Sports Events in London

Looking up into the dark cloudy rainy London skies, hoping to catch a glimmer of sunshine, I spotted an abseiler coming down the side of Guys Hospital (34 storeys tall!!).

Surely the hospital food wasn't that bad?? :)

Equipment: Ropes I guess....and comfy shoes??

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Nothing like a warm sunny Spring day to bring out the in-line skaters into London's parks. ALL ages indulge in this activity and some get quite carried away with it when they are plugged into their Ipods or Mp3 players and it can be quite entertaining to watch them as they turn and twirl, lost in their own world of music and movement.

Equipment: Bring your own skates and knee and elbow pads (I saw one blokey with a really horrible gashed leg!)

There's actually quite a lot of sports you can do, provided you have enough ppls/know the area.
Tennis courts are wide available for a modest fee.
Sports like badminton, basketball, football, etc... are also available, but check with the center ahead of time before going.
Also bowling can be quite fun, just make sure you go early during a weekday. Some places have early bird specials that allows you bowl all you want for one-off price.

If you don't feel like you're a good enough skater to go on the Wednesday or Friday street skates, try the Sunday Roller Stroll. It's slower, shorter, and designed for folks who haven't quite gotten "up to speed", as it were. The Roller Stroll is shorter than the other street skates and I believe they try to choose more friendly terrain. As long as you can stop effectively you can go on the Stroll.

Equipment: Skates, for starters. You can rent them locally if you don't own any or don't have them with you. Full pads are highly recommended, as are helmets. Please protect yourself when you skate - even the masters end up in hospital occasionally.

You may also want to bring some cash (for a taxi) and some footwear (pocketable slippers are fine) in case you can't complete the skate, and liquids to avoid dehydration.

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LondonSkate is the UK's largest mass-participation streetskate. It consists of between 200 and 800 skaters, 20 to 50 marshals and a sound system. The highly proficient marshals block the traffic at junctions to allow the skate to pass, and to keep all participants safe.

LondonSkate is also a great laugh, a brilliant form of exercise, and a unique social event. It's a chilled out skate around town, passing some of London's most famous landmarks and stopping at some great pubs on a variety of different routes. Check the website every week to see that week's route and whether or not it's been cancelled for rain.

Equipment: Skates, pads, a helmet is a good idea. There's a great skate shop called Club Blue Room just north of Marble Arch tube station - 12-14 Edgeware road, next to Odeon Cinema. Another HUGE sports shop is Decathlon, at Canada Water station.

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This is probably one of the easier passtimes you can get up to in the parks. You don't need much space really, you're unlikely to hurt anyone too bady if you're crap, and you don't need much in the way of kit (a frisbee is both cheap and light).

About the only thing you do actually need is a partner to catch and return the frisbee to you! I can imagine it being a bit of a lonely sport if you tried doing it solo.

This was another passtime going on in London's Hyde Park, although there are numerous other parks (Kensington Gardens and Green Park both seem to be quite laid back about people doing this sort of thing) in London if you get bored with Hyde Park.

Equipment: A cheap plastic dish (a.k.a. a frisbee) and at least one other person to play with.

In London's Parks, it is normally pretty free to do what you like (well within reason of course). You can therefore find people engaging in all sorts of passtimes and recreations in them.

With a lot of paved paths going through Hyde Park, it is quite popular for roller-bladers to do there thing here. I have never seen skate-boarders, but I don't see why they shouldn't be here too.

In this case, the girl had been trying to weave in and out of the little bollards whilst going backwards, although in this picture she was simply going backwards!

Equipment: Bring your own gear. You'll need the normal roller-blades and protection (such as padding etc).

Wembley Stadium, what a fantastic place it used to be. My heart used to skip a beat as we approached the twin towers, and then passed them as we entered the stadium. I was vocally gutted when the decision was made to rid us of our national stadium, and I saw it as a short sighted move. However, having seen the site for the new Wembley, which is now very much under way, and in line to be open by May 2006, I can assure you that it is really beginning to take shape, and is looking every bit as impressive as the Wembley of old. The huge arch is surely a sight to behold. I would advise everyone to get down there once it's open, and even if they are in the area before May to get down and check out how quickly it is coming along. I can't wait!