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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates So FarPhased Return to Play Guidance
Please go to this page for the full details of our current Return to Play guidance: www.ukultimate.com/story/phased_return_play_guidance
23rd February Return-to-Play UpdateWith lockdown we’ve been a little bit quiet, working on things behind the scenes, but following the government’s announcement yesterday we just wanted to reach out to you all to let you know that we’re reviewing the Return to Play situation.
We’re hoping to get some more details from the government and other sports organisations soon that will help us to create our own corresponding Return to Play timeline. However, please bear with us as we work on this as it may take us a while. You might not hear from us for a little bit longer, but please be assured that we’re working hard to get everyone back playing safely.
Keep an eye out for future updates on our website. We hope that we’ll be able to share some details on what the 2021 season may look like with you soon!
5th January Return-to-Play UpdateFollowing the announcement of a national lockdown across England and mainland Scotland from 5th January 2021, in summary, all areas in the UK are now limited to PHASE A of the Return to Play Guidance. The infographic has been updated to reflect this.
We reiterate our general position that clubs and members must take responsibility for understanding and interpreting government guidance and the implications of any additional local restrictions (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales). For Schools, please continue to follow AfPE advice. If in doubt please contact UK Ultimate or use the Covid Officer email forum.
26th December Return-to-Play UpdateFollowing the announcement in Northern Ireland that additional restrictions will be introduced on 26 December for six weeks, including all indoor and outdoor sport not being permitted, all of Northern Ireland moves into Phase A.
19th December Return-to-Play UpdateFurther to today's Government announcements we confirm that, effective Sunday 20th Dec, areas of England in Tier 4 plus all of Wales move back to Phase A restrictions.
11th December Return-to-Play UpdateEngland Tier 3 We have reviewed the approach taken by other outdoor team sports, the finalised government regulations for sport, and had some further discussions about our current Return-to-Play guidance. As implied in our previous announcement we are updating our guidance so that clubs in England Tier 3 areas are now permitted to play under the Phase C guidance.
Northern Ireland As of 11th December, some resumption of organised sport is permitted in Northern Ireland, and so we are moving back to Phase C guidance for outdoor play only, effective today. Clubs are required to do an updated and new risk assessment for their activities.
2nd December Return-to-Play Update - UKU Guidance & England and N. Ireland ChangesFollowing the announcement from the UK Government of the Covid-19 Winter Plan, confirming the lifting of the national restrictions in England on 2nd December and the re-implementation of a three tiered approach until the end of March 2021, and further guidance published by DCMS on 1 December, we can now confirm what this means for Ultimate in England.
Outdoor Ultimate - England For all adult outdoor Ultimate, including University Ultimate, the appropriate Modifications During Training & Play (Phase B-C-D Details) guidance should be followed for your specific area - Tier 1, 2 or 3.
We have included the updated infographic showing which Phase is applicable for each Tier, but here is a quick summary:
Please note that we are continuing to monitor additional guidance due to be published by Sport England and other sports, and we will continually review the above. Our position for Tier 2 and 3 is initially quite cautious. As more information becomes available over the coming days we may make some further updates if appropriate.
Travel restrictions also need to be considered at all times. In Tier 2, you should aim to reduce the number of journeys you make, where possible. If you are in Tier 3, you are advised not to travel into or out of Tier 3 areas to play Ultimate.
For School Ultimate, regardless of your Tier, please continue to follow AfPE advice. If you have any queries on this, please contact admin@ukultimate.com.
We also remind everyone that you MUST limit all social interaction before and after playing, and should only take place in line with legal gathering limits and other relevant restrictions. Avoid using changing rooms by getting ready before you arrive and shower at home.
Indoor Ultimate - England The recent announcement has not indicated any significant changes that will impact Indoor Ultimate. Please check the Indoor Ultimate Appendix for all details regarding training and playing indoors.
Schools should continue to follow AfPE advice for their activity.
All Club and University indoor competitions are now cancelled for the remainder of the 2020-21 season.
Northern Ireland Moves to Phase A We note that as of 27th November, indoor and outdoor sport is not permitted in Northern Ireland. The infographic has been updated to reflect this.
Updated UKU Guidance We have split the UKU Guidance information into two different documents- to try and make it slightly easier to read and access:
UKU Club Guidance - Covid-19 Club Preparation & Off-field Activity This is the information that is relevant for playing Ultimate in ALL tiers and levels across the UK, and the guidance outlined should be followed at all times in conjunction with the specific Phase information relevant to your local area (link below).
