Loughton - Sport and Leisure

Sport and Leisure

Although Loughton is surrounded by open countryside it contains in addition many parks and open spaces. Sports play an important part in the town's life as is reflected in the variety and range of facilities found in the town.

Loughton Leisure Centre at Traps Hill, managed by a private operator on behalf of the Epping Forest District Council includes a swimming pool complex and fitness facilities. Other large commercial sports and leisure facilities are also to be found in the area.

• Athletics - Members of the Loughton Athletic Club, based at the Pavilion in Southview Road and affiliated to the Essex AAA, compete in a variety of regional track and field competitions, including the Women's Southern League and the Men's Southern League. The club was founded in 1906, making it Britain's oldest athletics club.

• Bowls - Loughton Bowls Club has its ground at Eleven Acre Rise.

• Cricket - Loughton Cricket Club was founded in 1879, and plays in the Shepherd Neame Essex League. Its cricket ground, complete with thatched pavilion, and facing the war memorial, is one of the town's most important open spaces, and originated as a field named Mott's Piece. One of the earliest presidents of the Loughton Cricket Club was Julius Rohrweger, a local German extraction who owned Uplands, a large house adjacent to the cricket ground. As he was politically a Liberal, the local Conservative party created and supported for some time a rival team, the Loughton Park Cricket Club, though this no longer exists.
  The South Loughton Cricket Club was founded in 1938, and plays at the Roding Road Cricket Ground. In 2007, its 1st XI became Ten-17 Herts & Essex League champions, having won the title following three consecutive promotions. The club also runs four other teams playing league and friendly cricket, and has a thriving junior section offering coaching and matchplay for children aged six upwards. The club was one of the first in the UK to gain Sport England's prestigious 'Clubmark' accreditation. It is an ECB 'Focus Club'.

• Fencing - Loughton Fencing Club meets at Debden Park High School.

• Football - At the Roding Valley Recreation Ground and Willingale Road Playing Fields a variety of local football teams play. Loughton FC, founded in 1965, dropped out of the Hertfordshire Senior County League in 2007 and now plays in the Bishops Stortford, Stansted and District League and has youth teams in the Echo Junior League and the Barking Youth League. Colebrook Royals, founded in 1997, play in the Essex Sunday Corinthian League. Ron Greenwood (1921–2006), manager of the England football team 1977–82, lived in Loughton for some years at 18 Brooklyn Avenue. The Football Academy UK opened in July 2007 on the site of the Britannia Sports Club in Langston Road.

• Golf - Loughton Golf Club owns a 9-hole course in Clays Lane. There are many other golf courses close by, including Abridge Golf and Country Club, Chigwell Golf Club, Chingford Golf Club, Royal Epping Forest Golf Club, Theydon Bois Golf Club, West Essex Golf Club, Woodford Golf Club and Woolston Manor Golf Club.

• Horse-riding - Horse-riding is very popular in Epping Forest; riders need to be registered with the Epping Forest conservators before they are allowed to ride in the forest. Pine Lodge Riding Centre at Springfield Farm, Loughton, is an ABRS-approved stables.

• Mountain-biking - Epping Forest attracts large numbers of mountain bikers. Mountain biking is generally permitted except around Loughton Camp and Ambresbury Banks (both Iron Age forts), Loughton Brook and other ecologically or geomorphologically sensitive areas. A number of clubs organise rides, particularly on Sunday mornings. Epping Forest was considered as a venue for the mountain-biking event of the 2012 Summer Olympics, though a later (but subsequently abandoned) choice was Weald Country Park near Brentwood, Essex.

• Orienteering and Rambling - Several long-distance footpaths pass through Loughton, including the Forest Way and the London Outer Orbital Path, and shorter walks are also popular, especially in Epping Forest. Chigwell & Epping Forest Orienteering Club was founded in 1966, and active orienteering in Epping Forest takes place most weekends. West Essex Ramblers, founded in 1970, are the local rambling club for Loughton; the club holds four walks a week in the Loughton area, with summer excursions to more distant locations. The most important event in the ramblers calendar in the area is the traditional Epping Forest Centenary Walk, an all-day event commemorating the saving of Epping Forest as a public space, which takes place annually on the fourth Sunday in September. West Essex Ramblers have over 1,000 members.

• Speedway - High Beach near Loughton is acknowledged by most speedway historians as being the first venue for speedway racing in the UK. The first event was staged on 19 February 1928.

• Swimming - Epping Forest District Swimming Club, founded in 1977, meets at Loughton Leisure Centre.

• Tennis - The Avenue Lawn Tennis Club has four artificial grass courts at its ground between The Avenue and Lower Park Road. From November 2006 to March 2007, the tennis courts were resurfaced with a new layer of astroturf and sand. There is a children's half-court with a basketball net. The courts surround the club house which (among other things) contains a table tennis table and a pool table. The Town Council maintains tennis courts on the Roding Valley, but those which are part of the Loughton Bowls and Lawn Tennis Club are disused.

• Taekwondo - Loughton Taekwondo meets at Debden Park High School. The club ranked top 5 at the BTCB National Taekwondo Championships in 2010 with 4 athletes becoming British Champion. The instructor Chan Sau won England's first ever Gold Medal at the 2008 Commonwealth Games in Canada.