Sport
Keele has a tradition of participation in many different sports, ranging from rugby to lacrosse and dodgeball. Sports teams and issues raised are managed by the Athletic Union. The leisure centre is one of the largest dry leisure complexes in Staffordshire. The centre has two national standard sports halls, a single court gymnasium, a fitness centre, dance studio and climbing wall. Outside there is an all weather floodlit AstroTurf pitch, tennis courts and extensive playing fields. It is also the first university centre in the UK to offer a full "Kinesis" gym facility.
Keele University Sports Centre hosts the matches of Newcastle (Staffs) Volleyball Club, providing around 110 tiered seats with the perfect view of some of the best matches in English Volleyball. The university's sports centre has also hosted to the "Last 8s" competition of the Volleyball England under 16 and under 18 cups in recent years, as well as the senior cup semi-finals.
The university also hosts the "Keele International Cup", formerly the "Umbro International Cup", an international youth football tournament which attracts several football teams from around the world. A notable former competitor in the tournament is Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham, who played for the Manchester United Academy back when the tournament was still being held in Manchester.
In 2012, Keele University also took part in the first official inter-university Muggle Quidditch match, winning and thus becoming the top ranked team in the country. Members of this team will also be representing the UK at the upcoming Quidditch Summer Games along with members of the Leicester squad, with teams from the US and Australia both coming to England to play.
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Famous quotes containing the word sport:
“For generations, a wide range of shooting in Northern Ireland has provided all sections of the population with a pastime which ... has occupied a great deal of leisure time. Unlike many other countries, the outstanding characteristic of the sport has been that it was not confined to any one class.”
—Northern Irish Tourist Board. quoted in New Statesman (London, Aug. 29, 1969)
““Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the d’Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained thus a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.
The End”
—Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
“Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
And parting summer’s lingering blooms delayed,
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
How often have I loitered o’er the green,
Where humble happiness endeared each scene.”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)