Community Sports Clubs' Response to Covid-19, July 2020 to February

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Community Sports Clubs’ response to covid-19, July 2020 to February 2021: resilience and innovation

Dr Geoff Nichols: Honorary Senior lecturer, University of Sheffield. Dr Lindsay Findlay-King: Principal lecturer, University of Northumbria. Dr Fiona Reid: Director, Bayfirth Research.

Summary

This report shows how volunteer led community sports clubs have adapted and innovated in response to the restrictions imposed during the covid-19 pandemic. This leads to recommendations for clubs, national governing bodies of sport and government agencies.

Clubs are resilient and a valuable resource in providing for health and wellbeing in these challenging times. Club volunteers have responded as quickly as possible to changes in restrictions to maximise the opportunities for members to play sport and enjoy the social rewards of membership. Clubs are sustainable financially, assisted by grants; although the diversity of clubs means that grant criteria do not always match club’s needs. Membership has not reduced as much as expected, although this varies between clubs. The underlying demand for sports participation, and the important social rewards of club membership, are strong. Innovations have included remote meetings; new ways of communicating with members and adaptions to the sports. Some of these will remain when restrictions are lifted. Thus, the infrastructure of volunteer led sports clubs, supported by national governing bodies, is a valuable resource in facilitating sports participation, volunteering, and associated welfare benefits. Community sports clubs are an important part of the voluntary sector’s response to meeting society’s needs, especially during the pandemic and recovery from lockdowns. This contribution should be recognised and supported. However, the main purpose of clubs is to meet the needs of their members, although there is potential to make links to other organisations responding to covid-19.

The report is based on interviews with representatives of 12 clubs in England and Scotland, conducted in February 2021. The same clubs were interviewed in July 2020, so the report shows how they have adapted over time. Further research could include a wider range of clubs and the supporting national bodies.

We gratefully acknowledge the time given by club volunteers to contribute to this research.

Contents

1. Introduction p.2 2. Methods p.5 3. Findings p.5

3.1 The financial impact on clubs p.5 3.2 The impact on membership p.8 3.3 Keeping up the benefits of club membership p.10 3.4 Risk management and communicating its reduction p.14 3.5 Going digital – strengths and limitations p.16 3.6 The impact on volunteers p.18 3.7 The role of national governing bodies p.20 3.8 Back to normal or something different? p.21

4. The contribution of community sports clubs to society p.23 5. Innovations and recommendations p.24 6. Further research p.27 7. Supporting resources p.28 8. References p.30

Appendix 1. Sample of clubs p.32

1. Introduction - community sports clubs, sports participation, volunteering and covid-19

This report is based on a second set of interviews conducted with 12 clubs1 based in Scotland and England in February 2021. Findings from the first set of interviews (13 clubs), conducted in July 2020, are in a previous report (1). This is the only longitudinal study of community sports clubs over this period so shows how clubs have changed and adapted. The findings in this report are structured by similar themes to those used in the previous report. The clubs were located in England and Scotland, so subject to slightly different restrictions.

1.1 Community sport clubs

Community sports clubs’ (CSCs) are small organisations, based in a particular location, allowing members to play a sport and meet socially. In England, in 2018, there were approximately 72,117 community sports clubs (2) with an average of 100 adult participants; 77 junior participants; 44 non-playing members; and 24 volunteers (3). These clubs are represented by 95 national governing bodies (NGBs) which represent the interests of club members and provide support to the clubs. Where relevant, they provide the rules and structures to allow competition within sports. There were estimated to be 13,000 sports clubs in Scotland in 2000 (4). They had an average of 133 participants although 8% of these were ‘social members’ who did not play; 55% had adult and junior sections, 15% were only for juniors; and 81% of clubs had volunteers. The English and Scottish club surveys used different methods, so the results are not directly comparable. Clubs not affiliated to NGBs would probably double these numbers. About 85% of CSCs in England are single sport and 57% use public facilities (3). CSCs are managed and delivered mainly by volunteers. The main roles are treasurer, chairperson, coach, and secretary. Some coaches may be paid, and other paid staff are normally bar staff or grounds maintenance (5).

Clubs represent the collective interests of their members, to play sport and enjoy meeting together. The social rewards of participation and volunteering can be just as important as those of competing in the sport. This experience is provided by volunteers from the club membership. This contrasts with organisations such as a commercial gym, or a public leisure centre, where paid staff provide the experience and members are customers. Of course, not all CSC members volunteer to help run the club, but those that do experience rewards from volunteering as well as participation. Volunteers may stay with the club for many years.

1.2 Covid-19 restrictions and the impacts on clubs

The four nations of the UK have been put into a series of ‘lockdowns’ with restrictions in between. The first lockdown was on 23rd March 2020, when only essential travel was allowed, and people had to work from home if possible. It was illegal to take part in any public gathering involving more than two people. In England restrictions were eased from

1 This report covers 12 of the original clubs explored in our first report.

10th May, in Scotland it was 29th May 2020. In England after 10th May outdoor recreation was permitted although it was still not possible to take part in any public gathering involving more than two people. From 1st June up to 6 people were permitted to meet outdoors. From 25th July gyms and leisure centres were permitted to open. Indoor swimming pools were also allowed to open then, however only a small percentage were able to do so due to financial and operating restrictions. Further lockdowns were imposed in November 2020 and January – March 2021. During lockdowns any sports participation in CSCs was prevented in England, in Scotland some sporting activities were allowed. Between lockdowns clubs had to respond to changing guidance from government, which was interpreted by their governing bodies. Sport England clubmatters web site (6) and sportscotland website (7) provides a summary of restrictions.

Guidance varied between adult and junior participants, and between sports. Lockdowns in Scotland and Wales had the same effect on sports participation as in England, although guidance on what was permitted in the periods in-between varied. This extended to individual sports, for example, England and Scotland had different restrictions for both tennis and golf. Thus, clubs in England, Scotland and Wales faced slightly different restrictions. This complicated the situation for club participants who might normally cross national borders to take part in their sport.

1.3 The impact of restrictions on sports participation and volunteering

Sports participation has declined and changed dramatically in England. Using the Active Lives survey to compare mid-March to mid-May 2020, with the same period in 2019 (8), the number of active adults fell by 7.1%. Slight increases in walking for leisure, running and leisure cycling were exceeded by decreases in other sports, especially swimming, team sports, and ‘adventure sports’. Demand for sport may fall because of reduced household incomes and risk aversion (9). The trends in England have accentuated inequalities in health and wellbeing which will be felt for the next ten years (10); and which sports clubs could play a part in redressing. Scotland does not have the equivalent surveys of sports participation, but the situation is likely to be similar.

Changes in sports participation can be understood as a consequence of sporting capital; defined as ‘the stock of physiological, social and psychological attributes and competencies that support and motivate an individual to participate in sport and to sustain that participation over time’ (12, p.10). This varies between individuals and builds up over time. People with high sporting capital are likely to adapt to restrictions by doing what they can; such as running or cycling; as a substitute for team sport. They will have a strong motivation to return to their pre-covid sport after restrictions lift. Those with less sporting capital are less likely to return. This is especially relevant to junior participants who have less chance to build up sporting capital and are reliant on others support to participate. A lapse in participation might also have a bigger impact on seasonal sports, where commitment is lost between seasons.

In a similar way to sports participation, a commitment to volunteering is built up over time: the stalwart club volunteers who take the major roles in the club are likely to be very loyal, but it will be harder to recruit new volunteers if the club is not functioning and recent

recruits are more likely to drop off. Volunteering could increase because furloughed workers have more time to give and are looking for something to do. On the other hand, having to comply with social distancing and fear of infection may deter volunteers: Surveys of sports volunteers in England (12), conducted in August 2020, showed 71.3% of volunteers continued throughout the pandemic; 13.5% had significant levels of anxiety about returning and 14% percent were ‘at risk’ of not returning, although some of this might be natural wastage. Again, the situation is likely to be similar in Scotland.

2. Methods

Key volunteers, usually the club chair / president, were interviewed in each of 12 clubs in January / February 2021. Interviews were an hour long and structured to cover changes since July 2020, when the same clubs had been interviewed. The sample of clubs represented team sports, small group, and individual sports. It was split between clubs which owed a facility and ones that hired one. Sports represented which owned a facility were bowls, golf, gymnastics, rugby, sailing, squash and tennis. Of these, the squash club was part of a multi-sport club including two other sports. The clubs who hired facilities were badminton, hockey, mountaineering, swimming, and a riding for the disabled group (RDA). Details are in Appendix 1. Interviews were recorded and transcribed which allowed details to be checked. Questions followed up findings from the previous interviews but allowed clubs to describe new innovations in adapting the sports and running the club. We asked clubs how typical they were of clubs in their sports, although it is not possible to make statistical generalisations across all clubs.

3. Findings

Overall, clubs were resilient in terms of finance, membership and volunteer effort, but it is important to understand the differences between clubs and the limitations of this. This section gives details of this and how clubs have adapted.

