Named after the famous boxer, Lennox Lewis Sport Centre (I'm only joking) is situated at Odsal Top alongside Odsal Stadium and the Motorway Junction. It is an all-round sport centre incorporating swimming (with two excellent slides), various sports halls for badminton, 5-a-side etc. and also a weights room. Entry for swimming incorporating the slides is about £3-£5. I've never been to the weights rooms, etc. so I'll just comment on the swimming section. As you enter the centre via the Rooley Lane Car Park you have to walk up a long "ramp" passageway to the desk to pay, which overlooks the pool. As you approach the desk, you pay through a "turnstyle" system. On your left is the café and vending machines and on your right is the customer services desk and some stairs. Straight ahead is a bar!!!! God down these stairs a few flights and you'll come to a Pepsi machine. On your left is the male changing rooms and on your right is the female. In this aspect, with all the stairs and long uphill corridors it is not a very user friendly centre and certainly not suitable for the disabled, although these may enter via the ramp leading down from the café. The changing rooms are comfortable by swimming room standards and have both cubicles and communal changing areas, plus team changing areas for football/badminton/cricket teams (outside there are three football pitches, a couple of tenniscourts and a cricket pitch). You then have to go to the desk by the pool and get your band which is directly associated with what time you have to leave the pool, e.g. a red band leaves at 2.00pm, a blue band leaves at 2.30pm, a green band leaves at 3.00pm. The amount of time you spend in the pool depends on the season, for example in the summer holidays you may get less time than on a week end. There is a normal pool to swim (or doss) in and also a childrens enclosure. The swimming area is painted like a beach and there is a ramp leading up to the café if you get hungry. The lifeguards are properly trained and helpful/polite.
The best aspect of the pool, however, are the slides! There are two to pick from, the Zambeezee tyre ride and the Cobra Interactive Slide. The Zambeezee represents a gentle trip down a river and if you go with mates its great fun to link all your tyres at the stop-off points and make a chain (though it's not allowed). The Cobra is a much more fast-and-furious affair for the more daring among us and is proper fast and in the dark, then all of a sudden you go into this bowl with a hole at the bottom. Whilst in the bowl, you have to press as many of the flashing discs as possible, before falling out head-first into the splash pool below. You can then read your score off the flashing display. It is the only ride of its kind in Europe. There are long queues for these, however (especially the Zambeezee where you have to queue once for the tyre and once for the ride) but its well worth it. Richard Dunn - definately one to add to your days out list!
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Jul 20th, 2001
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