The General Committee of Hartlepool Cricket Club met this evening, (Monday, 16th March, 2020), to discuss how Coronavirus / Covid19 is impacting, (and will impact further), upon matters at the Cricket Club. In reaching its respective decisions, the health, safety and welfare of its players, members and supporters were the Committee’s primary consideration.

In terms of decisions that were made, please see the below, :-

- The First Aid Course that was scheduled to take place for Coaches, Support Staff and Bar on the 23rd March, 2020 has been postponed. The plan is for the secondary delivery of the excellent course that was delivered at the Cricket Club will be re-arranged in due course;

- All junior and senior training sessions have been postponed until further notice. This applies to both indoor and outdoor training;

- The Junior Registration Evening that was scheduled for the 26th March, 2020 has been postponed until further notice;

- The NatWest Cricket Force Weekend that was scheduled to take place on the 28th March, 2020 has been cancelled too. It would have been cancelled in any event, since no volunteers came forward!; and

- A big question mark hangs over whether the forthcoming C2C sponsored bike ride should proceed, or not.

A decision was taken to keep the Clubhouse open for as long as possible, although this will obviously be subject to further review depending upon any newly issued Government guidance and / or further restrictions that may be imposed by legislation.

If you are to visit the Cricket Club then please ensure that you only do so if you are not showing any symptoms of Coronavirus, or if you do not fall within any of the “at risk” groups. If you have a high temperature, or a persistent cough and live alone, you should self-isolate for seven days. If you live in the same household as one, or more person who show symptoms of Coronavirus, or you show the symptoms yourself, then you all should self-isolate for 14 days. However, you should keep up to date with the newly published Government guidance.

Like other organisations and businesses, the financial implications that could flow from Coronavirus could be far ranging for the future operations of the Cricket Club. Consequently, in order to help with the Cricket Club’s immediate cash flow position, if you haven’t already done so, you may wish to consider paying your and / or your Young Cricketer’s respective membership subscriptions for 2020. If you are interested in doing this, then please, :-

- Email hartlepoolcricketclub@hotmail.co.uk for Senior subscriptions; or
- Email djbt74hpcc@gmail.com for Junior subscriptions. As part of the Junior subscription a blue Hartlepool Cricket Club cricket shirt will be received.

Although the Cricket Club has applied careful and prudent financial management, the paying of subscriptions for 2020 would be of assistance to the Club in what is unprecedented circumstances.

In terms of whether cricket will be played across the 2020 season, the North Yorkshire and South Durham ECB Premier League has already outlined a defined strategy signposted by various stages that are designed to avoid knee-jerk reactions, allowing breathing space to consider things rationally as they develop over time. The strategy that is outlined below is intended to be fluid and is based on seeking to secure as much cricket as possible, but only doing so on an informed basis and in a timely manner with as much expert information to hand as possible. The health and wellbeing of member clubs, players and officials is the main priority of the NYSD.

The NYSD’s current strategy has been broken down into four stages, as set out by the League’s President, Chris West, :-

“Stage 1
Cancellation of non-essential meetings/events in April. We have already invoked this stage with the cancellation of the pre-season meeting.

Stage 2
Postponing April’s fixtures (two weekends) and moving them to mid to late September. This stage involves no loss of cricket as the two sets of fixtures would attach to the end of the season. In terms of notification, if this stage is to be invoked it would be the intention to make a decision by the end of March so clubs have ample notice. This stage would allow us time to see how things develop and place us in a position to make further informed decisions during April.

Stage 3
Cancellation of the first half of the season fixtures, and just playing the second-half. This would effectively mean not playing until the beginning of July. If this became a reality then we would have to make a decision as to whether promotion and relegation was acceptable or not in those circumstances, and clubs would be consulted on that. If this stage was actioned then we would have to ‘downsize’ the number of cup competitions in such a scenario but that should not be difficult to do. There would possibly also be some clubs who would be unable to field all their teams – that bridge to be crossed in consultation with clubs if we ever consider moving to this stage. The advantage of invoking this stage would be that we buy some more time to assess the situation as we move through spring into summer when the epidemic is now being forecast to peak.

Stage 4
Obviously this is the worst case scenario – a cancellation of the season….although even then we could perhaps organise some competitive cricket in August and/or September if the ‘science’ allows”.

Whilst the above stages are not cast in stone, they do nonetheless provide a reasonable template for action, with flexibility built in to amend if circumstances allow. Further information will be shared by the NYSD in due course. As you will probably be aware, the NYSD is responsible for senior cricket, plus cricket at Under 17 and Under 19 levels. As of yet, it is not known whether cricket under the auspices of the North Yorkshire Area Cricket Council will be going ahead in 2020, although it must also be in doubt too.

Further updates about cricket at Hartlepool Cricket Club for the 2020 season will be published when there is further information to impart.

In the meantime, it is hoped that all of our players, members and supporters keep safe and well at this difficult time. It is quite possible that our newly appointed senior Captains, (Messrs Gavin, Richardson, Peek and Thompson), may go a complete cricket season without captaining their respective sides.