Ross County Cricket Club back training at Castle Leod
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Ross County Cricket Club last night returned to socially-distanced training at Castle Leod.
Recent easing of restrictions have made it possible for teams to ease back into action as long as they stick to regulations, and last night saw a limited number of County players return to the wicket.
There was a cap put on how many players could attend the session, with four stations set out across the field.
In one area players could make use of the club’s new bowling machine, a second group used the wicket for bowling while there was two separate fielding set-ups.
Even that was only possible after risk assessments took place earlier in the week to make sure that it would be possible to train safely, while pre-booking of places allowed them to plan for activities without worrying about more than the 15-person maximum showing up.
Earlier in the year, Buckie made the call to shelve their season altogether even if cricket was in a position to return.
County captain Graeme Carney however said that opening back up for training has given him hope that matches can take place at some point this year – though if he has to settle for nothing more than practice he would happily take it.
“I am quite optimistic, but it’s not going to be a proper season, we know that,” he explained.
“There are various proposals for some sort of competitive cricket.
“It obviously won’t be the full season, and I believe that Buckie aren’t going to be competing at all this season, they made an early decision to pull out altogether at the start of the Covid crisis.
“I don’t think the final form of what we will be doing has been decided yet, because we don’t know the timings of when we can start, but most of the clubs that we speak to are in the same boat that they would like to do something if the time is right.
“I’m just happy to get any cricket – whether that’s practice or games, I’ll take anything at this point. I’m just itching to get back out into it at this point.
“If it’s the case that all we can do this season is practice, that would still be better than no cricket at all this year. Anything at this stage is a bonus in my book.”
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