3.1 The financial impact on clubs

Clubs continued to experience falls in income and increases in costs; but grants had been a substantial help to those with facility costs. Combined with careful club management and reserves, clubs were in a good financial position.

The interviews in July 2020 found that clubs with higher fixed overheads, such as facility maintenance, and which relied on large number of participants, were the most concerned about financial viability and were concerned they might have to close. Other surveys suggested this. An Australian club survey, conducted in May-June 2020, concluded that the survival of thousands of clubs was under threat as they did not have sufficient reserves (13). A survey of 61 grassroots football clubs in England in August 2020 found that 10% will ‘struggle to survive’ the next 12 months (14). Submissions to the UK parliament Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee on community sport in November 2020; from commercial gyms and climbing walls; claimed a significant but

unquantified financial threat to their existence (15).

The financial situation in February 2021 was similar to July 2020. Clubs’ income was reduced from: · membership fees, if these were not renewed (or regular payments paused) · reduced number of people in coaching sessions to maintain social distancing, leading to higher instruction costs per person · cancelled competitions · closure of catering, café or bar · reduced fundraising from club events and volunteer activity, such as bag packing at supermarkets · reduced hiring of facility for functions · future sponsorship was vulnerable Increased costs included: · sanitising premises and equipment · travel to away games as seasons start – as transport cannot be shared. At the same time costs of facility maintenance remained.

However, in February 2021 our sample was in a better financial position due to grants, rate relief, the job retention scheme and careful cost management; combined with healthy reserves. Five clubs had received grants: bowls, gymnastics, rugby, sailing and tennis. These clubs all had facility maintenance costs to meet. For example, the gym club had received £63,730 in donations and grants since the first lockdown occurred and was now £3000 better off at this present time, despite having fewer participants and higher running costs. The sailing club had a business support fund grant of £10,000, allowing it to make a surplus of £15,000. The golf club benefitted from the government job retention scheme, which alone mitigated, the loss of income from the bar and visiting players. The diverse circumstances of clubs meant their needs were not always met by the grants available: the rugby club described a Rugby Football Union grant scheme to be spent by the end of this financial year which they could not use; ‘It’s been well intentioned, but it sort of misses the point’. Some clubs; badminton, and sailing; had considered applying for grants but decided not to as the sums were small, and they did not need them. The other club with facility maintenance costs; squash; had not applied for a grant as it was part of a multi-sport club sharing the facility with two other sections; so the losses could be spread. The RDA group reported that although it did not need a grant, they were available for other groups who had facilities, and horses, to maintain.

Thus, grants have been successful in keeping clubs viable although it will always be difficult to tailor support to meet the wide range of club circumstances. Clubs were aware of the grants available, through their NGBs and local government. Some clubs had applied for, and received, more than one grant.

Membership had not declined consistently across clubs so the impact on income varied. Membership trends are discussed in more detail below. Several clubs had offered reduced subscription rates to compensate for reduced opportunities to play, such as hockey, mountaineering, swimming and sailing. Others decided to keep the same fee but not put it up the following year. Sailing gave details: new members will get free membership in 2021,

members who joined in 2020 will have membership carried over to 2021, for other members the fee will be what it was, which I think will be okay with the overwhelming majority of our members. If by June, it looks like it's not going to get any better, then I think we will … offer members the opportunity of having their subs refunded if they wish. In some clubs where subscriptions had been reduced some members still opted to pay the old rate to support the club. For example, in the sailing club, only 25% of paid-up club members had taken part in club activities in 2020.

The club to suffer most from reduced income from members was the gymnastics club because income was from juniors who paid by the term: we went from 625 capacity on our general classes, down to 425. So, we lost the ability to bring in money for over 200 children for the term. in financial terms, you're looking at about £12,000 deficit in a term…. This club still had to pay coaches, but for taking smaller classes.

Changed membership rates created extra work for volunteers; especially in gymnastics and swimming, where large numbers of juniors booked by session, rates had to be altered depending on the sessions available, and parents might not all opt to take up a refund. The messy bit is that parents set up a standing order to pay regularly and then they've got to remember to cancel that when they're not getting any more. And that takes a lot of time. Because I'm sending out bulk emails, things onto Facebook, asking people to confirm when it's been done, and how much have they done it for and what day of the month is it coming out of? (swimming). As in July 2020, income continued to be reduced from social events and bars, fundraising events and hiring out facilities. Increased costs arose from reduced capacity in sessions due to social distancing and the practical measures to make play possible, such as sanitising premises and equipment, masks, aprons and signage. The need to clean facilities between sessions reduced sessions times and added to costs.

Thus, the items of reduced income and increased cost identified in July 2021 all remained in February 2021; apart from support from grants. These have made some clubs sustainable over this period. The future situation depends on how closely there is a return to ‘normal’ and if not, if further support is available. For example, if travel costs to away games are increased substantially because buses cannot be used for shared transport this would be a major extra cost for the rugby club, whilst income remains reduced; But we were already projecting for next season, the loss of £59,000 so while this is going to be fantastic this year, next year is just a disaster. Our clubs may not be typical; in particular the gymnastics club thought that clubs which had to pay rent for facilities would be ‘really struggling’ because the grants received by this club would barely cover the rent and rates paid by many others. This is reflected in the evidence of a chain of commercial gyms to the DCMS committee in November 2020 (15). Our clubs also appeared to be particularly well run and had strong reserves. Some were almost embarrassed about their financial strength! The RDA group was looking forward to the end of restrictions when it would be able to spend its reserves helping children or disabled participants ride on ponies, the aims of the charity did not allow it to support riding schools themselves, which were businesses where RDA groups could meet.

3.2 The impact on membership

Most clubs had not suffered a significant fall in members. The national decline in sports participation was not reflected in a fall in club membership because members remained loyal to the clubs, despite not being able to play as much. For example, in the bowls club out of 71 members only 28 played in the last year, despite fees being reduced from £55 to £20. However, the situation varied between clubs and members were more likely to leave when play was seasonal, and impossible. The squash club lost 40 members as play was not possible. Players missed competition: We've got quite a few adults that only play league matches. And a lot of them didn't join (tennis). Rugby had lost 60% of members in its youth section, and 40% in the seniors. I don't think that means they’re all lost to the game. I think it's just a statement of the fact that people won't come to play, you know. We've been reluctant to really push membership. It's, when you've got actually nothing to offer anybody (rugby).

Risk of infection was a factor and noted in the previous report and Sport England’s research. In some cases, especially juniors, participants could not play because they were isolating: into December, it was getting really, really bad because we would get five or six emails a day of parents saying my daughter's having to isolate or my son's having to isolate because of a positive case in school (gymnastics). More details of the impact of risk are reported in another section below.

Some members left because they had lost fitness. This applied particularly to older members. Squash anticipated that, people who are perhaps in their 50s and 60s who've always played squash … but now haven't played for a year. They may not come back. Never mind covid, just for fitness wise, they might decide I've not played for a year. In hockey, these guys, we're of an age now where if you don't do anything for a year and start playing hockey, again, you'll pull something. That might be the end of your season and then your career. So … that's my biggest worry, really, it's the older people who will just not come back or not play again. [they have] been thinking about going anyways, this this is just pulled me over the edge. And in bowls: I do also think we may lose some of our bowling members, …. Because it's a year since they’ve bowled, you know, it means they're a year older. And the outdoor bowling isn't as easy, strength wise as the indoor. And rugby: the senior side, but the big worry is injury. Having not played for what will be 18 months. People are just not used to taking knocks. It doesn't matter how fit you are running up and down or weights or whatever it might be. It's completely different when you start taking knocks. So, a lockdown could be a tipping point in changing a player’s participation, especially in a seasonal sport where a whole season might be affected.

Loss of fitness also affected junior participants in swimming and gymnastics, who would normally be training to attain a high performance level but had lost this during lockdowns. Gymnastics: it took pretty much three months for our elite performers to get back to the level that they were at before the lockdown ... you can't just come back, it'd be dangerous. I mean, when they first came back, the wrists or ankles or knees, and just the whole body aches for like a month, … they were so used to doing high level performance for so long, and

then boom, suddenly nothing. And then they'd be off for four months doing absolutely nothing, you've got to build it back up slowly to that elite level again. And it took us almost three months, we had about a month of starting to progress a little bit and then bang stop again.

Financial constraints were not a major concern. Some clubs had reduced membership fees and made extra concessions, for example the mountaineering club reduced fees to those furloughed or unemployed. Finance had affected junior participants in gymnastics: Yeah. I mean just this week, I've had a couple of emails from parents saying that they've lost their jobs. And can we now take them off our books? Because they just can't afford to send the kids back?.

One club suggested changed work patterns had affected participation. This could reduce participation because people could not fit it in around their work and childcare: working from home, people tend to work at odd hours. They do their hours, but they do them at a time that suits them. one guy phoned me up and he said, I'm not coming tonight, I need to finish what I'm doing. Because at the weekend, I've got my kids, you know what I mean? Possibly the extra demands of work combined with childcare reduce participation. However, the squash club suggested that, hypothetically, more flexible working might provide an opportunity for people to book regular sports sessions during the day, at times when the facility was under-used.

