It is with great sadness that we announce today that the York Open Pairs scheduled to be held at the York & District Indoor Bowls Club in January has been cancelled.
This decision was not taken lightly and many factors were taken into consideration before the cancellation was confirmed.
Our reasons behind this decision.
There is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether any further restrictions will be applied by the government in England, post-Christmas. It was felt that to delay any decision further would not be fair on the competitors and especially to those who are travelling from outside the UK.
The Office for National Statistics estimates 1.74mil people are currently infected with Covid-19 in the UK which equates to around 1 in 35 people, and although signs suggest that the new, much more transmissible, Omicron variant is less likely to cause hospitalisation, it does not mean that it is not still threatening to more vulnerable groups. As stated previously, our top priority has always been that of the safety of our competitors.
Any further restrictions could seriously impact on the few members of the team we have to run the competition, especially for those of us who would be travelling from abroad where travel restrictions are already in place.
Following discussions between Simon, Stephen & Craig, it was felt that the best option at this point was to cancel the event. It is unlikely that this event will be rescheduled for this season but it will be included in our programme for the 2022-23 season.
All players who have entered will of course receive a full refund of their entry fee via PayPal.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused but we hope you understand the reasons behind our decision.
Finally, all of us at the SMPT wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2022.
The SMPT Team
