HKHAMS 20-21 Circular No. 12 - Resumption of Competition

Dear Convenors,

As the Covid-19 pandemic situation has improved recently, Men's Section considers that it is appropriate to resume the Winter League this week including the evening matches on Tue and Friday.  In this connection, it is worth noting that apart from the isolated cases reported, the Men's Section has not been made aware of any other cases related to participating in a hockey game. 

Please note that umpiring duties for the games must be fulfilled as per the announced fixtures on the HKHA website.

The MS will make all efforts to update the fixtures, including rescheduling the postponed games.  Target is to circulate the new fixtures by this weekend.

MS would also like to take this opportunity to remind all that we continue to monitor the pandemic situation and evaluate how it might affect our games.  We place the highest emphasis on player safety.

We expect all clubs and players will closely follow the government guidelines as well as the HKHA Hockey Activities 2020/21: Guidelines and Special Arrangements on Prevention of COVID – 19 before, during and after matches.

Should any player have any concerns relating to Covid-19, they should take a Covid-19 test or be vaccinated, in order to ease their mind.  The Covid situation can be further improved if more people are being tested more frequently or vaccinated.

The followings are the summary of administrative measures decided by the HKHAMS in response to the disruption of Covid-19 to the Winter League:

-  there will be no automatic promotion and relegation this season;

-  for teams to have difficulty to play a game, the HKHAMS is willing to waive financial fines in relation to walkovers, but other penalties (i.e. forfeiture of match and potential point deduction) will be applied. Particular, if a team has given three walkovers this year, the team will be removed from the league, according to our bye-laws.

We understand this delayed start to the league has been frustrating and disruptive to all.  We continue to do our best and to act in the best interests of the hockey community.  We thank you for your patience and sincerely hope that we will all be able to enjoy a permanent return to hockey.

Regards,

Tony Ng
Hon. Secretary
HKHAMS