On the other hand, some clubs had gained members from other sports or clubs where participation was restricted. The hockey club had gained 30 good quality players from the local university as the university teams were not playing; they haven't been able to play sport at the university. So, they're just desperate. … they want to play sport. And so, we are very eager as a club to facilitate that. There appeared to be a displacement to outdoor sports; the golf club had; never been as busy. … between May and the end of the year, we played 10,000 more rounds than we normally play in a whole year. Every golf course is pretty rammed with people wanting to play. The multi-sport club noted a shift from squash to tennis.

When participants returned, they were very enthusiastic: the last time we came back after the longest break, the swimmers were so thrilled to bits to be back in the water is the best way to describe it. They were ecstatic. However, it may take a while for participation to recover. The rugby club described how after foot and mouth restrictions in 2001 they lost one and a half team’s worth of players, which it had taken up to 2020 to get back.

The demand for sports participation, participants dropping out or changing sports, can be understood as a consequence of sporting capital. Strongly motivated individuals will return to sport quickly or find an alternative sport where they can keep participating. Juniors will not have built up such a strong commitment and will need the support of parents. There will be a natural shift from more physically demanding sports at all ages; so rugby and hockey players might move to something less demanding. Older bowlers may drop out altogether. However, there are limits to transferability between sports. As the squash interviewee responded; It's like asking swimming people to go running. Well, I want to swim, I don't want to run. I know it might be good for you, but I want to swim.

3.3 Keeping up the benefits of club membership

3.3.1 Adapting playing

Outside of lockdowns all sports, except squash, had been adapted to achieve ‘social distancing’ and reduce covid risks. In England squash had been adapted to create a game called "sides", which is squash for two individuals where players stick on one side of the court. This had not been permitted in Scotland, where our club was. The difference between England and Scotland was attributed to the initiative of the respective NGBs. The degree of adaption had varied degrees of success. In rugby a modified game meant the; front five players in the scrum felt completely disenfranchised and had no interest whatsoever. So, they would not play, there's no point, it's not what they do. If they wanted to do that, they’d go and play sevens or something, or touch rugby. Plans for introducing walking rugby and further developing women’s rugby were brought forward. In contrast, in mountaineering walks could take place in groups of six, as this club was close to good local countryside. Sailing changed dingy racing to entirely single handers and cohabiting couples in boats, opposed to crews from different households. Bowls played on every other rink. Badminton only played singles. Hockey dropped the ball in a bucket of disinfectant whenever it went out of play, made all players on the goal line at short corners wear protective masks and washed their bibs between training sessions.

The tier or level system restricted travelling. One implication was that fixtures had to be changed to only include teams in the relevant tier/level, such as in hockey. This allowed the same number of games to be played, but with less travelling. The hockey club also adapted by setting up teams within the club, who could play each other. One outcome was that players moved to clubs within their tier/level, if they had been members of one in a different tier/level.

Being unable to share cars was also restrictive. For the hockey club, that knocked out a number of our students because they could not make it to the training, although it's still a five-mile trek with a number of buses, essentially, our numbers plummeted, because unfortunately, we just couldn't get our members to training. Car parking congestion led the mountaineering club to restrict meetings to 6 people, even though they could have gone up to 30.

The restrictions threw up anomalies. Sailing had to shut down yacht racing, but not dingy racing, because dinghy racing was not under the team sports rules, it was classified as normal outdoor exercise with two-metre distancing. Similarly, the sailing club had to, hypothetically, avoid sailing on the opposite side of an estuary as it was in a different level. At one point the mountaineering club had to run separate meets for members in adjoining, but different tiers – they could hail each other over the county border. Both sailing and mountaineering had difficulty defining a ‘field of play’ within which 30 people could participate.

As clubs moved through a series of lockdowns, they learnt how to open up again, so it became a routine. Swimming described this: So I've got everything set up, and I'm ready to

go. I've even got a sort of an Action List written down. So as soon as we get a date, the club itself is organised, we've got a working group to make sure that each of the sections come back. But I've got a list of things I need, in which order. For example, the first thing is to tell the parents we're going back and what dates and then what I will do, and I've done it for each of the lockdowns, it's not a free for all again, everybody goes back with exactly the same swimming session they had before. Unless they want something different. And then … everybody confirms, and then obviously, some will drop a bit. And then when everybody's confirmed, I then go out again to say, look, we have vacancies for these, who wants these? And then I've got templates set up for the registers. I've got quite a few templates. So, all it needs doing is just updating each time. And then everything's in place.

The adaptions to the sport made by clubs illustrate the resourcefulness and enthusiasm of volunteers to maximise playing opportunities as quickly as possible in response to changed restrictions; and the forbearance to cope with the inevitable anomalies. However, in some cases it was still impossible to make changes to satisfy members.

3.3.2 Adapting the facility

Facilities had to be adapted to meet covid restrictions. Two detailed examples illustrate a hired facility and one managed by the club. The badminton club gave details of a hired facility: I had to have a covid first aid kit, which included masks, gowns, gloves, a thermometer that you just pointed at your forehead … and I also had to have four large sanitizer bottles because with the courts, they had to have one when they came in and they needed sanitisers between each court because they had to sanitise before they played and sanitise immediately after ….. they had to wear masks and not step closer than the approved distance. I also had to have my own signage, because the centre signage was at their doors, etc. There was a little bit in the hall, but not enough so I had to make portable signage as well which I had to bring with me every time. We had a signing-in book for both juniors and adults. I always had a register but now I had to have a

signing in-book. And that book had to include contact telephone numbers … the signage, I had one between each court to say please sanitise your hands before and after and another sign that said, ‘You must wear a mask between games’. Gymnastics managed its facility: there was up to 50 to 60 classes every day that I had to work out how are we going to get them in? How are we going to manage them whilst they're in and where do we exit them from the building? So, I had to do a massive plan [to avoid] had everyone coming in the same place at different times. But we had three exit points because we did have some classes finishing at the same time. So, we would take them out of all different exits. The other thing was the cleaning. … as soon as the class had finished, we would initially put 30 minutes in between getting the groups to do the clean. … anything that was carpeted, we had to buy quite a lot of Hoover's for each area, will be hoovered, … we also had sprayers, … and anything that was wipeable had to be sprayed, we had to get a certain level of cleaning products. And we used that to clean every single piece of equipment. So, anything that had been touched during that session was cleaned down, wiped down. And then we would get the next class in and do the same again. Bearing in mind some nights we'd have four classes. Weekends, we might have five different changeover classes. Unbelievable. And obviously, … we've put in sanitising stations. So, every room we have, we have sanitising stations. So, if anybody went out to go the toilet, we put posters, we spent over 1200 pounds just on buying the … clipboard things that you put on the wall, and you can put the posters in. And we put over 250 of those up around the gym. So, we put a covid station in every single training area, … So, if … we had an injury, and obviously our coaches had to go and assist, there was an apron they had to put on, there was a mask that they had to put on and there was gloves they had to put on. And we had a what we call a covid station in every single area of training. And so over the whole building, I think it was we had 12 covid stations where we had these PPE in place, should we need to use them. And then we had two spares at reception. So, if anyone was used, you can go at reception, change it over reception, and then we'd obviously fill the pack and have another couple ready to go again. We had the cleaning products, and we chose to buy the blue roll to wipe down which was disposable rather than using like the cloth and cleaning the cloths, we just thought we are going to dispose of everything. So, we had them in every area as well. So, when you put in the cleaning time, the cleaning product, the sanitizer, and everything else, just to be compliant, it was getting close to 1000 pound a month on just those different things.

These two examples illustrate the work volunteers had to do to comply with restrictions, and the cost. The gymnastics club initially used its paid coaches to do cleaning, between sessions, which cost it an extra £850 per week in coaches’ time. This cost was reduced by appealing to parents to come in as volunteer cleaners. In contrast the swimming club, which hired a facility, could not use volunteers to do this and had to pay £800 extra per month for changing room cleaning, which was done by facility staff.

Complying with covid restrictions might also give a hired facility the opportunity to change its conditions. This affected the swimming club. The pool changed the times it offered the club, replacing club swimming with public swimming sessions. The club sessions were now latter, leading to a drop-off of junior swimmers because they had school the next day. The changed times were also less convenient for the club coach, who was paid, but now had more fragmented working hours. Similarly, the badminton club found the facility wanted to

reduce its hire times to make room for a socially distanced spinning class which had to be set up for the next day. These negotiations reflect the pressures on facilities to raise income and reduce subsidy.

3.3.3 Keeping the social rewards of club membership

Club members have retained membership while they can’t play because they value the social rewards. It’s been important that clubs try to maintain these as best they can during lockdowns. There were innovative ways of doing this, but as with sports participation, there are limits.

