Coronavirus: Community sporting life grinds to a halt

Sporting life across Caerphilly County Borough has been put on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Both the WRU and FAW have taken the measures of suspending all levels of play in Wales and the communities have felt the pressure.

Aber Valley FC has been one of those affected by closures, with all at the club including committee member Dean Wood concerned with how it will impact local businesses.

“It’s frustrating for the players because both our senior teams are doing well but health and safety and looking after people is paramount,” Wood said.

“It’s something that has basically come out of the blue. No one has seen it coming and I suppose we can only follow the guidelines put in place.

“It’s the businesses, local shops, pubs and the local YMCA that will be affected by the football club not being involved in sport.

“Most of the senior players will use a café on Aber Square on a Saturday or will use the local pub which will be gravely affected.

“It’s had a huge knock-on effect within the valley itself.”

The last game to be played in the WRU Championship between Ystalyfera and Cross Keys took place on March 14.

The Keys have been hit with a “double whammy” according to former chairman Colin Vernall after dealing with the damage of Storm Dennis earlier this year.

“It’s massive, nobody has seen anything like this,” he said.

“We’ll just have to wait and see and have a look in the next fortnight.

“It’s a double whammy. The problem is when information was released yesterday asking not to go to pubs, obviously that has hit us hard.

“People are now going to stay away, and clubs will have to look at if it’s worth their while staying open.

“I don’t know how some clubs are going to survive, there’s no doubt clubs are going to struggle and there won’t be much surprise if some go.

“I’m not saying it’s going to happen to Cross Keys but we’re going to have to take measures to ensure that it doesn’t and ensure that we survive.”

Meanwhile, the WRU has promised an additional £1,000 to every club to help them through – plus additional support if required.

It has confirmed that club grant payments will be made as normal at the end of April and that emergency funding will be allocated to high priority cases.

In the first of a series of weekly updates the WRU will send to clubs it said: “These are testing times and our commitment is to do everything possible to safeguard the future of our game in Wales.”

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