Virus stops the Shropshire Schools Games

The event was cancelled yesterday as the latest sporting event to fall foul to the spiralling pandemic – which has also seen Shrewsbury Town’s fixtures postponed until April 3.

With schools concerned about the event taking place, Energize Shropshire’s active lives officer Jake Jones insists the decision to cancel it was based on retaining the competitiveness of the competition.

“It was quite a difficult decision to make but schools in Shropshire had concerns about it going ahead,” he said. “We didn’t want to run it with less teams, which would make it less competitive.

“It was about keeping the quality of our competitions.

“We’re going to see what the government says over the next few weeks and the advice that follows and when we’re happy and the schools are happy, we’ll go ahead with it. We can only apologise for any inconvenience or disappointment this may bring, but we feel this is the appropriate action for all involved.

“At this current time and due to the constant evolving aspect and actions being taken nationally to deal with the coronavirus we are not in a position to provide an alternative future date.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support of Schools Games and hope to see you at another event in the near future.”

Meanwhile, all matches in the Shropshire Chess League have been suspended, and may be written off all together.

Shropshire Chess Association president Francis Best says the decision came following concerns from players. “At this stage, we do not know whether the remaining fixtures will be played or whether the season will have to be abandoned all together,” he said. “As always in these situations, many will be disappointed with this decision. Equally, a number of people involved in our local clubs have already felt the need to absent themselves from chess on account of advice received in respect of their own underlying health situation.”