HOCKEY NZ COVID-19 UPDATE
HOCKEY NZ COVID-19 UPDATE
March 18, 2020
Hockey New Zealand today announced that all club, school and community hockey will be postponed until Saturday 2 May, effective Thursday 19 March.
The postponement includes all hockey matches and training activities, including representative and development programmes; community and school competitions; and pre-season trials and activities.
The decision was reached in a meeting today between Hockey New Zealand and its 32 affiliated Associations. Hockey New Zealand CEO Ian Francis said “We have unanimously agreed that the health and wellbeing of our hockey community is paramount. We have not come to this decision lightly and we realise there will be widespread disappointment across our sport. However, we believe this is a necessary step in helping to minimize the spread of Covid-19”.
It was also agreed that until further notice, all training courses, AGM’s and conferences will be conducted online where possible. The Annual Hockey New Zealand Awards dinner, which was due to be held on Friday 24 April 24 will be postponed until further notice.
In consultation with UTSNZ and Hockey New Zealand, the National Tertiary Hockey Championships that were due to be held from the 6th-8th of May are being postponed to a later date TBC.
Hockey New Zealand will also look to review the dates for its 2020 National Tournaments and will be working with Associations to ensure that a full representative season can be achieved.
Mr Francis said Hockey New Zealand would continue to work with its Associations and other stakeholders to keep the hockey community informed about how best to protect everyone involved in the game.
“We have been liaising with Government officials as well as Sport New Zealand as we continue to monitor the health situation. We will be reviewing the above advisory as this situation evolves” he said.
Local associations will communicate directly with their communities about the postponement. This will include advice to Schools and Clubs who are currently trialling, and are also required to postpone all activities from 19 March onward.
The advice given directs that all community hockey events, competitions, practices, matches, trials, programmes, tournaments, workshops and social competitions, currently in progress, must be postponed until Saturday 2 May at the earliest.
IMPLICATIONS FOR CANTERBURY HOCKEY PLAYERS
This advice has impact on our planned programmes especially in the months of March and April. The following events are impacted and, at present, are being postponed:
- All coaching workshops scheduled to be held in March and April – including Open Grade Workshop DEFENCE scheduled for 26 March; Coach Developer Introduction Workshop scheduled for 23 March; Open Grade Workshop ATTACK scheduled for 19 April.
- U18 Trials – scheduled for Monday 27 April and Thursday 30 April
In addition to the events above, the following is being cancelled:
- Summer Hockey – Monday/Tuesday w/c 23 April
- Summer Hockey Mixed 11-aside
- ORIX NZ Canterbury Sports Awards Friday 3 April
- Junior Super 6 Tournament scheduled April 22 – 24. We may look at rescheduling this to be delivered at a later date
- Hockey Accelerators Under 18 Advanced Programme scheduled for March 26 and 30 and April 2 and 6
- Delivery of Small Sticks into schools
All of our member clubs/school are affiliated to Canterbury Hockey so must follow this advisement.
If any clubs are currently running social leagues, these must cease immediately.
You will appreciate that this information was only received yesterday afternoon and that we are trying to communicate to you as quickly and thoroughly as possible. We will now work on re-arranging our year to fit in the above postponements.
The health and wellbeing of our hockey community is our top priority and we ask that those clubs and schools who own their own turfs and have access to turfs not currently owned by Christchurch City Council or CAST, also strongly adhere to and abide by these restrictions. Nunweek Park Hockey Turfs and Nga Puna Wai Hockey Turfs are closed.
Please keep yourselves safe everyone.
We will continue to provide regular updates and advisements through our Facebook page, website and directly via email to Clubs and School Secretaries and Presidents.