Hi All,

Many of you will have been following the news with interest, with the Prime Ministers announcement yesterday and information flowing out of Sport NZ.

I thought a quick update of sorts was warranted rather than people having to guess at what all this means for Hockey.

Firstly, as everyone knows the Prime Minister will make an announcement on Monday about when we as a country will move into Level 2. Later on Monday afternoon there will be an announcement from all the major winter sports as to the way forward.

It is fair to say that actual playing of sport will be back in some form under Level 2 but will probably start with a 2-4 week pre-play phase (time for preseason training, getting teams organised etc). The hockey environment as we knew it before will not be the same, to come into the venue there will be a sign in process (hopefully digital) and social distancing for people inside the venue (not those playing) will remain important. There will be a limit of 100 people in the venue (or this may be per turf, yet to be formally decided), this 100 will not count those on the turf playing (but will count people around after a game and those arriving for the next game).

There will be rules in place around hygiene (exact rules still being developed) and some huge health and safety responsibilities on WHA. The café/bar will have the same rules as have been announced for bars and restaurants.

This is just a brief overview to get our keen hockey players through the weekend, before more formal announcements are made on Monday.

We are naturally super excited to be getting back to hockey. As the whole country pulled together through Level 4 and Level 3 to get the results we have, we will need our hockey community pulling together to ensure our return to hockey is smooth and above all safe. We thank you in anticipation of everyone following all the new rules, as we have all experienced the life we don’t want to go back to.

We will be back in touch early next week hopefully with confirmed dates.

Thanks,

Declan Wyndham-Smith | CEO