Sixty-plus sports enthusiasts - roll up your sleeves!

Over sixty and an eagle-eyed darts player? Do you know how to wield a ping pong bat or twirl a badminton racquet with ease?  
 
If so, your local Lewisham leisure centre needs you! 
 
Billed as the ‘Older Persons’ Olympics’, the annual ‘Better’ Club Games is a fantastic fixture where teams of older people from leisure centres in London, the south-east, and the Midlands come together to compete in a variety of indoor sports including bowls, swimming, short tennis, darts, static cycling and dominoes. 
 
The event takes place this year on Wednesday 1st October at Copper Box Arena in the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London so there’s still time to sign up if you fancy flexing your competitive muscles. 
 
You don’t have be world-class at any of the activities to join in - just reasonably good and willing to try your best and have fun. You have until 19 September to sign up. 
 
Club Games welcomes a different celebrity ‘ambassador’ each year to launch the proceedings, present the awards and boost morale. Previous incumbents have included the late dancer and TV star Lionel Blair, ‘Allo Allo’ actress Vicki Michelle, Coronation Street’s Beverley Callard and swimmer Duncan Goodhew.  
 
In 2024, actor and TV personality Christopher Biggins proved a great hit with the crowds. This year, actress Su Pollard of ‘Hi-de-Hi’ fame will be cheering on the contestants, fresh from touring her one-woman show. 
 
Su comments, "I'm so excited to be joining the ‘Better’ Club Games this year and showing the world that older people can keep fit and enjoy 'Hi-de-Hi' jinks as much as the youngsters!" 
 
Twenty teams competed last year but more entries are expected in 2025. The top three teams were Epsom & Ewell, Waltham Forest, and Greenwich - though Team Lewisham deserves a special mention for climbing to fourth place from their ranking of nineteenth the year before! 
 
Matthew Houghton, ‘Better’s’ Community Sport Manager in Lewisham, explains, "Club Games is a fantastic event, demonstrating that you are never too old to have some rivalrous fun. It's so great to see older adults competing against each other and smiling whilst doing it. The event is a great occasion to meet new people and represent your local area. This is a great day out, so if you are reasonably sporty (and a tad competitive) why not join team Lewisham on the 1st October?" 
 
 However, there are other participating leisure centres right across London and the Home Counties who would also welcome a few new conscripts! 
 
Since its inception in 2006, the Better Club Games has become a major yearly occasion. The two-day, fun-filled, sociable-but-competitive event brings together senior customers to represent their local Better leisure centres, battling it out against other boroughs for the much-coveted Club Games trophy. 
 
Better leisure centres are run by charitable social enterprise GLL in partnership with local authorities. 
 
To find out more, drop in at your local ‘Better’ leisure centre or visit this link - https://www.better.org.uk/healthy-communities/club-games