Five Must See Sporting Venues and Events in England

Ascot Racecourse

For a truly unique English experience, consider visiting Ascot Racecourse located in the village of Ascot in Berkshire. Founded in 1711 by Queen Anne, Ascot is currently owned by the Crown Estate. Famous for the world's most recognized race meeting, Ascot has been host to Royal Ascot since 1711. Held in June of each year, Royal Ascot is comprised of 16 Group races spread over five days.

Thinking of sipping a glass of champagne with The Queen? Access to the Royal Enclosure is extremely difficult if not impossible to get into. However, general admittance tickets can still be obtained if you’re willing to pay more than average. The dress code is strict and requires that men wear "full morning dress" including a top hat and women wear a dress and hat as well.

Ladies' Day is one of the most popular days and features an abundance of crazy and outrageously expensive hats. This is a superb opportunity for a full day of people watching.
If you can't attend Royal Ascot or prefer to come to a less busy race, Ascot is host to over 25 days of racing throughout the course of the year. While formal dress is not a requirement for these races, most people still prefer to dress up with the occasional quirky hat in tow and glass of champagne in hand.

Twickenham

The home of English rugby, Twickenham is the largest rugby union stadium in the United Kingdom. It seats over 82,000 fans and is the home of the English rugby union team. It is also the host of England’s Six Nation’s matches in November of each year. It is located in Twickenham, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.

The annual Varsity Match between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge has been hosted at Twickenham since 1921. In keeping with tradition, the match is generally held on the second Tuesday of December. Cambridge currently maintains the lead with 59 wins while Oxford has only 53. Fourteen games have ended in a draw.

Old Trafford

Old Trafford is a 76,000-seat football stadium in the Trafford Borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is the second largest capacity football stadium second only to Wembley Stadium in London.

Old Trafford is the home of Manchester United Football Club, one of the most popular football clubs in the world with over 300 million supporters worldwide. Manchester United are currently the reigning English champions and Club World Cup holders. The club holds the record for the most FA Cup titles with 11 wins.

If you can make a game, a great rivalry to see would be Manchester United vs. Liverpool or intra-city rivals Manchester City. Both of which would provide a unique gaming experience.

Wimbledon Tennis Championship

Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world. The only tournament still played on grass courts (rye to be exact); Wimbledon has been held at the All England Club since 1877.

Taking place over two weeks in late June and early July, the tournament consists of five main events with the most popular event - the men's singles finals being played on the last Sunday. The two main courts, Centre Court and No. 1 Court are normally only used during this tournament and remain unused throughout the rest of the year.

Wimbledon is a pretty easy event to get tickets to but if you want to sit on Centre Court, No. 1 or No. 2 Court plan on queuing all night long to try and get tickets with no guarantee of success. A better option is to get a general admittance ticket, watch great tennis matches on the other courts (many times very famous players are on these courts), drink lots of Pimm’s cocktails and eat strawberries and cream till you get sick! You can still view action on Centre Court on one of many screens located throughout the club.

During Wimbledon, the underground runs constantly from London via the District or Northern lines. Plan on busy trains and a long walk from the South Wimbledon train station to the All England Club.

The Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race

A unique collegiate sports experience is the annual Oxford & Cambridge Boat Race held each spring on the Thames in London. Fashioned after the original Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race held at Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire in 1829, the tradition continues today and draws almost 250,000 spectators crowded along the banks of the Thames. Members of both teams are traditionally known as "blues" and each boat as a "Blue Boat". Cambridge is light blue and Oxford is dark blue.

The race takes place over a 4-mile course, starting at the Putney Bridge in Fulham running upstream on the Thames and finishing just a few yards downstream from Chiswick Road Bridge. The entire race takes approximately 17 minutes from start to finish. Cambridge currently holds the record of most wins with 79 while Oxford has 75. Oxford has won the race for the last two years.