Sport in Leeds & Yorkshire

News Locals Carry Torch for Leeds in Olympic Tour

Lord Coe "thrilled" that the Olympic torch will call into Leeds

The eagerly anticipated route that the Olympic Torch will take as it makes its nationwide tour next summer has today been revealed. Travelling 8,000 miles, it will illuminate cities across the UK – and it has been confirmed that Leeds will be welcoming the torch before its 70-day tour culminates in London for the opening of the Olympic Games.

The Torch Relay, which will begin at Land’s End in Cornwall on the morning of Saturday 19 May 2012, is being managed by The London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) along with partners Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB…

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Book Review Leeds United Miscellany

by Joe Mewis

By definition, this book is a mixed bag of anecdotes, statistics, facts and historical trivia covering the entire history of Leeds United. But whilst some of the particulars relate to well known games or players, we have others that have clearly evolved from painstaking research and an eye for the obscure. Do you know the full story about David Harvey’s suicidal pet monkey?

There is something in this book for everyone, but chiefly this is a concise history of the club for younger fans needing a brief introduction to the significant pain and occasional pleasure of being a Leeds fan.

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Interview Chris Kamara

We meet the enthusiastic Sky football pundit and ex-Leeds United star

As a breathless pundit on Sky Sports, Chris Kamara has attracted a cult following among viewers who are otherwise used to interchangeable ex-pros sharing tepid clichés on screen. In an era of football as the new primetime entertainment, fans have warmed to Kamara’s old school enthusiasm.

"I always get surprised by the level of people’s support for me. It’s just amazing, it really is," he says over a soft drink, overlooking Millennium Square. "It’s sort of gone out of all proportion, but long may it continue. It’s just incredible. I never take it for granted and I’m still the same…

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Leeds United LUFC 2010/11 Season Review

'Leeds United On This Day' author Joe Mewis looks back over Leeds United's first season back in the Championishp

At the start of the season we said in this column that we’d take a nice comfortable mid-table finish, a season of consolidation and getting to grips with the Championship before a promotion charge next year. This would also bring the added bonus of not having the stressful cloud of promotion/play-offs/relegation envelop us Leeds fans as it does every season and we might all live longer as a result.

That’s not quite how it panned out however, as the past season has contained its usual share of ups and downs with United narrowly missing out on…

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Try This Aerockbics

We pack our air guitar for Leeds' newest fitness craze

When I was a member at a gym, there was a chart playlist that I only ever heard there. Shane Ward, The Script and some indistinct dance tunes presumably meant to inspire us to pump it harder, and such like. I hated it. There was even a time I plugged my headphones into the system on the running machine and watched ‘Loose Women’, so bored was I by the vacuous dirge piped into the sweaty room. Needless to say, my gym membership lapsed quicker than Shame Ward’s career.

There are countless different celebrity-endorsed fitness fads that I could try, I…

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News Fearnville Leisure Centre Hosts Free Event

Active Life programme offers free sport for over 50s in Leeds

Fearnville Leisure Centre hosted a free event on Friday 6th May as part of wider efforts to encourage a wider take-up of fitness and sport activities among people aged 50 and over.

The event at Fearnville, which is situated on Oakwood Lane, offered taster sessions of a variety of sports to the 50 participants, including table tennis, badminton, racketball, gym inductions, spinning, aerobics, swimming and step aerobics. It was all part of an initiative to publicise the council’s Active Life programme, which encourages people in older age groups to get fit in a relaxed and sociable environment.

The day ran…

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Try This Snow Xross Bikes

Ali Schofield takes to the slopes on SNO!zone's newest mode of transport

The thing with snowboarding is it takes quite a bit of time to gain the skills which will see you merrily swishing down a slope. The first session, as I have experienced first hand, is punctuated with bruise-making falls – the instructor even has you pick a cheek to land on so as not to hurt your spine – and the next few sessions (as I have not experienced as I am a ‘if at first you don’t succeed, give up’ kinda gal), are still unlikely to furnish you with adrenaline-filled fun.

That is not to say I don’t fancy…

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Leeds United Leading The Chasing Pack

Three defeats in four games leave Leeds in league limbo

The rhetoric surrounding Leeds United’s defeat last night would suggest it wasn’t a great display of the endeavour expected by the United faithful. Similar grumbles seemed to emanate around West Yorkshire after the surprise loss to Sheffield United and the unsuccessful trip to Millwall’s New Den.

An away trip to Derby was a chance to curb the apparent loss of form, but Nigel Clough’s men bounced back from a goal down to do the double on United and send them into playoff purgatory. After an hour, Gradel had smashed Leeds into the lead but just five minutes later the tables…

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Leeds United Doncaster and Preston

Another two games in four days, another seven goals: Leeds consolidate their playoff credentials with style and guts

On paper both Doncaster and Preston (17^th and 24^th respectively) are teams that any club in the top half of the table would want to beat. At this stage of the season however, with almost every Championship club still in the market for something – whether that be safety or higher placed ambitions – that would be a naive attitude to adopt.

For 44 minutes against Doncaster on Saturday, Leeds United looked like an unstoppable attacking force. How only one goal was wrestled free of the opposition no-one will ever know, such was the voracity of Leeds’ desire.

How Howson…

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Leeds United Welsh Woe

Regular Championship football news from Elland Road

Leeds’ 7-match unbeaten run came to an emphatic end in South Wales on Saturday, when a vibrant Swansea side beat United 3-0 in a match where the visitor’s shortcomings were painfully exposed.

With Bradley Johnson suspended following his two yellow cards against Barnsley, Simon Grayson was forced into a change of personnel and formation, bringing in Davide Somma and switching to a 4-4-2 formation. Herein lied the problem, as the Leeds midfield was overrun from the off, as Kilkenny and Howson, outnumbered in the middle of the park, failed to stamp their authority on the game which in turn gave…

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