saying that if you feel unwell in any way, please don’t come that week. In addition to what the government has to say we do also have to liaise with Farmors School. We know that we will NOT be able to play Monday 12 July, but we are hoping we may be able to play on Bank Holiday Monday’s should the demand from the members be there.

As a thank you for your subscriptions during 2019 (for which Covid 19 halted play), and in line with Badminton England, we are offering club membership extension until 1st November 2021.

Now that we’re cautiously getting back to a sense of normality, the committee has reviewed the club’s financial year and agreed to change it to the start of the playing year. Previously it was June, and now we shall bring the year in line with Badminton England and membership season, starting 1 November.

Re-joining fees for the year ahead will remain unchanged at £50 for adults and £30 for students and juniors. Nearer the time we will email you to request payment of the annual fee for the period November 2021-October 2022. Playing fees also remain unchanged at £5 for the two hours on club nights.

We have all missed playing our favourite racket sport and chatting to other club members so do come along during the summer period and ‘re-acquaint’ yourself with the pleasure and exercise gained from our Monday nights. Just one word of caution though as the risk of injury on court or niggling aches and pains following extensive lay off are higher than normal, please make sure you warm up arm and leg muscles prior to play. To help you we’ve put together some simple and effective exercises to minimise the risk, just click on this link,
https://www.fairfordbadmintonclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/FBC-return_to_play_safely.pdf

So pick up your racket, dust it down and come along on 28 June.
Welcome back!
Jo
FBC Chair
On behalf of the committee

Dear FBC member,

I very much hope that everyone is managing to navigate through these uncertain and restrictive lives we are currently having to live.

It was some time since I was last in touch regarding the next steps of the Fairford Badminton Club. I can hardly believe it’s now October and we really are no further forward in getting back to life before COVID!

The committee have had a couple of zoom/ socially distanced meetings over the last few months, and most recently, it won’t come as  huge surprise to you, it was decided that now is not the time to get the club back to playing, sadly.

It was regrettably and reluctantly agreed that there will be no further play for the club until further notice. Although, when we can, we all very much want the club to be up and running again.

During September, the committee experimented with a couple of trial sessions with 1 court at the sports centre. However nice is was to be able to play again, it was not at all the same, and the COVID19 regulations really did put a dampener on it.

It was discussed that we possibly could try to work out processes and procedures in order to get up to 2 courts able to play, but the amount of management of this would be prohibitive and the “social, fun, flexible and relaxed” atmosphere that we know the members bring to the club, would be missing.

We also felt that we have to look at the bigger picture and take some social responsibility here. No one wishes to have their restricted lives last any longer than necessary and if we can do our bit by not mixing too many households in an indoor environment, we can only hope that we will come out the other side sooner rather than later.

We realise that the club has your fees, of which you have not been able to make the most of. I can assure you that a financially fair system will be sorted out when we are able to play again.

As a little bit of social interaction, and in order to see everyone one again, we did talk about the idea of a FBC Christmas Quiz (via zoom or such like). If there is any interest and enthusiasm in this from you, please let us know and we will see what we can arrange.

It just remains to wish you all the very best. We are so sorry that we can’t get back to our Monday club nights yet but fingers are crossed for some sort of change in the New Year.

Keep well and please stay in touch. All our very best wishes,

Jo, Lou, Emma, Deric, John & Rod

FBC committee

Following on from the last post we are able to report that the sport centre will be open for clubs as from 7^th September 2020, in line with the school going back. However the process which would need to be followed to ensure safe play for everyone is currently not straightforward and will need a lot of planning and coordination by the committee in the first instance, and then would require a very different system of booking and play for all the members.

While the sports hall will be thoroughly cleaned at the start and end of the school day, essentially the onus will, bye and large, fall upon the club to provide a safe environment for its members.

At this stage we do not foresee how we are able to get the club nights reinstated before early October 2020, and this is still a very optimistic time scale.

…watch this space!

The committee met last week to discuss and agree the actions that could be undertaken to bring club night play closer to resuming.

It was agreed that specific questions would be put to the school to identify what procedures are to be put in place to comply with current Covid restrictions and safeguard club members.

We are currently looking to the school to respond.