A respondent illustrated the importance of this; And there's a lot of us who are 50 plus who … this is the best we're going to play. But we enjoy it. We don't want to train; we just want to come out and play 20 matches a year and have a beer afterwards. it's not really about the hockey… it's the social, … the other 50-year-olds we're playing against, we know a lot of them. They're friends. And it's a social thing, on a Saturday afternoon to go and play with your mates … it's not about the sport.

The hockey club illustrated ways of doing this; they've done a group like Zumba workouts and core workouts. And we're currently in the midst of an escape to New Zealand challenge where we're encouraging the club members to go out for a run, bike ride walks, horse ride, row, whatever you want, and record it and see sort of how far as a club we can get to get into New Zealand. We're on 3000 miles now. So, you know, we've only got another 8000 to go. I think it's been really good to do that, because it's encouraged our members to sort of stay active and get outside. And then we've done online quizzes. we've live streamed the quiz via YouTube. So your team can get together on say, zoom, and have a few beers and watch the quiz while you're doing that.

The bowls club also appreciated the social needs of members were very great. I think the social side is highly important to these older people, especially on their own. And I also think there's a lot of friendships there that have bonded in their own little groups now. This older membership was less comfortable with digital technology: I've spoken to different people, and they've sort of gone zoom. Oh, no, I don't think so. So, I think they still like something in front of them. So, the club sends out a monthly email out to everybody but also a hard copy to some, delivered by the chairperson’s husband on his bike. Last month, I did a word search, I made a bowling word searcher. This month, I've sent them a quiz, just for a little bit of nonsense for them to do. Similarly, the RDA group had: been in touch with every single individual throughout the time, … we do have some, obviously I hate to say, older people, because I'm one of them, who are just not interested in technology and that’s fine, so a phone call or an email suffices and it's the contact. I mean we have a really social group and that is part of the volunteering, that's partly why they do it…’ Closed Facebook sites or WhatsApp groups could be used to pass on club information, but also exchange information and keep members in touch (e.g., swimming, mountaineering) and discuss related deaths of members (rugby), which served to keep the club together. The RDA group gave an example; Yesterday I actually got some photographs of one of our participants. And his Mum sent them to me, and I could put them on our Facebook page today. They've got a new pony because they have horses at home. And the photos were of

him meeting the pony for the first time, which was a delight because it's a very calm pony and he was lovely with it. … so, I'm going to take a lot of pleasure in putting that on our Facebook page. On the other hand, rugby reported: it's becoming harder and harder [to put things on Facebook] cause there's actually nothing to talk about.

While important, there were limits to what this digital socialising could achieve. The squash respondent explained; I think the issue we're seeing is that people who were, I mean, I played squash, three or four times a week, maybe five times a week, and it's definitely hard work going from that to nothing. … there are other sports out there clearly. But squash, for squash players, is not just physical. It's a game of chess, it's tactical, it's technical. And it means a lot to a lot of people. And so that's why we're desperate to try and keep our members interactive somehow. But we've got so little to offer them. It's really quite difficult.

3.4 Risk management and communicating its reduction

An important reason for communication with members was to reassure them that risks of covid were being minimised. The previous report and Sport England’s research showed that perceived risk was a barrier to participation, and to a lesser extent, to volunteering. Members remained risk averse, for example, they did not want to expose themselves and possibly infect elderly relatives (badminton, squash). In squash; they are still in a 10 metre by seven metre box, of sweatiness. It's not ideal for covid. The bowls club respondent said, I haven't bowled! I paid for membership, when we joined. But I didn't really want to bowl indoor. It didn't appeal to me at all being with all those people. And so, I didn't want to bowl indoors and outdoor we just did other things. You know, I did go and marshal a few times. But I didn't actually get my bowls. My bowls are still in the locker, and they've been in there since March the 17th last year. Risk was a concern, but there was more evidence of a rationalisation of the likelihood of contracting covid in different situations, passing covid to relatives, and balancing this against the desire to play sport. ‘everybody's worried about that, but the overriding bit is that if you're a sports person … you want to play. So, you have to balance the two things up (badminton).

A respondent described this calculation; Without doubt, the older ones are nervous. Or some of them are, to an extent some have said I'm not going to play again. And some are saying I'll only play with someone I trust or whatever. I suspect, you know, if the numbers of covid

people in [home town] rockets, and generally there's very few covid and by then most of all, the people should have one, or two of their jabs, I think it'd be fine. But you're always going to get a few people who are nervous about it. You know, and I am certainly not nervous about catching myself, but I care for my in laws, who are elderly, so I don't want to catch it because of them. So, would I play again? Absolutely. Would I still be slightly nervous before I get my jabs? Yeah. I can't deny that. Not for me personally, but because of my elderly in- laws I'm looking after so.

Those taking part in outdoor and low contact sports built this into their calculation. We had about 30 cases in the club. And that was a little bit tense at that point, because you would train with a lad who then two days later … tested positive, but what it probably did for a lot of us was actually sort of reiterate that actually, the social distancing, especially being outside actually really does help because we had no player to player … transmissions from playing. And so that was great. And, so I think once we kind of realised that, I think everyone was very happy. I myself, I'm, hideously anxious about catching it, I don't want to get it. But you know, I felt very comfortable playing sport (hockey). Another consideration was if a fellow player had covid and one had to isolate. And that really put the wind up people. To the point where you know a member said right, we can't train now. My employer will not support another occasion. We've got others … there’s a guy that lives next, close to me here, his father, a former player, they’re farmers, but his father has got a lung problem. So, he said, look, I'm just not going to train, I'm not going to take the risk (rugby).

These illustrate that perception of risk is a personal calculation. Given this, the club has to do everything it can to explain to members how it is minimising the risk. An exemplary approach was taken by gymnastics and swimming to inform the parents of juniors. Gymnastics prepared a video for parents; before we opened back up in July, we'd obviously done every single room out. I got one of the younger gymnasts to come in one day, line them up outside, we took a video of this is what you're going to do when you come into the building. So, we did the temperature check. We then directed them to the sanitiser station, where they would sanitise, we went down the corridor and said, this is where you'll sit where your coach will come and get you and take you to your dedicated room, where you will train in that area every time you come. You won't move into any other areas, you will stay within that area. So, we did a video and we put it out to all our members to pre-empt when their children come, because a lot of the kids were obviously coming back after four months and were all a bit apprehensive.

The swimming club sent an email describing the precautions and procedures to all parents, a ‘return to swim’ leaflet, and spoke on the phone to any who wanted reassurance. The coach organised a parents evening so they could speak to parents with any questions. Other clubs used information on web sites and emails.

Club volunteers had to ‘police’ compliance with the restrictions, which could put them in a delicate position with members. Bowls created a role of volunteer marshal to ensure there were only the restricted number of players on the rinks. Hockey had to threaten members to comply with the track and trace procedures: you had to sign up to your track and trace, which we did by QR code on the gate. But you would not believe how much hassle we had

chasing members to do it. And that was a real nightmare to the point where actually we threatened suspending members if they didn't fill it in.

Sometimes the technology to police the regulations was not practical. Tennis gave an example; We are forever putting notices out to members reminding them to book their court, put the names in and they still don't put the other names. They book a court. And we're meant to trace who's actually playing. But we can't because clubs spark [the NGB booking system] hasn't been really user friendly for our club. Because you've got to know when you book a week in advance who you're going to play with, because you couldn't go back and put the other person or the other three people in. So that was a bit difficult. So, we were chasing our tail for a few months and then we just stopped. We couldn't cope. The same club questioned the relevance of this anyway: if somebody … did get covid and was asked who they'd been playing with, who was in that court? was it relevant … because they were so far away? So, no, we haven't been asked [who else was playing]. Although the club was still asking members to comply with restrictions; the communications person has sent out quite a lot of notices and reminders to people about how they should be behaving … in the 19 weeks from the 22nd of March, she sent out 25 emails to members.

Although clubs may have felt some regulations were over restrictive or ineffective for their sport, they still felt a need to be seen to comply with restrictions to show the public they were being responsible. The people running club meets are very responsible people … they’ve got a general wish to do stuff in the right way and also want to make sure that as a club if anybody looks at us, we are seen to be doing stuff in the right way (mountaineering). For the squash club; the image of the club is quite important - you're still nervous about bad publicity … so we need to be careful, … we really need very black and white rules. He gave an example of another club where members had been painting a court and then had a quick game, which was reported to the media and resulted in negative publicity.

3.5 Going digital – strengths and limitations

Restrictions in face-to-face contact led to a surge in digital communication. Some of this was an extension of existing practice, some was innovative, and some of the innovations will be retained. It was never a complete substitute for face-to-face sports participation or social gatherings. The strength of digital was enabling the club members to keep in contact and communicate over how the club was adapting. Digital meetings saved time and allowed more people to attend. All of these needed digital competence and technology at both ends of the communication, and the willingness to sit in front of a screen.