UKU guidance no longer includes a maximum number of participants in outdoor training or play. We note again, however, that there are locally-imposed restrictions that must be followed (England, N. Ireland, Scotland, Wales). Check the full details in the updated guidance HERE.
UKU Club Guidance - Modifications During Training & Play (Phase B-C-D Details) This document includes all of the details specific to each Phase, outlined in 3 separate sections:
You MUST also follow the Covid-19 Club Preparation & Off-field Activity guidance in order to run modified training sessions and games, in conjunction with the specific Phase information, in order to run any modified training sessions and/or games (link above).
General Infographic: DOWNLOAD Facebook Post: DOWNLOAD Instagram Post: DOWNLOAD PDF: DOWNLOAD
27th November Return-to-Play UpdateWe will be publishing a more substantial update next week as we are currently expecting some more information via Sport England about the latest changes to restrictions in England, effective 3rd December. Provisionally we are expecting to adopt the following approach, at least initially:
Indoor Ultimate will be extremely limited everywhere and, sadly, we do not expect any UKU Indoor championships to take place this winter.
11th November Return-to-Play UpdateAs of Monday 9th November, following Wales’ national firebreak, the Welsh Government’s coronavirus regulations were updated. The full details of what the changes are for Wales are can be found on the Sport Wales website HERE. In terms of what this specifically means for Ultimate, we are moving to Phase C (outdoors) based on our interpretation of the Welsh Government’s guidance. We are attempting to review this with Sport Wales and will provide a further update if appropriate once we have spoken to them. For indoors we remain at Phase B (except in schools - see our indoor guidance appendix), but note that the Welsh government guidance limits indoor groups to 15 people. We continue to recommend that people play outdoors if possible. Note that children under 11 and those organising the activity (such as coaches) are not included in the above numbers. We have updated the Phased Return to Play Infographic to reflect this change.
5th November Return-to-Play UpdateFollowing the government’s announcement on Saturday 31st October of the new set of national restrictions to be imposed in England, we would like to clarify what this means for playing Ultimate around the UK. This announcement includes
We have also updated the Phased Return to Play Infographic.
In England, from Thursday 5th November, all areas are restricted to PHASE A. This is in addition to the government guidelines that this is only permitted with the people you live with, your support bubble, or if on your own with one person from another household. These changes also apply to University Ultimate.
Schools, however, are permitted to continue to play in PE lessons. Although this is still in reference to the previous guidance issued on this and the advice from AfPE about indoor PE lessons. If you have any queries on this, please contact admin@ukultimate.com.
In Scotland, the Scottish Government has confirmed their new framework which is in implementation as of Monday 2 November. Below is a summary of what this framework means for the sport and leisure sector:
As part of this, there have also been some updates on the approved travel guidance for sport and physical activity, this is now up on the Scottish Government website.
However, it remains that:
A table showing the Sport & Physical Activity Protection Levels in Scotland can be found here: https://sportscotland.org.uk/media/6232/phase-3-return-to-sport-and-physical-activity-guidance-021120-final-005-1.pdf [page 3]
For both Wales and Northern Ireland, our understanding is that no updates have been made.
We reiterate our general position that clubs and members must take responsibility for understanding and interpreting the implications of local restrictions. If in doubt please contact UK Ultimate or use the Covid Officer email forum.
We also remind all active or recently-active clubs to please complete the short survey regarding their training status for October. This will help us to judge the extent of activity around the country as the situation has evolved. In addition, there is the Covid-19 Incident Report Form to help us monitor the ongoing Return-to-Play. We kindly ask that you complete this if your club has been affected by a positive test result (link below)
<< Ultimate club training under UKU covid guidance data submission form >> << Covid-19 Incident Report Form >>
USAU Skills Challenge Another lockdown doesn’t mean you have to stop throwing though! USA Ultimate has introduced a new Skills Challenge.
It provides a way for players to have fun, whilst developing their ultimate skills and connecting with their local community and beyond. Choose from a variety of challenges that focus on throwing, catching, athleticism and even some cool disc tricks.
Through the USA Ultimate mobile app, you can track your personal performance in each skill, and if you’d like, you can opt in to the leaderboard to see how you, your friends, teammates and others in the community stack up.
