Golf, gee-gees and more - how to have a sporty summer

Although on the whole we’re a relatively sporty lot – marathon running, cycling and horse riding are just a few of the ways various members of the Pitchup.com team spend their weekends – our moods can occasionally change in hot weather. Sport on these days can then mean ‘exercising one’s arm pointing the remote control at the telly’, ‘carrying three pints back from the bar’, or, if feeling energetic, ‘floating gently on a surfboard along the nearest river’.

Luckily there’s quite a bit of sporty activity coming up this summer to gently watch rather than strenuously do. (We also hear a football tournament started last night in Brazil - poor old Marcelo.) If you’re a sporty sort of the spectating variety, here’s a gentle taste of what you can watch in the UK:

Horse racing

Alack, the Epsom Derby is already over, but we care only a little jot because Royal Ascot is on its way. The five-day meet starts next Tuesday (17 June) and runs until 21 June, with three contests on the first day and the Gold Cup and Ladies' Day on Thursday 19. The cheapest tickets are on The Heath from £17 (bring a picnic blanket) and the Silver Ring (£25), but if you want to gracefully acknowledge that you'll lose all your money anyway, you might as well splash out on tickets in the Grandstand (£65).

Home Farm Camping and Caravanning Park 19 miles away has bell tent available throughout Ascot (champagne bucket supplied, yes really), from £120 a night for two people and £142.50 a night for five. Beds, bedding, a log burning stove and all cooking utensils are included.

For horse shows rather than horse racing, take a quick gallop around our guide to UK horse shows in 2014 .

Tennis

Defending champs Andy Murray and Marion Bartoli are taking on the world from 23 June – 6 July at this year’s Wimbledon, famously held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and part of what one calls ‘the summer season’.

Our nearest sites are Southern Bells and Osney Lodge Farm , both at Lingfield 18 miles away. Southern Bells's pre-erected unfurnished tents sleeping up to four are available throughout Wimbledon from £50, and its fully-furnished bell tents from £150 are available for the festivities except 26 – 29 June.

Those batty about budgets can pitch up for a courtly £8 a night at Osney Lodge Farm, a wildlife haven site with dogs and campfires allowed. Pitches are available throughout the summer (handy if you want to arrive before Wimbledon and join The Queue at Gate 3 very early on 22 June).

Don’t have the readies to go to Wimbledon every single day/can’t get tickets/aren’t a peer? We hear you. Search our hundreds of listings for campsites with tennis on site and sites with tennis nearby .

Cycling

Join Bradley Wiggins watching the Tour de France this summer, pedalling off from its Grand Départ in Yorkshire on 5 July. Rather cleverly, we have designed a Tour de France routeplanner for pedal pushers to follow the route in England and on to France, with details of up to ten nearby campsites at each: more details here .

See our 2014: Year of the Cycle blog for more cycling events this summer including:

Bike Bath , 28 – 29 June

Yorkshire Festival of Cycling , 4 – 6 July

Chiltern Cycling Festival , 13 July

Search Pitchup.com for sites with cycle hire , cycle hire nearby and cycling nearby ; you can also see details of bike routes nearby on any of our site listings from the Local attractions tab.

Motor racing

It’s probably not possible to manage a speedy pedal from Harrogate to Silverstone on the Grand Départ weekend for the end of the British Grand Prix on Sunday 6 July – if you’re as fit as all that, you’ll be riding in Le Tour. If you decide to go to Silverstone instead, Billing Aquadrome in Northamptonshire , 15 miles away from the Prix place, has camping pods available for three nights from £120, on 235 acres of water-surrounded Northamptonshire parkland and with fishing lakes, bar, gym, Jacuzzi, pedalos and events running all through the summer.

Fancy the British motorcycle Grand Prix on 28 August too? Both the shepherd’s hut and gypsy wagon at Oxfordshire ’s Glamping Thorpe nine miles away are available for four nights that week from £320: the hut from 26 August and the gypsy wagon from the 27th. Read our motorcycling and camping guide for more details on motorcycle-friendly campsites and some of the UK’s best biking routes.

Golf

Coo. We have two major tournaments in the UK this summer – once you’ve watched the British Open (13 – 20 July, Royal Liverpool Golf Club), the Ryder Cup is back from 23 – 28 September at Gleneagles, Perthshire. (Late September will still be sunny summer. We’ve penned it into the diary.)

Until the Open opens, whet your appetite with the Irish Open at Fota Island in Cork from 19 – 22 June and the Scottish Open (Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, 10 – 13 July), bringing armchair golfers straight to the start of the full-on British Open. We’re sure spouses will be delighted.

You could also have a look at our golfing and camping guide if you’re so inclined, with details of top golf courses to make it a summer of little white balls. Again, we’re sure spouses will be delighted. Full golfing calendar here .

Golf stays include:

Deeside Holiday Park : non-electric grass pitches on a family park, six miles from Aberdeen, eight from the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club and with five golf courses within five miles. Non-electric grass tent p itches are available throughout July from £16 a night.

Grand Eagles: three miles from Gleneagles and with hardstanding pitches for tourers and motorhomes available throughout the Ryder Cup from £195 a night for up to four people.

Blarney Caravan and Camping Park : award-winning park easily reachable from the ferry port at Cork and with golf courses – and shoals of fishing opportunities – in the area. Non-electric grass tent pitches from £18.08; hardstanding tourer and motorhome pitches from £20.55.

See also:

Cowes Week , 2 – 9 August, Isle of Wight

Commonwealth Games – campsites in Scotland

World Egg Throwing Championships , 29 June, Lincolnshire

World Bog Snorkelling Championships , 24 August, Powys

Back of the net! The Pitchup.com guide to watching the World Cup