As across the rest of the country, Old Cranleighan activities rapidly went into hibernation as a result of the coronavirus. It took less than a week for things to go from relative normality to complete lockdown.
On March 14th it was apparent things were changing but a full round of hockey matches took place, the only indication things were different the post-match nadshakes replaced by stick tapping . By the middle of the following week both OCHC and OCRFC had cancelled the weekend games, and a day later a decision was taken to close the OC Club ahead of the government directive to do so. Several options were looked at, including possibly offered a crèche service for essential workers, but the logistics proved insurmountable.
We also quickly decided to cancel all forthcoming functions and reunions, partly because of the (at the time) increasing uncertainty as to whether they could go ahead and also, in the case of the Over 70 reunion, to minimise any risk to our more senior OCs. That event has tentatively been rescheduled for October.
Plans were drawn up for Vickie Ingle to continue to run the OC office from home aided by the IT department – the incredible work undertaken by the IT department who built a remote learning system from scratch in barely a fortnight cannot be underestimated. We will continue to operate in this way until further notice.
As with almost every aspect of life, the next few months remain uncertain. The next scheduled event is OC/Speech Day on June 27th but even three months out that has to be doubt.
All updates will appear on the OC Society website and also on social media.