Check it out here: https://www.usaultimate.org/resources/skills_challenge.aspx
Save Our Sports Campaign The UK’s sport and physical activity sector has joined forces to launch a new campaign called Save Our Sports, urging the Government to save grassroots sport, fitness and leisure facilities from permanent closure due to COVID-19.
We rely on sport and leisure facilities to run our events and for clubs to run training sessions. Indirectly, the impact that closures of facilities would have on playing opportunities could be huge, so if you are interested in the campaign, find out more about the initiative and sign their petition here: https://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/news/covid-19/save-our-sports
21st October Return-to-Play UpdateWe issue the following update in response to the many changes in government guidance and regulation issued over the last week or so. In particular we have taken the decision to limit clubs in Tier 3 areas of England to Phase C. This update has information about the following:
Dealing with local restrictions We have taken the decision to limit clubs in Tier 3 areas of England to PHASE C.
We iterate our general position that clubs and members must take responsibility for understanding and interpreting the implications of local restrictions. If in doubt please contact UK Ultimate or use the Covid officer email forum. However, we thought it might be helpful to clarify the following:
Clubs must now report training status regularly We really hate to add to the admin load, but right now we need more information to help judge the extent of activity around the country. Consequently we will temporarily require all active clubs to complete a very short survey at least once every calendar month (more frequent submissions are welcome, but optional). During this period we will also aim to publish a summary of the data each month. << Ultimate club training under UKU covid guidance data submission form >>
Indoor Ultimate We have produced a brief appendix confirming our guidance for Indoor Ultimate.
Close Contacts
This document was shared with the Covid officer forum last week and we are now publishing this alongside the rest of our guidance. The purpose of the document is to provide more background on the rationale for the three phases B-C-D and how they are expected to differ in terms of risk and how Contact Tracing authorities might be expected to treat people training under each of those systems.
9th October Return-to-Play UpdateAs per previous announcements we confirm that we will move to Phase D of our Phased Return to Play from Monday 12th October. Please note the additional important comments below about Indoors and government references to "contact sports". There are some changes in the final version of Phase D Guidance compared to the draft that we published in August.
Indoor Ultimate update
Sadly, we now confirm that ALL UKU indoor tournaments until the end of 2020 have now cancelled. We will review our options for the Jan-Mar events in November, but we consider it unlikely that any indoor competitions or events will be possible in the current indoor season Oct 2020 - Mar 2021.
In better news for indoor ultimate fans, next week, we will be removing the blanket references to “no indoor ultimate” in our Phased Return to Play guidance. We are currently working on an Indoors Appendix to sit alongside the other guidance documents.
Local restrictions referring to “contact sports” Where a local restriction refers to “contact sport”, you should assume this means Ultimate being played under Phases C-D guidance. Where only “non contact team sport training” is permitted you should assume that means only Phase B is allowed. So, for example with reference to this week’s announcement in Scotland, in the areas affected by the temporary ban on contact sports you are still permitted to run training using Phase B Guidance. But also take careful note of the extra travel restrictions.
Please accept our apologies for the increased complexity. It is not easy to find the right balance between simplicity; allowing play where it is safe and permitted; and managing the variations in rules and restrictions around the UK. For club covid-officers or committee members we have a covid officer google group / forum that you can request to join here.
2nd October University Clubs Return-to-Play FAQsWe published a Return-to-Play FAQs document for University clubs earlier this week. The document includes questions about training, competitions, communications and other places to get more information.
30th September Covid-19 Incident Report formTo help us monitor the ongoing Return-to-Play, we have created a Covid-19 Incident report online form. Our aim is to:
We hope in general that people completing the form will feel able to include their contact information, but it has been set up to allow anonymous submissions.
25th September Return to Play UpdateWe thought it might be useful to provide a short update relating to some of the government announcements this week.
Thanks for clubs that provided feedback regarding their training so far. We will publish a summary of that feedback, and will be updating our feedback/reporting form soon. For club covid-officers or committee members we have a covid officer google group that you can request to join here.
15th September Return to Play Guidance UpdateAs per our previous announcements, we confirm that as of Tues 15th Sept we are now in PHASE C of the Phased Return-to-Play.
Please also see the announcement we published on Friday 11th September, which includes news about University competitions, return to play timetable, Indoor Ultimate, covid officer googlegroup forum, ideas for training sessions; and thanks to our UKU Medical adviser.
There are some relatively minor changes in the final version of Phase C Guidance compared to the draft that we published in August.
