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Alan Hobson opened up an interesting subject when he commented on yesterday's posting about league fixtures. His concern is about leagues where the mix of age groups being much greater than in most other leagues and the problems that may bring. Moving on a step from that leads into the question about who is responsible regarding compliance with the BCGBA guidance on a neutral green? And what happens if no-one takes that responsibility?
Alan said ....
The Huddersfield Saturday League, like the Colne Valley league, is an open age league and is played on neutral greens. I would have thought that both of these factors would cause problems to those leagues. Regarding the open age aspect there may well be a greater reluctance for older (vaccinated) bowlers to play with and against younger (unvaccinated) bowlers. Neutral greens could well be problematic for the host green both in terms of meeting their risk assessment criteria and their track and trace requirements. I can well understand that these leagues will be hoping that the June 21st stage four target when all legal limits on social contact are due to be removed is achieved.
I know that many Saturday League clubs open up their clubhouses and toilets for bowlers but don't have a presence there on matchdays as members tend to be involved in matches on neutral greens elsewhere. So who is responsible for maintaining that clubs adherence to the COVID rules. You can leave a list for bowlers to record their attendance and you can leave the QR code well displayed for teams to scan into their Test & Trace app but what if they don't do either and there is, heaven forbid, a problem at that time.
Who is going to police the teams on a neutral green if no home club member is present at all? Bar staff are not going to take on that task I am sure. Who is responsible for ensuring that the Risk Assessment plans are followed and can clubs lose their right to bowl if the rules are not followed on their green? You tell me.
The problem should go away when we enter Stage 4 on 21 June when the rules change again hopefully but until then who is in charge of ensuring clubs' compliance with the guidance?