There were limited examples of a direct digital alternative to the physical sport. The gymnastics club offered on-line sessions, 2, 3 or 4 times a week; depending on their level of performance. These were charged at a reduced fee; they generated an income for the coaches and helped the juniors keep fitness and in touch with the sport. The reception was mixed; The majority of parents are really pleased that there's something there for them. There are a few parents who are saying because all of the schooling is now through a computer. And the kids are pretty much zoom through. Some parents are saying I don't want them doing these classes on a night because they're in front of a computer all day. They

were taken up by about 80% of the competitive gymnasts, and 20% of the general ones. They were not taken up the youngest members; we can't expect three and four year olds to stand in front of a computer and do a gymnastic session. They just won't do it. This was the closest direct substitute for face-to-face sport and was stimulated by the need to generate income. Some clubs offered alternative physical challenges, such as running targets or fitness sessions, such as zumba. The RDA had moved their national championship on-line – participants would send in a video which would be judged virtually.

Clubs had to introduce new on-line booking systems to restrict numbers at sessions and keep records of attendance to comply with covid regulations. These were generally seen as a necessary burden rather than a positive innovation. As golf put it; It was fastest finger first, when you tried to book a time, when the system opened up. This caused; …endless emails about why they couldn't get a booking.

Attempts to maintain the social rewards of membership were described above: talks, competitions, quizzes, virtual Christmas parties and general chit-chat. In the mountaineering club it allowed members who had moved away from the area to meet others who they would normally only see 2 or 3 times a year. Enthusiasm varied between clubs and ages of members, in the sailing club; There has been talk of having a programme of lectures and talks about aspects of sailing and things like that. But there's been a marked lack of enthusiasm about all that from people who've taken soundings. So, we keep them in touch, basically by email or Facebook. But that's been about as far as it goes. As noted above – the bowls club appreciated that those not able or comfortable with digital communication still required a hard copy newsletter. National governing bodies had also expanded on-line features although this was not explored in detail in the interviews.

Ease of digital communication has raised expectation of communications, with consequences for volunteers. This was apparent when national announcements of changes in restrictions were announced and members immediately wanted to know how that affected their club. The golf club described; I happened to be the captain of a golf club 20 years ago - the wonders of email didn't exist then, … this has allowed members to communicate more, much of which is irrelevant. … there was a time after we started playing golf again, I just sat and answered emails all afternoon, which would never have happened 20 years ago. A practical response from the mountaineering club was to put a club statement on the web site and to send this on a e distribution list to all members.

Some training had moved on-line. The RDA was now running training for safeguarding and coaching on-line. This was also offered to umpires in hockey.

The most common innovation was digital meetings, which had all used the zoom package. The main advantage was reducing travel time, which increased attendance. This was especially relevant for regional meetings. Most clubs had used these for committee meetings. Generally, this worked, although in bowls, while the chair thought; ‘zoom is going to be a way forward for everybody. And I think we may need to do this for our next committee meeting …we need to have one, but a couple of our committee members were a little bit hesitant. AGMs had also been run using zoom. Generally, this was felt to be an efficient way to run a meeting, allowing more people to attend. The mountaineering club had a higher attendance

than for a previous face-to-face meeting. Some felt it was not a complete alternative as it restricted debate: Golf – it wasn't held in the normal way. There wasn't any debate about any issues. There were no issues put on the agenda to debate so that's a shame, but it went well. A lot of members actually said that's how all the meetings should be now, online. But if we could have our level of debate that was a bit better, that would be easier. It would be satisfactory as it is, it was worth doing. Some clubs still couldn’t do this because it would exclude too many members. Badminton sent out an annual report and audited accounts as a substitute for an AGM.

Thus, the most useful digital innovations were zoom meetings, which obviously saved more time the further people had to travel, were dependant on digital competence, but cut out a social dimension. As the RDA respondent put it; nationally it was very good, and we're doing the regional chairs, but my local group AGM [was not practical] because about 6 or 7 don't do technology, and the comment was well, this is fine, but we can't get the tea and cake.

The restrictions were a catalyst for the adoption of technology. The most likely to be retained is zoom meetings at regional level, where travelling time is reduced the most. On- line training will also reduce travel time. These make the work of volunteers more effective. Club level meetings, such as committees and AGMs, are more likely to go back to face-to- face, because the travel time is less, and the quality of discussion and social rewards of meeting can be retained.

3.6 The impact on volunteers

The main impact on volunteers was more work and different work, although during lockdowns there might be less, just because the club was not running. Our interviews were with long-standing committee volunteers in each club. Their approach was encapsulated by the response; you know, you're the temporary custodians of an institution and that's it and you have to accept that. Their loyalty to the club and members meant they would do whatever it took to keep the club going, adapting to restrictions as soon as possible to maximise opportunities for play, and meet the social needs of members. The extra work was mainly being done by the same volunteers. Dealing with covid added to a culmination of burdens added to volunteers’ work and while the existing volunteers were resilient it may deter new ones.

The rewards of volunteering were a strong part of motivation; I have to be honest and say RDA is a lifesaver, because I think I’d have gone stir crazy if I hadn't had this to do. … I mean I love it, I make no bones about it. I love the whole thing. I mean I've done 28 years with them now and it's my passion. Stoical commitment, despite the challenges was illustrated in sailing; To be honest, it's just all been a bit frustrating. … trying to do it in a way that is sensible, safe for our members. But at the same time giving something to our members, it's just been really difficult. But that's just the way it is…… almost a volunteering, deal, which is you volunteer to do something, and you get your reward in terms of seeing people are benefiting from what you're doing. And that feedback loop has been rather broken this year.

As above, more work included: adapting the sport and facility to make it covid compliant, doing this each time guidelines changed, communicating with members, setting up new methods of communication and managing subscriptions.

If clubs appointed a covid officer it was usually a designation added on to an existing volunteer: the President, the covid officer, cycles every day down to the club at least twice. Before he goes cycling somewhere else and back (tennis). Some clubs thought they had to have a covid offer to be eligible for a grant: we looked online at the guidelines that are available and what we have to do, from putting arrows on the floor, to having signs to having, you know, antibacterial washing on every table and the girls behind the bar cleaning everything. And we put all that in place before we actually had a covid officer. Then we appointed a covid officer. All the compliance was already in place before then. So, he just has to keep up to date with any changes that are being made (golf). The other main extra role was a ‘covid marshal’ to urge members to comply with restrictions.

It has not been easy to recruit volunteers into new roles. Sailing discussed having a covid officer, but failed to get anybody to put their hand up when the club shut down again; As with many clubs, one of our big problems is getting people to come on the committee. … one of the members of the committee has been trying to resign for about five years and failing dismally. Having a committee where will shortly only have two members of committee under 70.

This, shortened, quote from badminton summed up how the challenges of dealing with covid had added to those volunteers had to overcome, and deterred volunteers; it's put a lot of people off even thinking about being a volunteer… when I was telling people what we're doing, and I can remember some people saying, Oh, my God, I wouldn't want to do that. And that's just so we can play badminton? And I said, No, this is what you have to do. You have to jump through all these hoops. You all want to play, somebody's got to do this. Because if it doesn't happen, you won't get to play, you know, and I could see that a whole load of them were thinking, I don't want to do that… this has been happening for years now. They keep piling more and more on to what they see as health and safety or whatever. And don't seem to realise that most of these volunteers don't actually get paid. And yet they're being expected to do more and more time. Every time they add another layer, like looking into people's backgrounds, making sure that they're all insured, that they've got this, all of these things just make people go oh, I don't want to do that … I must have so many risk assessments for various things, you know, and the police checks that need to be done … It's all of these things that people think I just wanted to give some time, I don't want to have to do all of that. In other clubs (golf and tennis) some commented on how the extra time and types of tasks associated with dealing with covid safety, were less fun than their usual volunteering.

The extra challenges could be a catalyst for stepping back; I started making noises about this three years ago, and everybody nodded and ignored it. And what it's given me is, time to think about what parts of my life I get most pleasure out of, and how I can change things so that I'm focused on the things that I get most pleasure out of. … the activities to do with actually getting people out on the water, and new members, etc. I'm very keen to contribute

on that side. … it's given me a lot of time to think about what things I want to commit to and what I'm less keen on (sailing).

The best example of new volunteers was the hockey club which had doubled its umpires. We hadn’t advertised the need … our head umpire had been active in encouraging people to step up and get involved, and I think this was also aided by people wanting an excuse to get out more and so were stepping up where previously they hadn’t. The WhatsApp group then substantiated this recruitment by providing a weekly online training session with discussion. This club had also recruited 9 new team captains, out of 12 teams, through members volunteering.

Thus, the response to covid has confirmed the strong rewards of long-term volunteering in the clubs, the concentration of work in the key roles, the difficulties of encouraging new recruits to these, and the challenges of covid as an additional burden on volunteers. It has also shown where it has been easier to recruit new volunteers, in a well-run club, with support, and the opportunity presented by some people having more time to give and looking for something purposeful to do with it. The strong rewards of volunteering and commitment to the club meant volunteers did not tend to mention risks from covid as a deterrent.

