Sport

From Bolton Interweb

Bolton has a wide range of state of the art sporting facilities as well as countless local football and cricket clubs throughout the town.

The pinnacle of sport in Bolton is Bolton Wanderers Football club, based at the Reebok Stadium at the Middlebrook retail park. Firmly ensconced in the English Premiership, despite some jittery moments, Bolton are unlikely to be contenders for the title any time soon, but with a proud history and prone to upsetting the big boys, who knows what the future holds.

Also at the Middlebrook is the Bolton Arena, providing superb training facilities for talented athletes, sports clubs and the local community, Bolton Arena is a first-rate sports and leisure complex, which is accessible to all on a membership or ‘pay and play’ basis.

As you would expect in the North West of England, home to 8 of the 20 Premiership teams including Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Everton, as well as Bolton Wanderers and lesser well known Premiership clubs Wigan, Blackburn and newcomers Burnley, football dominates sport in Bolton. There are a number of local clubs playing a range of junior and senior matches in several local Saturday and Sunday leagues.

Bolton is remarkable for having cricket clubs in the most unexpected places. For a modest-sized town, I counted more than 15 local clubs, many of them tucked away behind housing estates and not at all obvious from the street. As the weather is rarely perfect in this area of the world it is good to see a thriving cricket scene albeit partially hidden from view.

It is a bit odd, given the band of Rugby League towns that stretch from St Helens to Wigan and across into West Yorkshire, that Bolton is missing in this sporting arena. The local club is the Bolton Mets, who compete in the North West Counties Amateur Rugby League. Bolton also has the Bolton Rugby Union Club for those fans of the superior version of the game.

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