Finally, please note we have changed our guidance relating to regions under local restrictions to take account of the fact that in many cases those restrictions still allow organised sport to continue. Apologies that we made a relatively last minute decision to change this, and so did not provide any advance notice.
11th September Return to Play UpdateThere are quite a number of headlines in this update, but it seemed like a good moment to pull these things together in a single announcement. Please read all of it. We think there is information here for everyone.
UNIVERSITY CLUBS BUCS is setting up a TERM ONE team competition format that will enable some outdoor competitive play Oct-Dec.
University Indoor Regionals
We are working on some university club FAQs to be released this month. Do you need help making contact with club players in your area? PLEASE ALSO READ THE UPDATE FOR ALL CLUBS BELOW
ALL CLUBS
Indoor Ultimate. We have approached DCMS and sportscotland for guidance on how and when we could permit a return to training for indoor ultimate. No timeline available yet but we are working on it. Even when Indoor Ultimate is signed off, you can expect that UKU will continue to recommend training and playing outdoors, but we recognise that some clubs have good reasons for wanting to use indoor facilities.
We are still planning to move to Phase C on Tuesday 15th September, subject to final review in a UKU board meeting on the evening of Monday 14th.
We are currently planning to move to Phase D on Mon 12th October.
We are still collecting club training feedback if you missed it.
One theme in the feedback so far was a request for ideas of things to do.
And finally, huge thanks to Dr Kenny Duffy, UKU Medical Adviser for his substantial help and advice in guiding our return-to-play plans and guidance.
4th September Scotland-specific return to play guidanceWe have been in communication with sportscotland to confirm sign-off on our club guidance in Scotland. Please see UKU Club Guidance Appendix - Scotland for details, which is additional to our existing UKU Club Guidance Phase B. In particular this provides the necessary confirmation that Ultimate clubs in Scotland can now train in groups of up to maximum 30 people, provided, of course, that they are following all the appropriate measures. The document has been added to the main guidance page. As of today, 4th September we are still in Phase B.
3rd September Return to Play club training feedback surveyWe are gathering feedback from clubs regarding their experiences and views on returning to training to help inform our decisions on next steps. Clubs who have trained since 17th August are expected and required to complete the form. We would very much like to hear from other clubs and groups too. The deadline for completing the form is the end of Wednesday 9th September. Thanks.
https://forms.gle/BZBURpfzSXPsoRAh9
12th August Return to Play UpdateFurther to our earlier announcements regarding Return to Play we are now able to release the following guidance update.
We will move to Phase B of our Phased Return to Play on Monday 17th Aug, applicable UK-wide other than regions subject to “local lockdown” conditions. REGIONS SUBJECT TO EXCEPTIONAL LOCAL LOCKDOWN CONDITIONS STAY IN PHASE A. THIS APPLIES BOTH TO THE ACTIVITY LOCATION AND INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS.
We urge all clubs and players to restart cautiously. Organising and delivering training under these new conditions will not be easy and we expect and need all club committees and UKU members to take the procedures seriously. It has also been a very long break and an unusual period of time for many people. Please take it easy.
Finally, we make the following comments about informal groups getting together to throw, train, etc.
24th July UKU Nationals - CancellationSadly we have now taken the decision to cancel UKU Nationals on 29-30 August. Hopefully this is not a surprise to anyone, but it is nonetheless a great disappointment.
We have submitted our return-to-play action plan to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) as per the announcement we made on 10th July. There are indications that major team sports are making plans to return to community competition, and so for the time being we will leave open the possibility of running a club National Championships under a different format before the end of the year, subject to the response we receive from DCMS.
We are optimistic that we will be able to move to Phase B in the coming weeks, but please understand that until we have formal sign off for the Action Plan we are still in Phase A (see the announcement from 10th July for more details).
10th July Update to Government GuidanceOrganised club training is not permitted.
The government has announced a framework for the return of recreational team sport which is applicable from 11 July. This does not mean, however, that it is possible for team sports to be played from that date.
For the avoidance of doubt, we are still in PHASE A of our Outline of Phased Return to Play. Organised Ultimate club training is not permitted. We are working through the details of the latest information to work out how and when they can be applied to Ultimate. We have to produce an Ultimate-specific action plan for sign off by the Department of Culture Media & Sport. We will do this as quickly as we can, but cannot be certain how long it will take.
