Hello everyone
As ever, we extend our best wishes and thanks to all our members, their families and loved ones and anyone associated with the fencing community who is involved in the front line battle against COVID-19.
As you may have seen, we have been part of the UK-wide group discussing various scenarios for returning to Fencing and it’s been great to engage with colleagues not just at British Fencing (BF) HQ but those from Wales, England and Ireland in what is a massive effort.
We were delighted to have BF CEO Georgina Usher join us for the Scottish Fencing Board meeting on the evening of June 10th, maintaining our collaborative approach and highlighting areas of mutual benefit for both Scottish Fencing and our BF counterparts.
Whilst collaboration is pivotal in relaunching and restarting fencing in Scotland, we are of course implementing the Scottish changes to sport in line with Scottish Government and sportscotland – the first stage of which was our Phase 1 guidance we published on May 29th.
With BF colleagues publishing their principles and stages for relaunching sport today, these principles will be implemented at varying stages and timescales throughout the Home Nations and as you may be aware the First Minister highlighted she will make a further update on the progression to Phase 2 of the Scottish Government “Route Map out of Lockdown” – Phase 1 of which informed our guidance we published on May 29th.
Phase 2 in Scotland will still mean all activity is outdoor and we await further clarity on issues such as numbers of households permitted to meet and form a “group” and how many individuals are permitted in a group – currently limited to a maximum of 8 individuals across 2 households.
There is also a possibility a different limit on travel may be applied – currently advised to be no more than 5 miles for an individual to engage in activity or exercise.
Scottish Fencing is part of a wider integrated group of all Scottish governing bodies with dialogue happening several times per week. We intend to launch our Phase 2 guidance sometime after Thursday June 18th 2020 and will ensure our members have as much clarity as possible on the situation whenever anything changes.
Vincent Bryson
Chief Executive
Scottish Fencing
