A guarded welcome to the new 2020/21 season. We hope everyone is keeping fit and well.
We have had our first CCBA committee meeting for some time, although we remain in regular contact with each other and with Badminton England.
The County endorses all the Badminton England recommendations and procedures for individual players, coaches and clubs regarding Covid 19 and all relevant information may be found on the Badminton England website.
It is very evident that although badminton can now be played from 25th July, albeit with a number of restrictions, venues are still difficult to access and many clubs will be unable to start the new season in September.
The CCBA committee have taken the difficult decision to suspend County affiliation fees for this season (good news for you all). Badminton England have reduced their affiliation fees by 25% and these now become due in January. We are aware that clubs may have difficulty in encouraging members to return and recruit new members so we hope that clubs will pass on these significant reductions to their members.
We are awaiting a decision from Badminton England on whether last year’s County tournament will be concluded on November 7th/8th. Next year’s dates are already confirmed and should go ahead as planned. We have reluctantly decided to withdraw our 3rd County team for the coming season owing to difficulty in finding sufficient players and the financial implications.
The County Restricted tournament is still scheduled to be played on the 10th/11th October. Clearly we are bound by Government advice and BE guidelines so we are unsure at this stage how we might operate the tournament and the format it is likely to take.
The good news is that the James Elkin Training sessions will go ahead, the first one on 1st November, although numbers will be restricted, so reserve your place early.
In these unprecedented times I’m sure you are all clamouring to return to the game we love to play. We hope you have a successful and rewarding season.
Best wishes to you all.
Bob Bell
For and behalf of the CCBA committee