In response to queries we have received regarding individuals from different households meeting to throw a disc, we make the following comments.
1st July UKU Outdoor Events - Cancellations UpdateHaving waited as long as possible to see how the situation developed we have taken the decision to cancel 2020 UKU Regionals for all three divisions:
This is obviously really disappointing, and also raises some questions about 2020 UKU Nationals: For the time being, we are holding our booking for Nationals at the University of Nottingham on the weekend of 29-30 August, but we are not able to confirm the format of the competition. We are not able to confirm the number of teams that would be involved in whatever competition goes ahead. Qualification
As noted in the previous competition update, we will be considering the limited training time that has been available when deciding on any format or schedule.
Disclaimer. We really do NOT want to give the impression that we expect that Nationals will go ahead at the end of August. We are simply keeping our options open.
Refunds We continue to work through refunding all entry fees for cancelled events. At this point:
If you think we’ve missed you out, please email events@ukultimate.com.
17th June XEUCF 2020 Bid AllocationIn April the European Ultimate Federation (EUF) announced a temporary change to the annual European Ultimate Club Series (EUCS) to better cope with the implications of the COVID-19 crisis.
In response to the original announcement, the UKU Competition Committee discussed options for allocating bids and determined that we would use the results from the 2019 UKU Nationals / EUCR-W. This week, the EUF has announced the finalised bid distribution by national federation.
The UK has been awarded 2, 2, and 4 bids in Women’s, Mixed and Open respectively. The Irish teams are being awarded their own bids directly, so the UK bids, based on finishing positions at UK Nationals 2019, are as follows:
Confirmed Bids Women: Iceni, Bristol Mixed: SMOG 1, Deep Space Open: Clapham, Chevron, Alba, Devon
EUF Waitlist Women: SCRAM (#4 on waitlist) Mixed: SMOG 2 (#3 on waitlist) Open: EMO (#2 on waitlist)
UKU Waitlist (in waitlist order) Women: SYC, Throwback Mixed: Reading, Birmingham Open: Brighton, Ka-Pow!
Emails are being sent today to each of the teams that have been awarded a bid, and those teams on the EUF waitlist, with a form to complete if they provisionally plan to attend. Any of those teams that already know that they do not want to attend XEUCF should let us asap please so that we can contact the next team on the UKU waitlist. We may contact other teams, and that will be done according to their finishing position at 2019 UKU Nationals.
10th June UKU Outdoor Events - Refunds and Cancellations UpdateRefunds Thanks so much for your patience and understanding. We are now working through all of the team fee refunds for the events that were cancelled. If you paid through the UKU website using a card or gocardless payment, you should receive an email when the refund is set up, after which it will take a few days for the money to reach your account. If you paid by bank transfer, we will need your club bank details in order to send the refund. Please look out for an email about this.
Our goal is to send the funds, or have requested bank details from you, for all of the outstanding refunds by the end of June. If you would like us to prioritise a particular payment please email events@ukultimate.com. The YDG card payment refunds have been set up today.
July Cancellations Although we never opened entries to the following events, we are now confirming that the UKU Ranking Events planned for July have been cancelled: Moor Lane, 11-12 July Edenbridge, 18-19 July
The remaining events in our calendar are Regionals and Nationals. We are well aware that in both cases, staging those events without teams having an opportunity to train together or perhaps attend a preparatory warm-up event raises all sorts of questions and issues. However, for the moment we have decided to wait for further developments and guidance before determining the next steps with those competitions.
4th June Update to government guidance re outdoor activityGovernment guidance about outdoor activity has changed in all four home nations since our last update on 13th May. To be absolutely clear, the changes do not permit team sports like Ultimate due to the close contact between participants. Announcements on 30th May that referred to “competitive sport” were applicable only to a very specific definition of “elite athlete” and do not affect Ultimate.
You will be aware that the changes generally have in common some increased flexibility regarding the number of individuals from different households that can meet outdoors, provided they continue to follow social-distancing guidelines. The rules vary in different parts of the UK, and it seems likely that the trend towards local or regional variation will continue. For this reason, this announcement will not attempt to list out all of those variations. You must take personal responsibility for understanding the general guidance to the public as it applies to your location and your personal circumstances.
In England, there has been some relaxation on the question of sharing equipment for passing a ball (or disc). However, UK Ultimate’s position on this specific question remains the same, and is consistent for the whole UK. If you want to meet for disc-based exercise, our advice remains that each person brings their own disc and has contact with only that disc for the duration of the exercise, focussing on just throwing, and avoiding contact with other people’s discs through catching, or picking them up.
