Came up in conversation at the weekend, but what sports have you competed in (by competed, meaning taking part in actual competitive events)?

For me it has been boxing, judo, darts, pool, football, rugby union, rowing, motor sport (4×4 Trials & Comp. Safaris) and cycling (MTB). Some more successfully than others… 😕

Skiing (international standard)Tennis (club level when younger)Running (local short events) Football (school team)

MTB (XC)
BMX
CYCLE SPEEDWAY
MX

Did a couple of TT’s but not sure they count.

Can you see a pattern there?

I was junior southwest bong smoking champion 1987-1991 8)

football, pinball, floorball, motoball, motorbike enduro, windsurfing, pool, darts, hockey, snooker, tennis, motorbike 24hr endurance*as pit crew

*does dirty scrabble count

Won a crazy golf contest once. edit: but you’ll never catch me playing the real thing.

Is this including school?

If yes, rugby, cricket, athletics, squash, fives, sailing.

If no, rugby, football, squash, hockey.

Swimming (national level), rugby (county level at school), MTB XC in the 90s as a teenager, then a 10 year “misspent youth” gap, then back to MTB XC before moving to Enduro.

Badminton (county)
Rugby union (club)

Mtb (leisure) has taken over from both of these though as I only really get the chance to get out twice a week these days.

Just rowing. Did spend 15+ years doing it though. Quite nice to have stopped now 🙂 (great sport but hard work)

swimming, cross country running, MTB, road racing, triathlon, Sailing and Rugby.

Working on getting back into the sailing next year 🙂

Rugby Union (School)

Sailing (club level)

Badminton (ish, there was a group of us who played ~3 hours every saturday for a few years and it was quite competative).

Dinghy and yacht sailing. Not for years now though 🙁

Dragonboat Racing – both as a club team and in the GB squad going to China for the World Championships.
Outrigger canowing, longest race I’ve done was 22 miles. Both of the above I am slightly lapsed for competition but I still have my outrigger canoe for just having fun in
Also a spot of adventure racing and the odd half marathon but I would not call the half marathon racing, more a test of meself!

Golf and motorbike racing.

I was a semi pro golfer back in my teens. Took up motorbike racing in my early 30s.

Cricket (town cc)
Badminton (club)

Only badminton these days with a crew of friends.

cross country running (school) – top 20 national from about 15 to 18

badminton (school) – rarely finished outside of top 10 national from 14-18, with 2 scottish schools wins at 15 and 16 which i’ll never forget 🙂

DH MTB (17-24) – was generally somewhere around the middle of the field, although often at the bottom after stacking all the way down

football (15-18) – goal keeper for a couple of reasonable local teams. I was always 2nd keeper and I was always rubbish. never liked football, but all my mates played so enjoyed the company

karate – 11 – 17. I actually had pretty decent results early on, but then it all went pear shaped for some reason!

hmmmm, looking at this tells me a lot about what I focused on after I left school 🙂 I also note a distinct lack of team sports!

EDIT: doh, forgot about snowboarding. Compete occasionally across all a number of areas from 16 to date. Never placed very highly 🙂

Other than mountain biking I’ve done timetrials, cx and road racing.

I’ve also done swimming at a county level and lots of types of canoeing.

canoe polo
canoe slalom (K1)
white water racing

Gymnastics as a girl to national level.
Recently taken up racing BMX. Got fed up being cold when watching my son ride at coaching and racing, so joined in and having a blast.

Cycling – road race, TT, MTB enduro and CX
Running – road, xc, fell, track
Football
Cricket
Triathlon – up to Middle Distance

All to average to below average ability

In order of increasing expertese (cough) Basketball, Cricket, Sailing, Hockey

Played in most school sports teams but I don’t count that nor recreational competitions in golf and tennis. Came across a newspaper cutting from 1970, Katara Bears Under 7 Rugby League (NSW, Australia) – my first organized sport and have loved sports especially team orientated ever since

MTB
Motorcycle Trials
Motorcycle Enduro

Ignoring school where I was the sporty kid who did everything, athletics to national level as a sprinter, football to semi-pro level and cricket at club standard. I’d love to start playing basketball again but I am not fit enough or indeed good enough.

Various school sports, but squash was the main one.

As a junior, nationally ranked, national squad, represented England in the junior world teams/world champs, various national, european & international tournaments.

Stopped at 19, had a fairly serious injury & grew to actually hate the idea of playing again. Started again about 2 years ago after 11 years of nothing. Standard is dire by comparison, not even mens county standard now. Enjoying playing though & it’s a great social playing county league team squash 🙂

Crown green bowls for Cumbria. (once)

Won a BMX race. (once)

Sailing (International level in sportboats and yachts)
Windsurfing (UK Comp level)
Kitesurfing (Competed once, faceplanted the beach, no more competing for me, just fun in waves now)
Paddleboarding (UK Comps only and only wave riding)
Ohh,
And Roadies, Tour of Britain (Kellogs/Milk Race), semi pro for a couple of years “back in the day”

At school I did the county athletics thing, in sprinting. Which is a little more than just school football I suppose.

I played for a short time in a company squash ladder too 🙂

I’ve just thrown out a load of old, mostly chrome plated plastic, trophies from my motorbike racing days.
Club racing on a Yamaha 250LC and British Endurance Championship on a Honda CBR600. Those plastic trophies should have been made out of gold for the amount of time and money I spent over the years.

Played National League volleyball for a while, also played Div1 in London which is a higher standard

Played Ultimate Frisbee for some years, not played competitively for a good while though

Archery

Most things MTB.

Swam at club level as a nipper and raced reasonably well at regionals.

Played football at some point.

Sailed in some regattas while working summer seasons, if that counts.

Schoolboy MX at national level.
BMX at local level.
Adult MX at national level
Enduro at world champs level.
Also did a few XC races and got on the podium a couple of times.
Though that was a long time ago.

So all bike related then.

Triathlon, duathlon, hockey (goalie at U16, U18 & U21 county & district level), sailing, skiing (won my one and only race), equestrian events (show jumping & cross country), judo, softball (National Champs), running, various track & field events and finally cricket (when the office team is desperate)!!

Cricket to decent club standard – each team had an overseas pro so have played against several first class players, some guys with Test match / ODI caps, and more usually guys from India / pakistan / sri lanka in their age group set ups – U19 international players, etc., some of who went on to the senior levels (more usually because they had lower expectations for their pay compared to the Aussies and NZ’s)

Football (in goal) to county level while at school, then at University level and after Uni at the very bottom edge of semi-pro level. Then got a knee injury, which also put paid to my running – was on track for a 90 minute half marathon and was thinking of moving up to full marathon distance – and as part of my remedial physio they suggested i try cycling instead as it was lower impact*. The rest as they say, is history…..

* low impact – they clearly underestimated my ability to impact the ground and trees with regularity.

Rugby (stopped about 5 years ago) and Clay Pigeon Shooting (still competing[ish] and will probably be shooting long after I’m too knackered to ride a bike!)

At school: Shooting, javelin, discuss, running
At Uni: Hockey, sailing Tae Kwon Do, drinking
After Uni: Shooting, running, cycling, ninjutsu, shooting, pool, archery, poker, Jenga

Rowing.

I did a motorbike race once. Can’t say I competed

Cycling: Cyclo-cross (regional Vets Champ), time-trialling, road racing and MTB.
School: rugby and cricket

Also recently rekindled my cricket and opened the bowling for a village team 😀

Seriously competitive:

Ice hockey (goalie) for 10 years
Football (youth premiership)
Road cycling

Recreational:

Canadian football
baseball
archery
skiing (xc and downhill)
orienteering
waterskiing