Andddd COGS is fully back! – September 2020.

After nearly 6 months since Lockdown was announced, week commencing the 21st September saw all COGS’ sessions return, including a new one for Beginners/Intermediate players.

As with everyone else, we had to stop playing football just before Lockdown was announced on 23rd March 2020. We’d seen some great numbers attend our new Walking Football sessions, which started at the end of January, and just as we were all getting into it, it had to stop.

In August, after meeting in sixes in the local parks, we ran some pay and play sessions which were very successful, after all COVID procedures were completed. Each session was completed with 20 players and we played 5-aside games to keep us going and get back to playing on a proper pitch!

We also arranged to add in another session for Beginners/Intermediate players, as some of the beginners had expressed an interest, a long while ago, that they wanted another session to continue their pathway after the Beginners. We approached a local Level 2 Coach, Gavin Gordon and he agreed to join us. Looking at getting Walking Football going again was a different matter, as it was indoors and the FA and Government rules for indoor recreational team sports was that it was not allowed. In the time that we were managing to play outdoors, we were busy producing another risk assessment for the Schools Plus team to get us ready as soon as indoor sports was allowed.

We were given the news that the Crawley Town Community Foundation were ready to bring our sessions back from the 23rd September and that also coincided with the return of indoor sports. Everyone was excited!

On Monday 21st September we ran our first Walking Football session back and were given the option to play on the field, which was great. The dark nights were drawing in and we just about managed to finish before it was completely dark!

Next up was our Beginners’ session, which again saw 20 women come along for some fun football. Was great to see CTCF Coach Harri Nourse back with us and 8 women attend for the first time.