3.7 The role of national governing bodies

The club interviewees described the support from NGBs. In general, this was useful. NGBs provided guidance on how restrictions affected their sport, and other information, such as advice on grants and the legal status of on-line meetings.

The on-going advice about how restrictions affected their sport was inevitably after the government had announced changes to the public as NGBs did not get any prior notification. This might give an impression NGBs were slow, but they had the same time to react as anybody else. The different situations sports were in, inevitably meant NGB advice was not always easy to follow or clear; the rugby club reported that the RFU provided three different pieces of advice on travelling restrictions in two days. A criticism of advice from sailing was that some of it identified risks but was prescriptive on what should be done to minimise some of them. This gave the club discretion. Difficulties might also have arisen because, as the sailing club put it; … guidance was the outcome of negotiations between folk in the Royal Yachting Association Scotland, who weren't experts in Coronavirus. And people in the Scottish government who knew almost nothing about sailing. So, it had some good bits and some silly bits [which he explained in detail]. This was complicated by differences between countries, for example, in golf; you can't play golf in England. But you can play in Scotland. You can't drive five miles, but you can if you're allowed to play golf, if you're going to play golf. It's maybe more a comment on the way the pandemic has been handled in general, rather than golf.

Some attributed different restrictions between countries to the vigour with which NGBs lobbied for their sport. This was apparent in squash, which in Scotland was deemed to be a contact sport and indoors; so could not be played. In England an adapted form of the game

in which players stayed on one side of the court could be played by two people who were not family members. Cricket was initially deemed to be a contact sport, so not permitted, but the governing body lobbied for the game to be played with precautions. The tennis club attributed tennis’s favourable guidelines to NGB lobbying.

Some NGBs had reduced affiliation fees for members, which was appreciated by clubs and could be passed on in reduced club subscriptions: such as mountaineering and badminton. Others, such as swimming, had not, which meant the swimming club could not pass on a reduction, although pools had been closed.

Some NGBs were promoting ‘back to sport’ weekends. For example, Bowls England were hoping to have a national open weekend at the end of May with them providing a lot of the posters and things like that and they're trying to encourage all the clubs to have their open weekend on the same weekend. they're going to provide the advertising, the posters, that can be used online, or we can print off ourselves. We had a bowls Northamptonshire AGM last week and that was on zoom. 47 of us, that was very good. And the administrator for Bowls Northamptonshire she's really pushing this open weekend.

NGBs were experimenting with new ways of clubs sharing information. Tennis had set up a Facebook site, but a criticism from the club was that the NGB did not actually answer questions, it was just other clubs responding with information, some of which was wrong. Mountaineering experimented with a regional club meeting but changed the log-in instructions at the last minute, so some were not able to attend.

3.8 Back to normal or something different?

At the level of national volunteering, it’s been suggested that in responding to the pandemic volunteer led organisations might change what they delivered to meet a wider range of social needs. This might be encouraged by a growth in volunteering and community spirit. We asked clubs about this. Most were just aiming to get back to what they were doing before however some had been stimulated to bring forward changes in the sport they offered or make links with other clubs. Change was on a spectrum; offering a variation on the existing sport, offering a new sport, marketing sport to different groups to widen participation, and working with groups unconnected to sport but meeting local community needs.

An example of a club which had thought about broadening its services, but had not, was hockey; While we want to be like that, I think first and foremost, we are just going to remain a sports club, you know, and so our chairman's quite cautious of this actually, of course, we want to offer support, but we don't want to do that in a sort of, you know, a formalised manner. Because we're not counsellors at the end of the day, … obviously, it's really great to see clubs engaging like that, and rugby clubs, delivering meals, and that, but it's not something that we really thought about or approached. I think, you know, our main focus is just delivering sport as best we can. The mountaineering club had decided to just hunker down and advertise meets to existing members, despite 8 potential new members contacting the club.

The tennis club was still only going to offer tennis, but had started a marketing campaign in the local community. Golf offered a new package where people could join their small course for six months, get some lessons, a goodie bag and some bar credit. They launched this just before Christmas so sold quite a few as Christmas presents. They had about 20 people signed up and others waiting till the better weather.

Some clubs broadened the sport they offered. The rugby club had been planning to develop women’s rugby and this was brought forward. The pandemic had stimulated them to plan for walking rugby and developing activity for disabled groups through a link with the Wooden Spoon Society. The sailing club didn’t see itself ‘becoming other than a sailing club’ but was trying to move from competitive sailing to more recreational sailing, to match changes in demand. It was also making links with local rowing and dragon boat clubs to become more representative of the community by gender: the rowing club had about 55% female membership and the dragon boat club was set up for cancer survivors, which was about 80% women. So making these links could encourage more women to join the sailing club. The same club recognised that there was a shortage of community space in the area and it could offer its club building to pilates classes, subject to complying with building regulations, which might again encourage new members to join sailing. The squash club – part of a multi-sport club with grounds in a city centre – used its grounds for an outdoor market. At the same time, it ran an outdoor gym.

Other community groups which used club facilities might have stopped temporarily due to the pandemic. In the gymnastics club facility, a toddler group, youth club, action against crime group; had all stopped because of covid restrictions. The club would welcome them back, partly because of the income. The bowls club would welcome back an Age UK group, who used the club monthly, and a special needs group, who came on Saturdays; both of whom had stopped. The rugby club was now used by a women’s fitness group and a dog training group.

The rugby club was an example of a club being willing to open to meet community need but being frustrated by incompetence; We had an inquiry from the NHS about making the site a vaccination centre. We were asked if we were interested. We went back and said ‘yes’, we wouldn't have charged for the facility. … we didn't hear anything. We chased it up and then got a response. ‘When the people visited site’, which they didn't, ‘there was no car parking’. Well, we've got the biggest car park in [the county]. And ‘it was on too many different levels’. Well, it's on one level, that would have probably been easier for people than going into [the local town].

The golf club in the past, pre-covid, used its building for funerals; during the pandemic when an ex-member died, the cortege has come round, and people have been able to pay their respects to it, which I thought was quite a nice thing that might not have happened.

Research has shown that the willingness of clubs to take initiatives to recruit new members, expand activities, or make links to new groups, depends on key individuals in the club (16). It can be helped by targeted grants. In some cases, there will also be a financial incentive, as in the gymnastics club.

4. The contribution of community sports clubs to society.

The responses of clubs illustrate the important contribution they make to the health and wellbeing of society, and why they good at doing this, even if they focus on meeting the needs of existing members. They are ‘mutual aid organisations’; ‘the product of people’s ability to work together to meet shared needs and address common problems’ (17, p.52). Clubs represent members’ shared enthusiasm for a particular sport and commitment to the club. A report by the British Academy in April 2021 (10), on the long-term societal impacts of covid-19, concluded that; ‘The impacts of covid-19 on health and wellbeing have not been felt uniformly across society. Local volunteer, community and mutual aid groups have been critical to the response to covid-19, revealing the potential advantages of building and sustaining this type of capacity across the country’ (p7). This report does not mention community sports clubs specifically, but an estimate of the value of their contribution; as part of Sport England’s social return on investment model; combined the value of volunteering time with subjective well-being for volunteers; to arrive at a contribution of £20bn. per year (18). A more generous estimate for the UK, was £53bn (19), as it added in the increased wellbeing and mental health experienced by participants in CSCs and the reduction in costs to the NHS because of this participation. Either way, the value is considerable.

Our research illustrates why community sports clubs are particularly good at making this contribution.

• The determination of volunteers as ‘custodians of an institution’ to keep the club running, despite the frustrations and challenges. • The rewards of volunteering – ‘I love it … I've done 28 years with them now and it's my passion’. • The long tradition of clubs and their established role in the community – the swimming, golf, tennis and rugby clubs are over 100 years old. • Wanting to look after members as people they have a social relationship with, far beyond that of a ‘customer’. For example – the bowls club phoning members to check they were all right; the RDA group, being in touch with every single individual [volunteer] throughout the time. • Meeting the physical health needs of members. • Meeting the mental health needs of members. • A sensitivity to these needs and how to meet them, as the volunteers are also club members. • Flexibility in adapting opportunities for play as soon as restrictions lifted. • Innovation in meeting the social need of members. • Economically resilient, because although grants were critical to some clubs, others were managing on reserves due to careful club management, and the work of volunteers meant extra costs, such as cleaning equipment and putting up signs, could be absorbed. Members contribute to fundraising; the gymnastics club raised £8,420 in donations. • The support of NGBs, in which volunteers play major roles at all levels.

This means that the infrastructure of community sports clubs is a valuable social resource, which, as the former head of the Central Council for Physical Recreation once put it, is a delicate flower which needs to be nurtured (personal communication).

5. Innovations and recommendations

Recommendations arise from the innovations clubs have made to keep running during the pandemic.