If you decide to play some disc golf, please be aware of the comments we made previously: 1. Your UKU membership does provide liability insurance for playing flying disc games other than ultimate - essentially as a form of practice for Ultimate - although this does not extend to formal, organised competition in those other sports.
2. We asked for some advice from the British Disc Golf Association (BDGA) as well and they kindly pointed us at this post. Please take particular note of their comments relating to safety and parks being busier than usual.
15th May Covid Advice GroupWe would like to form a small advisory group to help us interpret government guidance and check the information we provide to members about returning to disc-based activities, and at some point, to Ultimate. Clearly, people working in medical roles are extremely busy right now, so the idea is to create something that would not take up much of your time - rather just an opportunity to review and guide UKU plans or announcements before they are finalised. If you would like, and have time, to share your first-hand knowledge and experience of what is happening on-the-ground to inform how we, as a community, deal with the next steps, please complete this short online form. We’re hoping to have a team with a variety of medical roles and from around the UK.
13th May Government update to exercise guidelinesThis week, the UK Government is making changes to guidance relating to exercise and outdoor activity. Of course these changes do not permit team sports like Ultimate, and there is no indication about how or when that might be possible.
You will be aware that there are differences between the four home nations. Our understanding is that in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the recent changes relate only to being allowed to spend more time doing exercise. In England there are some additional changes, and there is a useful summary on the Sport England website here: https://www.sportengland.org/how-we-can-help/coronavirus.
We were one of several sports that raised the question of two individuals from different households sharing equipment and the response is at the end of this Q&A page. Realistically, it is difficult for two players throwing a disc back and forth to adhere to that advice. If you do meet an individual from another household to do some disc-based exercise, firstly please ensure that you follow social distancing guidelines maintaining at least a 2m distance from each other and other people. Our advice is for each person to bring their own disc and have contact with only that disc for the duration of the exercise, focussing on just throwing (and avoiding contact with the other person's disc through catching, or picking it up): practice your pulls, or maybe play some disc golf. Either way, please take responsibility for sticking to the relevant guidance, and of course, be respectful of other members of the public. We have two further comments relating to disc golf: 1. Your UKU membership does provide liability insurance for playing flying disc games other than ultimate - essentially as a form of practice for Ultimate - although this does not extend to formal, organised competition in those other sports.
2. We asked for some advice from the BDGA as well and they kindly pointed us at this post. Please take particular note of their comments relating to safety and parks being busier than usual.
29th April Resources for schools - can you help please?We have a small group of teachers and coaches looking at the need for new resources to help teachers deliver PE and sports competitions when schools reopen for everyone. The idea is to share simple information about how frisbees can be used in activities, games and competitions that meet constraints that are likely to affect school sports in the coming year. We are hoping to find one or more volunteers who have the skills and experience to help with the graphic design and editing aspects of this project. If you think you could help, please get in touch. For the competition part, which will probably include teams competing and scoring remotely from each other, we would ideally build some smart-looking, slick scoring-spreadsheets. If you feel you could volunteer to help with that part, please let us know. Finally, if you have brilliant ideas for frisbee games you believe would fit the brief, then of course we’d love to hear about them too. Please feel free to send them over.
If you are available to help, please get in touch: admin@ukultimate.com.
2020 EUCS Announcement from European Ultimate FederationOn 27th April, the European Ultimate Federation announced that European Ultimate Championship Regionals (EUCRs) would not happen in 2020, but that they are making plans for a larger Finals event (xEUCF) if it is possible. In the UK, we combine the West region EUCR with UKU Nationals. For now, UKU Regionals and UKU Nationals are still in the calendar as per our original plan. If it is possible to run those events, we will go ahead, but Nationals 2020 will not be a qualification event to EUCF. The UKU Competitions Committee is reviewing this change to EUCS and will confirm how the UK bids to xEUCF will be allocated teams in due course.
30th March Upcoming Events - Cancellation UpdateFollowing our previous announcement regarding the April/May 2020 Club Outdoor Events, we can now confirm that London Moooxed - due to take place in May - is now cancelled. In addition, the following summer events are also cancelled:
As outlined in the statement made on 23rd March, we will fully refund team entry fees that have been paid for the above events. However, we kindly ask that you please bear with us in this period as we will not be able to refund all entry fees straight away. More information on this can be found in the announcement here.
