Dear Members,
I hope you are all safe and well and finding things to keep yourselves busy and entertained during this lockdown period. If you are not locked down and are one of the many key workers doing such a sterling job through very difficult times I would like to say a sincere thank you from us all. For the majority of us though, we know the importance and need to stay in doors and abide to social distancing if we do have to venture out for one of those essential outings.
Many of us might feel that we are coping well but lets recognise there are those who might need a bit of extra support throughout this time of isolation. The management committee of Abbey recognise this and are here to help in anyway we can, even if its just someone to talk to at the other end of a phone. Please don’t sit and suffer alone when there are so many of us you could ring or email for support. My personal number is 07484835326 and my email is: belliam@outlook.com and all the other management committee contacts can be found on our website: https://readingabbeyrfc.rfu.club/about
Anyway although the club has been locked down for a few weeks now and it might seem that nothing is going on, the directors are still in regular contact with each other and have held an online directors meeting last week. Admittedly this meeting was very much finance based due to the coming weeks of the uncertainty with nothing much coming in but still having bills to be payed. Myself and Alan Kilford have also been in regular communication with our head coach, Luke Harding, about what’s ahead of us and what we need to do so hopefully we can hit the ground running when we return to playing rugby.
Below are some useful suggestions, contacts & links which I’d love to take credit for compiling however I have borrowed them from a very good friend from Reading RFC so thank you Craig Hunter for these:
This is an excellent link that offers some great guidance and links to other organisations who are available to help if needed.
- Get Berkshire Active - https://getberkshireactive.org/supporting-clubs-through-covid-19 this link offers guidance to clubs how to get through the Covid-19 situation.
- The Samaritans of Reading & Rugby partnership - https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/support-and-information/ - is a fantastic organisation, and along with Reading RFC & RAMS RFC, Reading Abbey RFC will be supporting them across the Reading area, to help raise awareness and give them the support they deserve, throughout the Covid-19 situation and beyond.
- RFU Headcase – https://www.englandrugby.com/participation/playing/headcase - many of you will have heard of the RFU Headcase initiative, to get all members of rugby clubs to take the online Headcase / concussion education course.
Many of you have completed this course but we ask ALL members to go online and complete the course. We all have some spare time on our hands, so now is the time to get this done, players, coaches, parents/guardians, match officials, teachers and volunteers. All of us.
PLEASE ASK FOR HELP. It is not an easy thing to do, but we genuinely are willing and able to help our members if they want a confidential conversation.
So please get in touch with your age group managers, head coach, any of the Exec Committee or contact me via email.
Kevin Gingell
Abbey RFC