5.1 At the club level

Seasonal sports are more likely to lose members if participation is stopped during the playing season. Try to either extend the sport over the year in another form (hockey club – summer games) or offer another sport in the same club (squash club). This is especially relevant to junior members, where the commitment to a sport is less developed. It may take membership a long time to recover from a break in participation. The aim is to build up sporting capital and keep it at a high level.

Consider if the club can offer other forms of the game which might appeal to new members, such as the smaller golf course offered by the golf club, or women’s rugby and walking rugby; considered by the rugby club.

As members get older, they may wish to keep playing the game but in a different form. Can the club offer this, to maintain member’s commitment to the club, such as walking rugby? Could the club offer a different sport or variation to keep the interest of older members (bowls found it easier to retain older members with the indoor version of the game)?

A further reason for clubs to offer different forms of the sport is to respond to the trend away from traditional team sports, which has been noted since 1987. A driver for this has been the fragmentation of leisure time as working hours have changed (20). So, it’s become harder to get the numbers together to play large team sports at regular times.

Offer ‘return to sport’ packages. Returnees may need to be eased back gently.

Consider different membership packages which may attract new members or allow member to make less commitment. For example, the golf, small course for 6 months offer.

Offer a reduced membership fee if play has been restricted.

More people working at home may give members the opportunity to play at different times, which could fill quiet times at the club. Consider a package which offers off-peak play, possibly at a regular time. The squash club was considering this.

Make links to other local clubs where there may be a crossover of members. The sailing club was doing this.

Consider making links to other organisations who work with groups the club may find hard to reach, such as special needs groups (bowls) or youth groups (gymnastics). This will develop the club’s role in the community.

A club building can be a valuable community resource. Consider how other groups might use it, which will bring in income, possibly new members, and meet broader community needs (sailing). Encourage the return of groups who were using the building pre-covid (gymnastics, bowls).

Use the pandemic as an opportunity to recruit members who may not be able to play in other places (the hockey club and university students), or volunteers who previously had an interest in the game, but now have more time to offer (hockey umpires). Keep communicating with members to maintain the social rewards of membership as far as possible. Methods developed during the pandemic, such as new Facebook sites (swimming) may be worth retaining. Zoom social meetings may allow members who are more geographically spread to attend (mountaineering). Innovative on-line events included quizzes, challenges – such as ‘run to New Zealand’, other physical events such as Zumba, and Christmas parties.

Communicate in the form which suits the members. Not all will use web sites or email, so for some you may still need hard copy (bowls). In 2020 the Office of National Statistics reported that 20% of households with one member aged 65 or older did not have internet access. To show you care, phone up the members who won’t be using other communication – and do this anyway if you think they’d like support.

Keep members updated with changes in response to covid restrictions as soon as possible. To prevent a surge of emails provoked by government announcements before your NGB had had time to respond, consider a mass email informing members the club are planning a response.

Risk from covid will never be eliminated, but clubs need to communicate clearly to what they are doing to reduce it and the procedures for members. The video made by the gymnastics club, featuring a junior participant, and sent to parents, was very effective.

Consider if some training can be offered as effectively on-line (hockey used this for umpire training and CPD. This was also available in mountaineering, although not relevant to the club).

Consider if digital booking systems are worth retaining. Golf found a digital score card was useful – allowing players to register their scores without handing over pieces of paper.

Set an expectation and supportive environment for new volunteers to come forward (hockey). Try to get out of the expectation that a few stalwart volunteers will always do all the work. Encourage new volunteers with small manageable roles.

The main package used for on-line meetings was zoom – clubs did not mention any others. This proved valuable for regional or national meetings as it saved a lot of travel time. For club committee meetings this might be balanced against the loss of debate and social contact, and some members not having internet access or being confident with it. On the other hand, face-to-face meetings might offer the opportunity for those confident in the technology to teach those who were not.

5.2 At the NGB level

Recommendations for NGBs are limited because our interviews were only at the club level. Thus, some may be inappropriate. NGB responses is an area for further research.

Keep providing updates on the implications of changes in government restrictions as quickly as possible.

Try to offer consistent advice - the rugby club reported that the RFU provided three different pieces of advice on travelling restrictions in two days.

Make it clear where practices to minimise risk are mandatory [and presumably a condition of continued NGB affiliation and insurance cover] and where they are discretionary. Sailing raised this issue.

Continue to make clubs aware of the grants available.

Liaise closely with clubs to ensure support is practical - for example, the booking system for tennis clubs was difficult to operate.

National NGBs might co-ordinate their lobbying of governments to argue for practical ways of opening their sport – squash NGBs in England and Scotland had had different outcomes; which created a negative impression from clubs who were disadvantaged. The Scottish tennis club attributed tennis’s favourable guidelines to NGB lobbying.

Promote ‘return to sport’ events, with supporting publicity; for example, in bowls.

Reduce affiliation fees to clubs wherever possible. For example, mountaineering did this. Where this was not done it meant the club had to pass the fee on to members in its subscriptions, which might seem unreasonable if play was prevented, as in swimming.

It might be useful to set up links between clubs to share good practice, but if so, ensure they work and are well informed. Tennis criticised a Facebook site set up to do this because the information posted by other clubs was incorrect. It should have been moderated by the NGB. It was not used by the NGB to answer questions.

Continue to offer on-line training and ‘interest’ items on the web site.

The most useful training for clubs would probably in the use of digital technology. Section 7.2 shows how the Community Managed Libraries Support Network have given links to this

on-line. The responses of some of our interviewees suggest that face-to-face instruction in on-line might be more useful.

5.3 At the level of government

Continue to provide grants if clubs require them to respond to new restrictions or falls in membership as players are slow to return.

Grants could incentivise clubs to link with other community groups to make sports participation more inclusive, but also to broaden their contribution to the community. While clubs exist primarily to serve their members, grants can provide a nudge to look beyond these. Provide case study examples of clubs which have done this.

Sport England’s information to support clubs is brought together in the ‘Club Matters’ site. This is listed as support material below. None of our clubs mentioned it. Perhaps it could be promoted more strongly through the NGBs. We are not aware if Sport Scotland offers the equivalent, but the Sport England site is open to clubs in any country.

Overall, the government needs to recognise and value the huge contribution of community sport clubs and the network of NGBs to the health and wellbeing of the nation. As the British Academy report concluded; ‘local volunteer, community and mutual aid groups have been critical to the response to covid-19, which shows their potential in tackling social inequalities, especially in health, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic’ (10, p.65).

6. Further research

Interviews with a larger sample of community sports clubs might show further innovations and examples of good practice. Our sample of 12 is relatively small, although it is the only qualitative approach we are aware of to understand how clubs have responded to covid restrictions.

Our sample could be interviewed again in 6 months’ time to monitor the progress of innovations and find out why they were successful or not.

Interviews could be extended to NGBs to show innovations in supporting clubs, and also how the work of volunteers in the NGB structure had been affected.

Quantitative surveys of sports clubs could be compared across countries to identify commonalities and differences, which could be related to different restrictions and levels of government support. In England the Sport and Recreation Alliance has commissioned a survey of clubs, which is due to report in April 2021. The surveys in England usually produce a relatively small sample which is self-selected, so may limit the findings. Much larger surveys have been conducted in Germany and the Netherlands. Similarly, other countries have surveys showing changes in sports participation.

Changes in club membership could be monitored if Sport England and SportScotland collated records of affiliations to their respective NGBs. Affiliations are required for insurance purposes. These records would be more consistent than the number of affiliated clubs as definition of a ‘club’ changes year on year.

Sport England’s Active Lives survey could be modified to measure if sports participation took place in a club, allowing a more accurate assessment of the amount of sport taking pace in clubs and how this had changed.

A broader question is how changed patterns of work will affect leisure, and especially the demand for sport. Will more working from home increase time for leisure, as commuting time is reduced and people can fit in leisure to more flexible working times? Or will leisure be reduced as people find it harder to make a clear distinction between ‘work time’ and ‘leisure time’ as the two are not separated by space?

7. Supporting resources.

Sport England’s Clubmatters section has provided advice; March 2021; on promoting sports participation. This includes recommendations which overlap with ours: • Make the ways you are following guidance to reduce risk very clear. • Emphasise your activity is fun, and ensure it is. • Be compassionate and sensitive in helping people gain mental health benefits by building up activity gradually. • Help people build up gradually to their previous levels of fitness as this will have declined and could discourage participation. • Consider low-cost options or extended payments for membership to help those in financial difficulty, or who don’t want to commit to long-term membership.

Sport England (2021), Club matters – return to play https://www.sportengland.org/know-your-audience/demographic- knowledge/coronavirus?section=return_to_play

The Community Managed Libraries Support Network provides advice and resources which is relevant to community sports clubs, because the libraries are also managed by volunteers, with volunteer staff. https://communitylibrariesnetwork.wordpress.com/

A recent newsletter provided links to resources provided by the Digital Culture Network. They can be found here: Covid-19 Support and Resources - Digital Culture Network. They include: Webinars, online training and virtual conferencing (pdf) – a list of tools such as Zoom. Engaging audiences with social media – a rundown of the most popular social media platforms and their pros and cons.

