Better Club Games 2023 - Camden achieve 8th place!

Tuesday 26 September saw the long-awaited return of the ‘Better Club Games’ tournament at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Copper Box Arena. This annual event for the over-60s last ran in 2019 (before Covid).

This year, 19 teams took part from Better leisure partnerships across London, the south east, Lincolnshire and Rugby competing in a diverse range of activities - darts, dominoes, short tennis, short-mat bowls, swimming, badminton, table tennis, cycling, walking netball and walking football.

In a tightly fought contest, Epsom & Ewell took the ultimate overall title – ahead of Greenwich in 2nd and Sutton in 3rd.

Camden competed in 4 of the sports: Timed Swim, Short Tennis, Badminton and Table Tennis. It was a busy competition, with some very seasoned players, but Camden struck silver in Table Tennis and brough home 2nd place! Camden ended the competiton by finishin in 8th place.

GLL first decided to put on the Better Club Games back in 2006 when it realised there was no major multi-sports activity in the UK which brought older adults together annually in the spirit of fun competition.

Competitors are drawn from Active Ageing Clubs facilitated by GLL in leisure centres; the activities chime with GLL’s mission to improve health and wellbeing as a key community service through physical activity and sport.

Active ageing has since become a major public health priority with noted benefits to physical health, mental health and helping reduce social isolation in the UK’s older population.  In addition, keeping active reduces the burden on the NHS.

The Better Club Games Ambassador was actress and radio presenter Vicki Michelle - of ‘Allo Allo’, EastEnders and Emmerdale fame.  She added a touch of glamour and cheered on the participants.

‘Better’ is the brand name of the UK’s leading leisure charitable social enterprise GLL. The company’s ethos is to reinvest in local community health and wellbeing and the Better Club Games is a key part of this commitment.

GLL CEO Peter Bundey said: “It was great to see over 550 participants at the Copper Box Arena turn out to take part in this year’s return of the Better Club Games, compete and have fun.

“Wider society benefits in so many ways from active ageing and as a social enterprise we will continue to drive activity for this important age group.

“Congratulations to all those who took part and to our worthy winners – Epsom & Ewell.”