Sport and recreation
 Whether
you want to sweat it out regularly in the health suite, join a
work-out class for fun or play in a representative university
team, the Centre for Sport has something to offer.
For the last four years, the Centre for Sport at the
Headington Campus has scored a four-star rating in The
Sunday Times' British universities sports facilities
ranking list. It houses:
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a fitness suite with 65 training stations
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a heavy weights training room
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a main sports hall accommodating five badminton courts,
a basketball court, three squash courts, and a climbing room
and tower.
The University also has extensive outdoor pitches for
football, netball, lacrosse and cricket on the Wheatley
Campus. There are eight tennis courts (two floodlit to county
standard), two five-a-side floodlit Astroturf pitches, a
pitch-and-putt golf course and a fitness trail. An indoor
swimming pool plus a range of other sports facilities and
pitches are located at the Harcourt Hill Campus.
Sports of excellence
Committed to achieving excellence in team sports,
It has
chosen to focus the strengths on five sports of excellence:
basketball, climbing, hockey, rowing and rugby. These sports
of excellence are allied to a number of good local clubs,
which provide extra competition and coaching.
Something for everyone
The Centre also runs a variety of other sports. Cricket is
popular amongst Brookes students and top cricketers at Oxford
Brookes compete for a place in the Oxford Universities English
(and Welsh) Cricket Board Academy. The Combined Oxford
Universities squad trains all year and plays six first-class
matches against county sides, with home fixtures at Oxford
University Parks. In 2004, the Academy won the national cup
and league.
Regular aerobic, circuit and martial art classes are run at
the Centre for Sport, which also encourages students to learn
new sports such as climbing, sub-aqua or martial arts.
 Outdoor
sports enthusiasts will find regular trips cater for most
interests. Recent expeditions by members of the climbing and
fell-walking clubs took them to the Macedonian Balkan Trail,
The Haute Route, and Nepal's Tent Peak and Annapurna Base
Camp. Brookes skiers travel to the Alps during the Christmas
and Easter vacations. To coincide with the 50th anniversary of
the conquering of Everest, a group trekked to Base Camp.
Expeditions planned for 2005 include a 20-day trip to the
Himalayas.
Off-site
Bowbridge boathouse on the River Thames at Cholsey caters
for advanced competitors. Former Brookes crews have included:
Steve Williams, gold medallist at the Athens Olympics 2004 in
the men's coxless IVs, and Rowley Douglas, Ben Hunt-Davis and
Fred Scarlett, gold medallists at the Sydney Olympics 2000 in
the men's VIII competition. The first VIII recently competed
in the Head of the Charles in Boston, USA, as quests,
following success at Henley Royal Regatta.
Study at Brookes
Work up an appetite
Open every day, the popular café/bar in the Centre for
Sport at the Headington Campus serves a wide selection of
healthy food. The café overlooks a floodlit artificial turf
pitch, which is used primarily for hockey but is also great
for football.
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