Please keep an eye out on the UKU website and UKU Events Announcement Newsletter for further updates. Update Statement re Coronavirus (COVID-19) 30th March 2020In these exceptional times, UK Ultimate has no ongoing income. We have been reviewing how the organisation will manage financially over the short, medium and longer term under various scenarios of “life returning to normal”. Our conclusion is that we should take action now, taking into account the possibility that disruption to Ultimate could well continue for much of the rest of 2020, and perhaps into 2021.
We have decided that it is in the best interest of the organisation, our staff and Ultimate in the UK, that we apply for support from the Government Job Retention Scheme. Effective April 1st - May 31st, the following members of staff will all be “furloughed”. This means that UKU will receive support for 80% of the normal wage costs associated with those members of staff:
Simon Hill (CEO) and Laura Atkins (bookkeeper, part-time) will continue to work, however their hours will also be reduced.
Under this scheme furloughed staff are not permitted to work for their employer, so please be aware that during this time there will be just one member of staff dealing with all ongoing work, and any incoming contact or queries.
The government scheme is in place until 31st May. If it is extended we will review the situation and may extend these temporary staffing arrangements.
Whilst similar changes are being experienced by companies and individuals around the country, it is still unsettling for anyone affected. The board of UK Ultimate would like to thank the staff for their hard work and flexibility throughout this time.
Our board and staff also want to thank all UKU members for their support whilst we have been working, and continue to work through the impact on our events and programmes. Like you, we are greatly looking forward to a time when we can all get back together to play Ultimate.
In the meantime, please follow the advice and stay at home.
24th March WFDF Cancels or Postpones all World Championships over Next Six Months This morning, WFDF announced a decision to cancel or postpone all three of the WFDF World Ultimate Championships to be held over the next six months. This will at least affect the following:
This is of course a huge blow for all the athletes, organisers and volunteers for whom these events would have been the culmination of months and years of hard work and dedication.
As per the announcement, WFDF and the three Tournament Organising Committees are currently working through the details in order to return as much of the fees as possible to the players/teams.
Also, WFDF is currently in consultation with the TOCs to discuss alternatives for the affected events (further details in their announcement). They will continue to evaluate what will be possible and will provide further information as soon as possible.
As soon as we have more information we will be sharing that directly with the affected individuals. You can also keep an eye on WFDF’s website for further news.
23rd March Coronavirus (COVID-19) Advice - Stay at Home We hope that you are safe and well.
Many members of the ultimate community are out doing critical work today. On behalf of all UKU members and Ultimate players; a huge thank you. We hope that you have what you need. If you think we can help in any way, please let us know.
For the rest of us. Please follow the advice and stay at home.
We understand that some of you may want to go out throwing to try to keep active in this difficult time, but we would like to highlight that this involves the unavoidable aspect of sharing a disc and continues a level of non-essential social interaction.
We love playing Ultimate as much as you do and throwing skills are an essential part of our sport, but bearing in mind government advice and the positive impact that staying at home could have, why not take this opportunity to build on other aspects of your fitness that are also key! There are lots of different resources out there at the moment, but here is a small selection of links that we’ve put together so that you can continue to keep fit within the comfort of your own home:
Also, please share your Ultimate specific home workouts with us! We’d love to see how you’re keeping fit at home with Ultimate in mind - simply tag @UKUltimate and use #UltimateAtHome so that everyone in the community can see and get involved.
Why not tell VC Ultimate too! They want to know if you’re at home and doing your part to keep your community safe. Post a picture of you exercising, working, cooking, playing board games – whatever you’re doing to keep yourself occupied – in your VC gear and they’ll send a surprise gift pack out to a winner every day until the end of March. Be sure to tag @VCUltimate and use #VCstayconnected to enter.
Following the recent cancellation of a number of upcoming UKU events (full details in our previous announcements published on the UKU website), we have been working on plans to refund team entry fees that have been paid to UK Ultimate so far.
We can now confirm that we will be processing full refunds for ALL team entry fees that have been paid for the following UKU outdoor events:
Should the following also be cancelled, we will fully refund entry fees for these UKU events as well:
We kindly ask that you please bear with us in this period, as we will not be able to refund all entry fees straight away. However, if you are an individual who has paid the team fee(s) out of your own pocket and are in urgent need of the cash, please contact us by emailing events@ukultimate.com and we will prioritise your refund.
