Sport and things to do
A good deal more happens within a few miles of here than most people arriving would guess. Some of it is on the doorstep, some of it goes on over your head, and one of them costs nothing but wind.
Not all of it is sport. The Jubilee Hall alone has bridge, art, dancing and a camera club.
Middleton Sports Club
3 Sea Lane, PO22 7RH · 01243 583157
The big one, and it is on the estate’s own doorstep. It started in the 1920s, which makes it older than the Association.
Cricket, tennis, squash and racketball, hockey, bowls, table tennis, a gym with classes, and a programme of inclusive sports. There is a bar, restaurant and function room, and a social membership for people who want the club without the running about.
The MOSA Annual General Meeting is held there, so a good many members know the car park better than the courts.
Membership rates and how to join middletonsportsclub.co.uk · facilities can also be booked (opens in a new tab)The Jubilee Hall
Elmer Road, PO22 6EH · 01243 583298
The village hall, and the answer to “what is there to do here that is not sport”. Two halls, hired out for parties and weddings, and home to a good deal in between:
- Bridge club
- Art class
- Old tyme dancing and line dancing
- Fitness classes
- The Autumn Club
- A playschool
- Middleton Camera Club
It is a registered charity run by volunteers, and like everything else on this page it keeps going because people turn up.
To book it, or to ask what is on when, ring the number above. We have not published the email address, which is somebody’s personal one.
The Jubilee Hall, for hire Rooms, capacity and enquiries (opens in a new tab)Middleton Camera Club
Meets at the Jubilee Hall. “A small friendly club for anybody interested in photography”, which is a fair description of the ideal Wednesday evening.
If you have been photographing the estate for this website, you are already qualified.
Middleton Camera Club moscameraclub.weebly.com (opens in a new tab)The Sea Scouts
1st Middleton-on-Sea Sea Scout Group, at their headquarters on Shrubbs Field. They marked their fiftieth year in 2022.
| Section | Age | When |
|---|---|---|
| Beavers | 6 to 8 | Tuesdays, 4.45pm to 6pm |
| Cubs | 8 to 10 and a half | Tuesdays, 6.30pm to 8pm |
| Scouts | 10 and a half to 14 | Fridays, 7.15pm to 9pm |
School terms only. Camping, hiking, swimming, abseiling, cycling and canoeing, and being a Sea Scout group, rather more time on the water than most.
Volunteers are what these groups run out of first, and you do not need to have been a Scout yourself.
Join, or volunteer Bognor Regis and District Scouts (opens in a new tab)On the water
Sea swimming. The Felpham Dippers swim off Felpham beach all year round, raise a good deal for the RNLI, and will teach a newcomer how to do it safely rather than heroically.
Felpham Dippers Year-round sea swimming, group and one-to-one (opens in a new tab)Sailing. Felpham Sailing Club runs dinghy sailing from the beach at Felpham, for beginners as well as the experienced, with coaching courses through the year. Their website would not answer us, so ask at the club.
Your own boat. You can keep one on the Greensward and launch it off the beach here. See the Greensward.
Kites on the beach
At low tide the beach here runs a long way out and the wind comes off the Channel unobstructed, which makes it about as good a kite beach as the south coast has. It costs nothing and needs no membership.
Worth knowing before you go: a groyne is solid and invisible at high water. See coast and sea defences.
Gliding, from Bognor
Bognor Regis Gliding Club flies from LEC Airfield, Railside Retail Park, Shripney Road, PO22 9FL, which is behind Wickes and about fifteen minutes away.
If you have watched a glider circling over the estate on a summer afternoon, that is where it came from.
They fly Wednesdays and weekends, with slots on the hour from 11am to 3pm. A trial lesson is £140 for a flight of twenty to twenty-five minutes, after a ground briefing, with an instructor who lets you have a go at the controls.
Trial lessons at Bognor Regis Gliding Club brgc.co.uk · booked as a voucher, then a time slot (opens in a new tab)
Swimming, indoors
Arun Leisure Centre, Felpham Way, PO22 8ED, about ten minutes away and the nearest indoor pool.
A 25 metre pool and a 25 metre waterslide, a gym, squash courts, a soft play area and a cafe. Parking is free, which is not nothing.
Arun Leisure Centre Freedom Leisure · times, prices and swimming lessons (opens in a new tab)Padel, at Littlehampton
Harbour Padel opened on Rope Walk, on the banks of the Arun, on the site of the old Arun shipyard. Two indoor courts, bookable by the hour, ninety minutes or two hours, with a cafe and changing rooms.
Padel is much easier to start than tennis and much harder to stop, which is rather the point of it.
Harbour Padel, Littlehampton harbourpadel.co.uk · two indoor courts, book online (opens in a new tab)And the free ones
Walking. The Greensward and Old Point are part of the England Coast Path, so you can walk out of the estate and keep going in either direction for as long as you like.
England Coast Path, south east National Trails · the route in both directions from here (opens in a new tab)The twittens, which are the reason you can get anywhere here on foot in about five minutes. See twittens and roundabouts.
The beach, at any state of the tide, for nothing.
The mobile library calls at the car park by the surgery. There is a marked bay for it beside the recycling point. We have not been able to find the current timetable online, so if you know when it comes, tell us and we will put it here.