Dear All, We may be able to start again at Teign before long and have to abide by the regs concerning covid-19. Principal is the need to test each fencer on arrival, that the regs relative to each centre are observed and that there is no interchange of gear between fencers.. We need to keep a record for 3 weeks of who has come and their addresses and contact numbers. For the Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I am willing to take the responsibility of being covid-19 officer for the session and Bill is happy to do Mondays. An issue has arisen relating to gear. Each fencer must have their own, or be issued with a set of the Clubs, for which they are responsible for keeping in good order and clean. This has brought to mind, the habit of some of our members who use club gear for evermore, which for a modest £2 or so per month does not reflect its true value. This we wish to stop.
For the future, our plan is that a fencer can use club gear for the first 12 months, after which they must acquire their own by buying new, or to purchase the club gear they have been using. We suggest the price could be for the value we put upon it in the annual stocktake and discount by whatever they have paid by way of the extra sub charge. So quite an attractive deal. We do have a lot of gear and could be good to pass some on. It also means that with each fencer set up with their own gear, we shall have no further need to lug around the huge collection that we have done up until now. Just the boxes, some lames, body wires and a small selection of weapons to provide for the malfunctions on the night. Virtually no gear will be left at Teign. It may seem to create a problem for the ‘first nighters’, but then perhaps we do as they would on the continent and limit their first night to footwork exercise etc. and then bring a set of gear for them to take at the second session. How much gear we might lose is something we will only find out once we put this into practice, but hopefully very little.