Remote working tools (pdf) – goes through some of the features of popular remote working tools such as Microsoft Teams. Signposting to further support for software and training (pdf) – a list of useful partnerships and free training courses. Introduction to Websites – an overview of what a website can be used for and what you need to get started.

8. References

1. Findlay-King, L. Reid, F. & Nichols, G. (2020). Community Sports Clubs response to Covid- 19 https://sway.office.com/7vwbaHlJwaF3OTlE

2. Shibli, S., & Barrett, D. (2017). Measuring the affiliated sports club market. Report for Sport England. https://www.sportengland.org/media/13300/sirc-se-ngb-affiliated-club- market-report-final-public.pdf Accessed 1 April 2019.

3. Sport and Recreation Alliance. (2018). Sports Club Survey Report 2017/18. https://www.sportandrecreation.org.uk/policy/research-publications/sports-club-survey- report-20172018 Accessed 22 February 2019.

4. Allison, M. (2001). Sport clubs in Scotland – Research Report 75, Edinburgh: SportScotland.

5. Barrett, D., Edmondson, L., Millar, R., & Storey, R. (2018). Sport Club Volunteering. Report submitted to Sport England. Unpublished.

6. Sport England (2021). Club matters – return to play https://www.sportengland.org/know-your-audience/demographic- knowledge/coronavirus?section=return_to_play Accessed 1 April 2019. 7. SportScotland (2021). Coronavirus (COVID-19) information and resources (sportscotland.org.uk) at https://sportscotland.org.uk/covid-19/ Accessed 20 April 2021.

8. Sport England (2020). Active Lives Adult survey mid-March to Mid-May 2020. Coronavirus covid-19 report. October 2020. https://www.sportengland.org/know-your-audience/data/active-lives

9. Findlay-King, L. (2020). Covid 19 and sport volunteering – an SVRN UK membership insight https://sports-volunteer-research-network.org.uk/2020/06/13/covid-19-and-sport- volunteering-an-svrn-uk-membership-insight/

10. British Academy (2021). The covid decade, understanding the long-term societal impacts of covid-19. https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/covid-decade-understanding-the-long- term-societal-impacts-of-covid-19/

11. Rowe, N. (2020). Sporting capital: Transforming sports development policy and practice. Routledge.

12. Sport England (2020). Club Matters, Return to Sport/Activity Survey Findings Volunteers Report (October 2020).

13. Australian Sport Foundation (2020). Impact of covid-19 on community sport. Survey report July 2020. Available through https://covid.sportsfoundation.org.au/

14. Utilita (2020). Switch before pitch: how covid-19 has impacted grassroots football in the UK. https://assets.utilita.co.uk/assets/2020/10/QQ6Ipq6APmcFDeKWVErSkxo3nd9x4PkFBPUKm Qqe.pdf

15. DCMS (2021). Sport in our Communities, oral evidence. https://committees.parliament.uk/work/647/sport-in-our-communities/

16. Nichols, G. and James, M. (2017). Social Inclusion and Volunteering in Sports Clubs in Europe; findings for policy makers and practitioners in England and Wales. https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/management/staff/nichols/index

17. Lyons, M., Wijkstrom, P., and Clary, G. (1998). Comparative studies of volunteering: what is being studied? Voluntary Action 1(1) 45-54.

18. Davies, E, L., Taylor, P., Ramchandani, G. & Christy, E. (2019). Social return on investment (SROI) in sport: a model for measuring the value of participation in England. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 11 (4), 585-605. https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2019.1596967

19. Join in (2014) .Hidden diamonds http://www.joininuk.org/tag/london-2012/

20. Harris, S., Nichols, G., & Taylor, M. (2017). Bowling even more alone: trends towards individual participation in sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2017.1282971.

Appendix 1. Sample of clubs

Sport / Club Description before lockdown Badminton (Scotland) Hires 4-badminton court hall in a public leisure centre. Weekly sessions; 1hour for juniors (24 members) and 2hrs for adults (50 members. 12-24 attend on any given night). Adults subscription is £20 per annum and £5 per night hall fee. Junior subscription is £90 for the season. The season is September-March. Adult members meet informally over the summer with a WhatsApp group and one person arranging informal court bookings. A small volunteer committee (5), with one leading member who is key volunteer coach for the juniors (2 other occasional assistant coaches) Bowls (England) Owns a club house with 4 indoor rinks and 6 outdoor greens, a bar / social area and a car park. The indoor section has 230 members. The outdoor section has 120 members. Competitive matches with other clubs, as well as games between club members. A social evening once a month in the club house. A ‘president’s tour’ for a week in the summer. Subscriptions are £52.50 for men and £47.50 for ladies per season. Or A combined fee of £85 and £75 respectively. The facility is used by a group from Age UK and a special needs group of adults. A core of 12/15 volunteers, with others helping with teas. Golf (Scotland) Golf club owns the golf course, par 3 course and clubhouse. Club has 700 members approximately (not quite full). Men’s section is approx. 600 and ladies section is approx. 100. Competitions, internal and with other clubs; social golf. 5 volunteers for the ladies’ section; 12 volunteers on the management committee of the club. Paid bar and ground staff. Gymnastics (England) Facility leased from local authority. 100% rate relief and no rent. The club has to meet considerable maintenance costs 500 junior members attend a weekly, general gymnastic session. These are organised termly. 250 people, aged 5 – 20; attend competitive training, between 2 and 5 times a week. One adult class, of 12, which meets once a week. Four other community groups attend for special sessions; a programme to reduce youth crime - two sessions a month, September to April, using the gym’s instructors; a council run

introductory gymnastics class for year 1 and year 4 children, November to March; a youth club, meeting weekly; and a mother and toddler group, Friday mornings. 3 volunteer coaches and 28 paid coaching staff. Most teach 2/3 hrs per week; 8 full-time staff who coach30 hours per week. 3 volunteers run a friends group, with about 20/30 volunteer helpers. Hockey (England) Rents playing facilities from a university and meets socially in a pub 11 senior teams and one veteran’s team. Teams play once a week in the season and train on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Friendly games in the summer. 14 volunteers on the executive committee, 11 team captains, 8 volunteer coaches, 2 paid coaches. Mountaineering Rents a club room from a pub. Minimal maintenance costs. (England) Hill walking, cycling and climbing. Meets twice a week; using public access land and a commercial climbing wall. Social meets in the club room approximately monthly. 83 members. 14 volunteers are on a committee managing the club. Riding for the disabled This group pays a fee to a riding school [some groups own (England) premises and horses]. 10 disabled participants who ride weekly. 19 volunteers, 10 trained to lead ponies, 9 as side walkers. 2 of the volunteers are trained coaches. 6 of the volunteers are committee members and 4 are trustees. Rugby (England) Owns a ground of 35 acres and a clubhouse. 100 senior members, 400 youth players, 90 in a girls’ section, and ladies touch rugby: 600 members in total. 100 volunteers, most involved in coaching and running the teams. Full-time groundsman and a part-time cleaner. The facility is rented to a junior football club, a tennis club, and the club house is also used for community bookings e.g. celebrations of births, marriages and deaths. Other major sources of income include festivals, rallies, caravan bookings and car boot sales.

Swimming (England) Pool swimming in a public leisure centre and open water swimming in the sea and river; from April. Swimming lessons to 180 children every Saturday night, and competitive & development sections on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights for approximately 100 swimmers. Masters and open water sections. Responsible for administering the county league, which six swimming clubs compete in. 59 volunteers who do not swim - including the main committee, six sub committees, and a range of tasks to support swimming galas.

Squash (Scotland) Owns own facilities; a pavilion, which is a prestigious venue for functions; and 5 acres of grounds in an affluent area of a city. Squash is one of four sections of a club, including cricket, tennis and hockey. The whole club has about 700 adult members. It is possible to have social membership, to use the club facilities, but not play sport. The squash section has 230 adults and 30 juniors. It runs 7/8 teams. Players may compete in leagues or social games. Volunteers take roles of: president, vice- president, league organiser, competition organiser, team organiser, accounts, and junior coaches. Other paid staff include a groundsman, bar keeper and cleaner. Tennis (Scotland) Own 5 courts (floodlit) and a clubhouse Membership - 146 adults and 219 juniors in 2019 Activities include club nights, matches, competitive teams, training sessions, coaching sessions and social activities. Club has at least 46 volunteers – committee, team captains and other support roles. Three paid staff: membership, grounds, cleaner Yachting (Scotland) Owns some boats and a clubhouse. Long lease on the slipway and dinghy park. Membership 290 adults, 10 juniors in 2019. Calendar of events planned from the end of March to mid- December 2020 included up to 9 events a week in mid-summer. Yacht racing, dinghy racing, yacht cruising, and fun sailing in dinghies.