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So I guess it’s “organized” but only in so much as we have a Whatsapp group we use to work out who’s available to play
But I suspect the centre has a register named covid officer and the rules you had to follow were part of the risk assessment and that's what makes it organised.
Could a bike club do the same?
I need to go look up what Mountaineering Scotland have to say about the forthcoming winter. There are times when I'd rather be in a group of 3+ than 2. I guess I'll just have to pass up those situations. And with a next wave imminent putting the rescue services in a tricky position should probably be avoided anyway like we all (mostly) did in lockdown. No Gnar etc.
If you do the SportScotland e-module; sort out a register of people attending - date, name and contact number; do a risk assessment of the route and you are the point of contact, then I think you are classed as organised so can have more than 6...social distancing to be done before and after (and if you stop during the ride).
Double check what needs to be done and how long the register needs kept for and you should be good to go.
If coaches are present then rule of 6 doesn't count.
The above means that the activity isn't informal so is organised.
I think doing the e-module means you are then 'known' so again, less informal.
I've typed all that out but, I'm now doubting my understanding...as said, double check the above but that pretty much covers it (for Scotland) - I think.
Ultimate Frisbee
A friend of my daughter got pregnant playing Ultimate Frizbee, so I'm pretty certain you could catch Covid playing that.
Makes you think....
It would be much better if it was a recommendation from a respected health professional. Then we would all know what we were trying to do to reduce the risks.
Because it's a mandated policy from a distrusted government all we want to do is exploit loopholes and ambiguities.
Been a nightmare for my local swinging group
limit of 3 couples at once or just 5 men for the wife at friday night gangbang
🙂
the answer is obviously to wear tweed & pretend you are shooting grouse?
Lots of things I'd like to post about this governments mixed messaging/mess but I won't.
Instead I'll post this gorillas response to the confusion.
I've got a group of 6 of us MTB'ing in North Wales end of next month. Now, we'd be 6 from different households from England, but in Wales it's 6 from 4 households. We are staying at my caravan for a couple of nights.
Confusing ?
If you go out as a seven just remember that you are only breaking the law in a 'very specific and limited way' - which is true.
It is specific because there is exactly one person too many in the group. It is limited because there aren't eight of you.
If this fails just claim you only thought there were five others because you are only riding as a test of your eyesight and it turns out your eyesight is bad because you can only see five other people.
I'll be sticking to the rules, but to be honest I ain't going out of my way to grass up people who aren't.
Not really...unless you meet the requirements then it isn't 'right'...
A friend of my daughter got pregnant playing Ultimate Jizzbee, so I’m pretty certain you could catch Covid playing that.
QFT
Am I missing something? Aren't there loads of sports which seem to be getting the same treatment?
MTB races are still on. I think sportives are on as well. No idea how hard it is to register your group ride as a sportive though.
Am I missing something? Aren’t there loads of sports which seem to be getting the same treatment?
No, you’re right lots of sports can take place with a limit of 30 participants.
Am I missing something? Aren’t there loads of sports which seem to be getting the same treatment?
no, you are correct. Many sports (with greater chance of infection than shooting) have and still are allowed to go ahead.
Some people sadly have fallen for the "one rule for toffs, one rule for the rest of us" narrative that the tabloids have spun with the grouse shooting story though.
Apart from the usual whining class warrior types, no one gives a shit.
Bollox. Most of the country hate blood "sports" partly on moral grounds and partly because of the damage they do. I understand some of the nuance in this - but driven grouse shooting and foxhunting are pure sadism with no utility and do huge damage.
the Mirror has a reason why shooting has been exempted - its because at a tory fundraiser shoots were sold off to the highest bidders for tory funds. so once again its about one rule for the torys , one rule for the rest of us.
the point is that blood "sports" were not going to be exempt and there was a specific cabinet meeting where several ministers insisted they would be exempt - for the reasons above.
I have enjoyed the Thames Valley Cricket league for the last 9 weeks - half the usual season, with no promotion or relegation.
Hand sanitise every six overs, bring your own drinks and your own tea, no spitting on the ball to shine it, no giving your cap to the umpire while you bowl, no going inside the pavillion except for the toilet. And fist bump your team mates in cleebration, and touch elbows rather than shake hands afterwards.
Every player recorded and submitted to the league (as happened already). As far as I'm aware, of ~120 teams, no problems.
final point on blood"sports" Driven grouse moors and fox hunts have shown many many times that they do not obey the law. why trust them on this.