Alternatively, if your team/club would prefer to take your entry fee payment as credit towards a future UKU event, please let us know. This means that we will not refund you at this point, instead we will work with you to take it off one of your team entry fees in the future.
Also, in response to those of you that have kindly been in contact with us asking about how UK Ultimate’s financial position will be affected by the situation - thank you for keeping us in your thoughts. This is still a work-in-progress, but here are some things we can say:
For people who have wondered if there is anything they can do to help:
19th March April/May 2020 Club Outdoor Events - Cancellation Update Following recent updates from the venue and taking into account the latest government advice, sadly we have to announce that the Grey Towers of Durham event, due to be held on 25th-26th April, is now cancelled. This is in addition to the recent announcement that all Tartan Tour events in Scotland will be cancelled, including the Glasgow Caledonia’s Call event that was previously planned to take place on 31st May.
We are currently waiting to hear back from the team organising London Moooxed. We anticipate that this event will also be cancelled, although please look out for confirmation of this in due course in the UKU Events Announcements Newsletter.
For now, we are remaining optimistic that Nottingham Windfarm 2020 may be able to go ahead. Of course, we’d love for Ultimate to resume as soon as possible, and fortunately our event partners are helping us to keep our bookings as planned despite it being unclear exactly how this will all look in a couple of months, so we are currently holding off on cancelling this event! However, should this change then we will update everyone as soon as we can.
Also, thank you for your patience and understanding whilst we continue to monitor the situation. We will share as much information with you as we can throughout this uncertain time, so please keep an eye on the UKU Event Announcements Newsletter and the UKU website for all of our updates.
18th March University Men’s & Women’s Nationals 2020 - CancelledAs the COVID-19 situation continues to develop, unfortunately University Men’s & Women’s Outdoor Nationals 2020 (4th-5th April) is now cancelled.
BUCS will also announce this cancellation on their website - https://www.bucs.org.uk/.
We will continue to provide updates about the events due to take place this year on an event-by-event basis for now. We will continue to monitor the situation closely over the coming weeks and we will update you as soon as we can. As a reminder, entries remain suspended until further notice.
Keep an eye on the UKU website for all updates regarding COVID-19 and the UKU Events Announcement Newsletter for event-specific information.
17th March Update Statement re Coronavirus (COVID-19) 17th March 2020On March 16th, the government announced that everyone should stop all non-essential travel and social contact. Obviously we all love playing Ultimate very much, but we cannot see any situation where playing Ultimate is essential. For that reason, unless and until there is a change or relevant clarification in official guidance, UK Ultimate’s position is that all Ultimate in the UK should now stop until further notice. So, further to our announcement yesterday
We will continue to provide updates about the events due to take place this year as soon as we can, and still on an event-by-event basis for now. We do not know when the guidance will change; we do not have any more information that you do. Keep an eye out on the UKU Events Announcements Newsletter regarding each event’s individual status.
Please note that we have - exceptionally - sent this message on our Weekly Digest newsletter because that newsletter has the largest number of subscribers.
16th March Update Statement re Coronavirus (COVID-19) 16th March 2020Given the developing situation it is clear that we will be making substantial changes to the 2020 outdoor season. We are in contact with our tournament venues and other partners about our events and how to handle the impact. Please click here to read the full statement. Events Update:
GB teams:
Coaching courses:
Club training sessions: A number of clubs were in contact with us last week about whether they should continue to run club practices.
Announcement to confirm cancellation of Y Ddraig Goch 2020Given the developing situation it is clear that we will be making substantial changes to the 2020 outdoor season. We are in contact with our tournament venues and other partners about our events and how to handle the impact. Today we are announcing that YDG 2020 (28-29 March) has been cancelled. Please see our latest statement. We will provide more information about YDG and other events as soon as we can over the coming days. Thanks for your patience.
5th March Update Statement re Coronavirus (COVID-19) 5th March 2020UK Ultimate’s response to the ongoing situation with the coronavirus will be led by government advice to the general public and to sports organisations where it applies to our circumstances. The situation is changing rapidly, and we may be required to make last minute changes to our plans. We will issue further updates as and when it is appropriate. Please read on for the rest of the statement.
General Comments Current advice is that “there is presently no rationale to close or cancel sporting events”, but we make the following comments:
UK Ultimate-specific comments We note the following points that are more specific to UKU events:
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