Kick-off time for sport

With the gathering limit lifted from 10 to 100, winter sports have been given the ‘‘green light’’ needed to kick off their season.

The limit increase means popular winter sports such as rugby, football, hockey and netball will be able to return to full training and games.

Before this, teams that returned to training in alert level 2 were only allowed to do so in small groups.

Tasman Rugby chief executive Tony Lewis said club rugby would look to start on June 27, with junior rugby starting later, on July 25.

‘‘The main reason juniors is a bit more delayed is because of the school holidays,’’ Lewis said.

‘‘I think it’s a great outcome for everyone to be able to get back out there, it’s good for mental health. It’s positive we can get a good pre-season in, kicking off this Friday.’’

Marlborough Netball board chairwoman Beth Tester said the committee was in the process of working through a way to reduce fees, and they hoped to have the season start on June 19.

‘‘The competitions’ committee have created a format which we just need to ensure that we can work with the constraints of Covid with 100 people on the courts at a time and in the area,’’ Tester said.

‘‘The board really wants to focus on community participation and engagement in netball. We’re trying to reduce the fees to make them affordable for our netball community to continue playing for the challenging times we have at the moment.’’

Netball Mainland, which oversaw the game across the top of the South Island, had gone into voluntary liquidation in April.

‘‘We’re not having to pay Netball New Zealand fees, and there are no zone fees as [Netball] Mainland have gone into liquidation, so it’s helping us to keep costs down,’’ Tester said.

Marlborough Football general manager Andrea SmithScott said the increase in the gathering limit was the ‘‘green light’’ sport needed for competitions to ‘‘actually go ahead’’.

‘‘It would have been impossible still to go ahead with the 10-person limit, so for us it’s massive, we’re really excited."

Football competition would start on June 13 with a break in the middle weekend of school holidays for juniors, youth, and women grades on July 11.

‘‘We’re pretty lucky, it has been an administration beast and it hadn’t been easy getting here, but everyone has been really co-operative with the new guidelines, which I’m really pleased with,’’ Smith-Scott said.

Marlborough Football would also be announcing other football programmes that would be restarting on their website and Facebook page in the coming weeks, Smith-Scott said.

Tasman Rugby chief executive Tony Lewis said the announcement was good for mental health. It’s game time for winter sports, after the prime minister announced gatherings of up to 100 people are allowed.