Am I missing something? Aren’t there loads of sports which seem to be getting the same treatment?
is fox hunting really an organised sport I thought it was done to "control" the population of animals. I don't know a lot about it but im assuming there isnt a winner at the end... well only the fox if he gets away.
fox hunting is illegal. But they still do it anyway. vile scum
Apart from the usual whining class warrior types, no one gives a shit.
Er, I do give a shit about birds being shot for 'fun' but I don't give a shit about the class of twot doing it.
You should try booking accommodation in the Lakes for 5 blokes....
"Sorry, you are from more than 2 households so no can do"
"BUt is has changed from yesterday, now it is no more than 6 in a group!"
"Not heard that one. Sorry, you can only stay if you're from just 2 households"
So even those whose livelihoods depend on knowing the rules have no idea any more.
It’s really quite simple, if your activity is organised - that is it is running under the “control” of a national governing body, then the rule of 6 does not apply DURING the activity but there should be no groups >6 forming before/after.
If you don’t know if the “Event” is running under rules agreed between the NGB and the government then it almost certainly isn’t because the organiser would have told you in advance what you would be required to do.
If two groups who don’t know each other turn up in the car park at the same time they will socially distance and it will be legit. If two groups of 6 know each other and “happen” to turn up at the same time, the fact they know each other risks the social distancing breaking down and it becomes possible/likely for people to exchange between the groups. You can solve this problem by simply agreeing the two groups meet a sensible time apart, or go to different venues.
Look at it this way, the more people you are in proximity to, the more likely you are to get a TT&T phone call telling you to self isolate. If you are lucky you’ll get a test and result quickly so that it’s perhaps only 24-48 hrs you are not allowed to leave the house, but it could be several days or even two weeks. If you’ve not been stuck in your own house for two weeks - take it from me it’s not worth meeting the second group for!
Part of me suspects these sort of vague, inconsistant rules are deliberately intended to distract people from questioning other, genuinely important stuff as some of the population inevitably project whatever class/culture war narrative is buzzing round their heads onto pretty much everything, while others just want to go watch wendyball or shoot at birds badly enough to up the risk their families health (by whatever percentage)...
Part of me suspects it's just that we've been given reactive, rushed rules with a lack of attention to detail or consideration of all the angles...
Either way the main message should be minimise social interaction for the good of everyone. The fact that half the population start looking for loopholes and ways to do whatever they fancy while staying just inside the letter of the (confused) law suggests the "rule of six" and all its exemptions haven't had the intended effect...
It might be easier to just splash "Rule 1" across some billboards and see who actually complies...
It might be easier to just splash “Rule 1” across some billboards and see who actually complies…
Few scientists came out yesterday and said the rule of 6 is pretty pointless. It may limit the risk but its more important to socially distance when meeting 6 or 600 people. Cover you face and wash hands the best we can do currently.... or as our glorious leader puts it hands, face, and space.
Part of me suspects these sort of vague, inconsistant rules are deliberately intended to distract people from questioning other, genuinely important stuff
I'd agree with that but the government have an impossible task. Ideally the message would be "use some common sense as the R number is rising and we don't want it to get out of control".
The problem is a large number of people don't have any common sense and need to be told exactly what to do. So they decide on a number of 6 as it gives the hard of thinking a rule. The problem is 6 is an arbitrary number and it doesn't really make sense as 6 people can sit next to 6 other people in Costa and of those 6, each have mixed with colleagues, school mates and everybody else that day.
So where do the government go from there? Do nothing and they are accused of sitting back and letting it get our of hand. Another lockdown would further destroy the economy and there are a growing number of people who wont wear masks or distance as they think the whole thing is a hoax and wearing a paper mask means the government have direct control of your brain.
I don't envy Boris at the moment.
I don’t envy Boris at the moment.
But he is in a job he desperately wanted and lied and manipulated to get. If he doesn't want to do it any longer or realises he isn't up to it then he can quit or call an election.
The problem is a large number of people don’t have any common sense and need to be told exactly what to do.
Everybody has common sense... yours is just different to theirs, and to mine. And people need to interact... when they do so, having shared rules that everyone knows and can follow helps enormously.
Is it any wonder this country is f*****.
Government: We've prepared this really simple bit of guidance to keep idiots who cant deal with complicated rules safe from Covid. Groups must be less than 6.
Idiots: I don't consider myself an idiot therefore I dont need to follow rules that were made simple enough for idiots to understand.
Could a bike club do the same?
If it's affiliated to BC or CUK then yes (I guess that would also be a good criteria to judge whether your "club" is a social gathering or a sporting event).
