Coronavirus: Important Information

11 August 2021

As we have passed Freedom Day and the country is slowly recovering from the effects of COVID, we are glad to say that all of our sessions are now back and running at full capacity.  We do still have some covid processes in place, but in the main, sessions are running as normal.  If you are new, please use a Contact Us form to speak to us and see which session would be best for you.  

15 May 2021

According to the governments easing of COVID restrictions, Dartford basketball are delighted to announce that we will be returning with some of our scheduled training sessions from 17 May 2021. 

PLEASE NOTE: This will not be all sessions as some of our training sessions are held at schools and colleges that have exams during this period.  Details below show our current plans but as always this is highly dependent on the government’s continuation of its planned easing of restrictions.

Starting as lockdown eased on 17 May 2021:

  • Women’s open session (16+) – Beckets Sport Centre, Thursdays 7-8pm starting from 20 May 2021
  • Men’s Training (club members only) - Beckets Sport Centre, Thursdays 8-10pm starting from 20 May 2021

Planned to commence later:

  • Vet’s Training – Northfleet Technology College, Mondays 8-10pm starting from 19 July 2021
  • Men’s open session – Northfleet Technology College, Tuesdays 8-10pm starting from 20 July 2021
  • Junior programme (only open to those who have been invited) – North Kent College, Tuesdays 6-7:30pm starting from 8 June 2021

As before there will be COVID processes that we need to follow and more details will follow.

We are all looking forward to restarting after such a long time.

11 March 2021

Following the governments roadmap out of a lockdown free country, England Basketball have issued its own roadmap for a return to basketball.

https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/safeguarding/return-to-play-guidance/

The club committee have been discussing how we as a club plan to return but, as you can imagine, it is a difficult process when goal posts are continually changing and nothing is set in stone - remember these have always been the "earliest" dates of return if the level of infection does not increase.

We are also impacted further as we are governed by when we can get back into the schools and sports centres, plus there will inevitably be new processes and procedures mandated on us that we will need to organise and follow.

We would like to assure everyone that we are aiming to restart as soon as possible and will be assessing the situation every few weeks.

Thanks for your continued patience during these unknown times.  

23 September 2020

As many of you will have seen, indoor team sports will have to comply with the rule of 6 from Thursday 24 September. Due to this we have regretably had to cancel all training sessions after a brief spell of getting back to some level of normality.  This is a huge set back for Dartford bastketball and for basketball in general, but something it seems we may have to live with for some time.

We are awaiting news from England Basketball who are working with the government to see if there is a way that we can make training work with the new Rule of 6 and will provide an update as soon as we know anything more.   

18 September 2020

We have now managed to restart most of our training sessions but we have not yet managed to secure a date for a return for the junior sessions.  We are trying our hardest to work with the college to get back on to the court and will update the current juniors when we have more information.

We continue to have COVID related checks and registration before entering the venues and sanitisation throughout the sessions to remain safe while we restart our basketball training.

14 August 2020

We are delighted to announce that our Thursday evening sessions (Women's and Men's) have started to run again albeit with a number of COVID related restrictions in place.

Please Note: Unfortunately, the men's sessions is solely for club members only and we cannot accommodate any other players at this point in time however the women's is open to all.

When you arrive, you will have to complete a registration and have your temperature checked as part of the governments track and trace programme.

As for all of the other sessions, including Vets, Men's Open sessions and our Junior Programme, we are waiting for the venues to open up and are currently working with them with a return to play plan.  We are hoping that these may start from September but this is still to be confirmed. 

06 August 2020

Great news! As some of you may be aware England Basketball has move to Level 2 on their Return To Play Roadmap.  This means that we can now start to think about training once again.  As you can imagine, this will not be as we know it and a lot of care and attention will need to be put in place to ensure everyone remains healthy and we do not risk spreading the COVID disease.

The committee are now working hard with our venues to understand how and when we are able to return and in what capacity.  This is fairly complex as the venues will have their rules and we have had rules put upon us by Basketball England, but we will get there.  Keep an eye on the website and Facebook pages that will be updated when we have these details ironed out. 

07 July 2020

An update from our club chairman:

Dear members,

It has been a while since our last update or communication and we hope that you are all keeping safe and well.

We still find ourselves in unprecedented times and we certainly did not expect it would have been so long without being able to play basketball, however health and safety of our members and the public is of course far more important.

We have been receiving updates from BBL and MBA (Medway Basketball Association) and whilst restrictions are starting to ease we are still unable to safely participate in basketball indoors as required sports facilities centres (playing courts) can not yet reopen.

If and when the situation changes we will of course review and follow any guide lines/ producers required to safely enable us to return and play the game we all love. Please continue to visit our website for further updates and information that we will share as and when received from both BBL & MBA.

All senior members monthly subscriptions will of course not be started again until we are back to full training and for our Junior members you still have some credit that will be carried over once Junior training programme resumes.
We will send out further communications when we know more and have a plan and dates for Junior training re-start which will now currently be the Autumn term.

Stay safe

Regards,

Steve Fitchett
Club Chairman

3 June 2020

See below the link to England Basketball's website for a "return to play" diagram showing where we are.  Currently we are on level 3.  Hoping for changes soon.... 

https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/news/return-to-play-level-3-what-we-can-and-cant-do/

28 March 2020

Given the advice we have received from England basketball (https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/news/coronavirus-basketball-england-cancel-basketball-activity-for-remainder-of-201920-season/) and obviously being in lockdown by the UK government, Dartford Basketball Club have made the decision to cancel all future games and training sessions for all men, women and juniors until further notice.

When the UK defeat this virus we will evaluate the situation and update our website and Facebook pages accordingly to alert you to when training and games will recommence.

Stay safe everyone and remember to Stay At Home.

14 March 2020

As everyone can appreciate, we currently find ourselves in unprecedented times with the now global outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) with information constantly changing.

Given the latest guidance received from England Basketball (https://www.basketballengland.co.uk/news/coronavirus-basketball-england-to-suspend-all-basketball-activity-for-two-weeks/), and subsequently Medway Basketball Association (MBA), Dartford Basketball Club have taken the decision to suspend all basketball games and training for the next two weeks.

We will of course continue to monitor the situation and guidance as and when it is released from England Basketball and Medway Basketball.

From the Dartford Basketball Club, we wish all our members well and hope that you all remain safe and healthy in these difficult and worrying times