England Hockey Forced to Cancel Indoor Hockey

England Hockey has cancelled the domestic indoor programme for this season. Here’s the full statement from EH:

England Hockey has taken the decision to cancel its indoor programme for the 2020-21 season. This includes the Super 6s league and finals, as well as Schools and Junior Clubs indoor championships.

This of course means that sadly the Jaffa Super 6s finals, which, in its various guises, has been a feature of the January hockey calendar for nearly 50 seasons, will not be run in 2021.

The decision is not taken lightly but reflects that, unlike outdoor sport, the current government 'rule of six' applies to indoor sports for people aged 18 or over. There is no timeline for the possible relaxation of this. We also know that a number of venues used for indoor hockey are not currently available. 

Making this decision now allows clubs to plan for the December and January period without the uncertainty of whether indoor competition will be held or not.  

For schools and juniors we also believe it is in the best interests of the sport to make this decision now. 

We know that schools face a number of challenges in fulfilling sporting fixtures and by taking indoor competition out of the calendar now this will enable them to prioritise outdoor activity if they are able to play. 

In addition, the nature of indoor competitions, run in a tournament-style format with a number of teams attending on one day, make them a far greater challenge to manage within current guidelines than one-off games. 

The England Hockey calendar will be revised for December and January to take into account indoor activity not being held and this will be updated and disseminated next week.

Indoor activity can still be run for players aged Under 18 and for disabled adults in line with the sport’s wider government-approved guidance.