Our clubs rules derived from the BC guidance are group rides are all <6.
They all meet at different times/places (only generally round the corner but ensures there's no mixing).
They're all pre-registered via e-mail to the club secretary who'll post out a list of who's organising what (generally fast, brisk, gravel, steady x2, social x2 groups) on a thursday, then send a meet time/point to the group once its full/Saturday night.
Anecdotally it's proved really popular at bringing in new riders as a social paced group of 6 is less intimidating and easier to controll the speed of and doesn't attract "big fish in a small pond" types who should have moved up to something quicker.
I see this as just an interim step anyway.
Looking at current figures we are at approximately 3,000 new infections a day, at the peak we were up to 6,000. On March 23rd (when we entered lockdown) we had approximately 1,000. (Or is this because we are doing more testing now? )
I know that the Government is trying to avoid another lockdown but is it just me that has noticed this and thinks we are heading for another lockdown?
Can we meet in groups > 6 if we are more then 2 metres apart (my mate asked while sat in a huge sea kayak). I guess so.
Everybody has common sense
Common sense is where a large majority (in common) would think ad act the same. People who think and act very differently from the large majority therefore don't have common sense, they just have individual sense.
Been a nightmare for my local swinging group...the answer is obviously to wear tweed & pretend you are shooting grouse?
Both involve butts in various states of disrepair, so why not?
Common sense is where a large majority (in common) would think ad act the same
That is one meaning of the term, yes. There’s another meaning/understanding of the term as well, which sort of reinforces my point, doesn’t it.
The Rule of Six was nice and clear. Oh at last i thought. Then came the exemptions. Now it's all over the place again.
And well said TJ on the shooting / hunting issue.
Well we had 9 turn up this morning for our Wed ride, so we rode in two groups-ish which randomly changed people over the course of the ride. We sat in two separate groups at the cafe. As always the return from cafe disintegrated into an all out race with 9 people spread over several miles as they got dropped one by one...
No one got fined, so must have been ok.
Common sense is where a large majority (in common) would think ad act the same. People who think and act very differently from the large majority therefore don’t have common sense, they just have individual sense.
Common sense is for commoners! ****ing 50 percentiler normies ruin everything for the rest of us no matter which side of that distribution you lie on. 😀
The two five a side games I play in have been up and running since ~ end of July, both are casual games and not FA affliated, and my veterans XI a side is still going despite not being FA affiliated.
I think the organised bit is specifically trying to discourage people just taking a football down the park to bypass the rule of six by pretending they are playing football.
The list of exemptions for sports is just stupid, some I understand (team sports where more than 6 participate) but angling? shooting? climbing? etc. etc. what a load of bollocks.
Doesn't affect my cycling as I haven't done that in years... but still a stupid exemption list.
As for other effects - I hope it's still not in place come Christmas. My brother's family is 6 as it is so that would rule out them visiting parents let alone me headed there to 🙁 I guess we could just say we're going fishing somewhere...
If this rule of six is still in place come Xmas, or perhaps even stricter rules, I expect a large number of families to take inspiration from Cummings' trip.
Wouldn't surprise me if rule is tweaked to exclude kids in England, simply to try and head off a mass revolt.
The list of exemptions for sports is just stupid, some I understand (team sports where more than 6 participate) but angling? shooting? climbing? etc. etc. what a load of bollocks.
That list someone posted earlier is certainly not complete - perhaps it was the latest additions. Essentially though, if the sport has a national governing body (NGB) they have been able to liaise with the DCMS (and the equivalents in the devolved administrations) to agree sport specific protocols which minimise risk. Just because you can do some of those things alone doesn't mean its the only way to do them and that rules aren't needed to help people understand what you can and can't do (which may well be that you can't do some of the larger group stuff!)
Angling - you are presumably thinking of one person on a fishing bank? but what about when they hire a rowing boat? or charter a boat to go sea angling? what about angling competitions? private fisheries or an estate and its keepers taking a group? etc.
Shooting - I don't know much about sport shooting, but I'm pretty sure that its not usually done with one person on site at a time.
Climbing - well the bare minimum is essentially 2 people, but what about instructors running a session, or an indoor climbing wall where more than 6 people would usually be present.
Indoor climbing wall should have a register and all the necessary pieces so that they are organised and can have more people...I think.
@poly - yes I understand in normal circumstances those sports/pastimes could well have more than 6 people participating, but these aren't normal times. I'm saying they don't *need* more than 6 participating in order to actually be feasible (unlike say cricket where 3-a-side isn't really workable).