Saturday netball, senior Poverty Bay club rugby, Central Football, senior Poverty Bay hockey, the badminton centre’s weekly events, the Olympic Pool, Comet and Enterprise Swim Team training, and Gisborne Trampoline Club sessions are all provisionally going ahead with Level 2 restrictions in place.
Poverty Bay Rugby chief executive Josh Willoughby said junior rugby would be held only at Alert Level 1.
“We are aiming to have protocols in place to operate Saturday sport at Level 2 by next weekend.”
The largest area of concern for codes reserving their decision is the Level 2 restriction on gatherings of over 100 people, which is hard to manage at a sporting event.
Some codes will be putting management in key entry locations to provide headcounts.
Gisborne Boys’ High School first and second 15 games against New Plymouth Boys’ High School have been postponed (till September 12).
The decision came after a meeting between all Super 8 school principals yesterday.
Gisborne Boys’ High School deputy principal Tom Cairns said there were issues around accommodation for the players, who were usually billeted, and the long distance that teams had to travel.
He said the schools had planned contingencies, such as reserve days, for use as they came out of lockdown. It was “not a major”.
“There’s not much you can do about it,” he said.
“It is what it is; there’s a pandemic on.”
Gisborne Netball Centre has cancelled the Year 3 and 4 futureFerns games scheduled for tomorrow, along with the primary inter-school games that were to be played tomorrow.
Today’s Year 1 and 2 fixtures were also cancelled.
“Those fixtures will be readdressed for next week as we hear more updates,” centre manager Allisa Hall said.
“At this stage, the Saturday Year 5 and 6, intermediate, secondary and senior matches remain on.”
The centre’s board and committees have been discussing possible outcomes and alternatives, and have reviewed documents from the previous Level 2 restrictions.
“While we have previously discussed Level 2 playing scenarios, we remain hopeful that we will be back to Level 1 and business as usual by midnight on Friday,” Hall said.
“However, we should know further updates before then, so will be able to pass on any decision for Saturday netball to our community as more information comes to hand.”
All primary school rugby is cancelled this week. This competition is separate from Saturday sport.
Awapuni School deputy principal Stu Barclay said the decision was made after consultation with local schools on what they wanted to do.
“It’s about being socially responsible . . . everyone was on board.”
The Weka Ball game between challengers Riverdale and holders Awapuni is included in the cancellation.
Barclay said the different format of the Weka Ball meant Riverdale might still be able to challenge for it at a later date.
Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti chief executive Stefan Pishef said he hoped that people with children playing more than one sport would be able to update their information by using the Sport Gisborne Tairawhiti Facebook posts.
Checking in with their individual codes’ Facebook pages was the best way to find up-to-date information.
“A lot of codes are very prepared (for Level 2) but the speed with which the new restrictions came into being caught everyone off-guard.”
