Mansfield - Sport

Sport

Mansfield is home to Mansfield Town F.C., known as the Stags. They were relegated to the Conference National after 77 years in the Football League at the end of the 2007–08 season. The team's traditional rival is the nearby town of Chesterfield in Derbyshire. The rivalry between the two clubs is considered among the fiercest in the lower leagues. Some Yorkshire (and Derbyshire) folk still associate Mansfield with failure to support the UK miners' strike (1984–1985); football matches between Mansfield Town: Barnsley, Rotherham United, Doncaster Rovers and Chesterfield and have seen fans of the latter chant "scab". Before the strike, Mansfield Town and Chesterfield FC fans could stand in relative harmony on the terraces (this is no-longer the case).

Mansfield Giants are Mansfield’s Premier Basketball Club, and have a 3 star Accreditation and Club Mark from the English Sports Council. Giants play in the England Basketball (EB2)

Angling is well supported in the Mansfield district, where ponds remain from the former textile milling industry. Tennis there is Mansfield Lawn Tennis Club. It has 4 grass courts and 5 hard courts.

Mansfield is also home to the Mansfield Misfits, Mansfield's premier Flat Track Roller Derby league.

One major issue amongst local residents, is Mansfields lack of a central Leisure Centre. Mansfield District Council decided it would rubber stamp the sale of the existing Leisure Centre, and its grounds to Tesco, who built a large Tesco Extra store on the Leisure Centre site. MDC promised this would be replaced by a brand new Leisure Centre, but over 5 years on, no central Leisure Centre has been built or is planned. MDC received over £5m from Tesco for the Leisure Centre site. MDC, decided to spend the money on REFURBISHING Sherwood Baths instead fo replacing the Leisure Centre.

Mansfield now has no less than 3 indoor swimming centres in its district, but no central Leisure Centre. This is actually the largest amount of M2 (meter squared) indoor water sports facilties per capita than any other town in the in the UK with less than 100,000 inhabitants. (Mansfield also holds the UK record, for the largest UK town, not to have a municipal squash court in the whole of its district)

The general public of Mansfield still hold this against MDC, as the previous Leisure Centre, which had been fully paid for by the council tax payers of the town has now gone, seemingly for good. Replaced by a supermarket.

Despite many so far unfulfilled promises by the towns Mayor, the lack of a central Leisure Centre is seen as a contributing factor to the amount of clinically obese residents of the town. The figures is over 15% above the national average.

Mansfield is one of the three outlets of the Nottinghamshire County Council Swim Squad, who compete as Nova Centurion. The Sherwood Swimming Baths in Mansfield Woodhouse are, as of 2008, being refurbished and likely to re-open in 2009 as the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Centre in September 2009.

During the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a Mansfield local called Rebecca Adlington won two gold medels for 800 meter freestyle swimming. Rebecca's record breaking success in Beijing lead to her being welcomed home to Mansfield in an open top bus parade. Thousands of people took to the streets around the town to welcome her home. Her success has boosted interest in swimming in the area, leading to many more swimming schemes being set up in the Mansfield area to encourage young people to begin swimming. The Sherwood Baths swimming baths has since been renamed and reopened as the Rebecca Adlington Swimming Center.

Mansfield is home to the Water Meadows swimming complex, situated on Bath Lane, which hosts a gym alongside two swimming pools. It has the very popular wave machine, which operates in the shallow pool and gives the swimmers the experience of waves, similar to swimming in an ocean. Water Meadows is extremely popular as a school swimming baths, many schools, both from inside and outside the Mansfield area regularly come to the town to access the facilities offered at Water Meadows.