League News
The government last night announced new guidance on travelling for 8 local council districts which included Kirklees. Growing concerns about the Indian variant of coronavirus has led to this new guidance which is below.
The government has advised against all but essential travel in and out of Kirklees in an effort to contain the spread of the Indian variant of coronavirus.
Kirklees is one of eight local council districts where the Indian variant is spreading fastest and the government has decided it must take action.
It currently has the fourth highest infection rate in England, according to the latest Public Health England figures.
People are now being encouraged to avoid leaving or entering Kirklees unless their journey is essential. Exemptions include travelling for work or to get to school.
The impact on local bowling could be considerable as a number of local leagues attract teams from outside of Kirklees and a lot of local clubs have teams in Calderdale and Barnsley district council areas leagues. Starting today the Veterans League and Mirfield League both have teams from outside of Kirklees which, under the new guidance, should not be playing matches in Kirklees or against Kirklees teams. Today for example two Elland (Calderdale) teams are scheduled to play either in Kirklees or against Kirklees teams. For bowler's safety these fixtures should be postponed.
I have spoken with Yorkshire CCGBA and they say they are waiting for guidance from the BCGBA. BCGBA CEO was unaware of the new guidance until seeing it on Breakfast TV this morning.
The guidance is only advisory at present, not mandatory but with matches this afternoon and this evening that breach that guidance I cannot believe that Kirklees teams will be welcome in Leeds, Wakefield and Calderdale.
Yorkshire CCGBA have postponed all 20 ties in the Hutchinson Cup that were scheduled for this Saturday because of the guidance about Kirklees. The Mirfield League is advising all their clubs to fulfil their fixtires this evening. Confusing responses.
It’s been a confusing day for Kirklees residents following the news that details were released on Friday about updating Covid-19 guidance for areas at high risk of the new Indian variant.
Now, public health leaders from all eight local authorities including Kirklees Council have released a joint statement about travel in and out of affected areas.
Directors of public health from all eight councils have now released a statement saying: “Following the national coverage of recently revised guidance we have met with national officials and confirmed there are no restrictions on travel in or out of each of our areas: There are no local lockdowns.”
They added “There are sensible public health precautions people can take as individuals in line…
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said today "It is important to emphasise that this is guidance, these are not statutory restrictions placed on those local areas,"
And he emphasised that the public should "exercise their good judgment" when considering the guidance "
I tend to agree with Bob but either the Leagues will step in and tell us fixtures , for the foreseeable future are cancelled or teams themselves will inform their opponents that the games are off.
All very frustrating and a little annoying when we’ve followed the Covid rules all this time whilst a minority haven’t resulting in further restrictions .
This could , of course, probably have been avoided if planes bringing over 5,000 people from India in the last few weeks had not been allowed
I don't think it will be too long before the decision is taken away from local bowlers whether they bowl or not. I believe that we will soon find that clubs out-of-Kirklees will refuse to travel here and/or the Yorkshire CCGBA will step in and stop clubs travelling over the border both ways.