Activities and sports - The Rough Guide to London - page 433

SPECTATOR SPORTS
For the top international events, it can be almost impossible to track down a ticket without paying over the odds through
a ticket agency. Should you be thwarted in your attempts to gain admission, you can often fall back on TV or radio
coverage . BBC Radio 5 live (909 & 693 Mhz) has live commentaries on almost all major sporting events, while one of the
free-to-view TV channels nearly always carries live transmission of international rugby and soccer. To watch some sports
(including live Premiership football), you'll need to find a TV that has the Sky stations - many pubs show Sky games
(sometimes on big screens) to draw in custom.

Brentford train station from Waterloo.
Charlton Athletic (Championship) The Valley, Floyd
Rd, SE7 (27,000 capacity) T 0871 226 1905, W cafc
.co.uk; Charlton train station from Charing Cross.
Chelsea (Premiership) Stamford Bridge, Fulham Rd,
SW6 (41,800 capacity) T 020 7835 6000, W chelseafc
.com; ! Fulham Broadway.
Crystal Palace (Premiership) Selhurst Park,
Whitehorse Lane, SE25 (26,000 capacity) T 020 8768
6010, W cpfc.co.uk; Selhurst train station from Victoria.
Dagenham & Redbridge (League Two) Victoria Rd,
Dagenham (6000 capacity) T 020 8592 1549,
W daggers.co.uk; ! Dagenham.
Fulham (Premiership) Craven Cottage, Stevenage Rd,
SW6 (25,000 capacity) T 0843 208 1222, W fulhamfc
.com; ! Putney Bridge.
Leyton Orient (League One) Matchroom Stadium,
Brisbane Rd, E10 (9200 capacity) T 0871 310 1881,
W leytonorient.com; ! Leyton.
Millwall (Championship) The Den, Zampa Rd, SE16
(20,000 capacity) T 020 7232 1222, W millwallfc.co.uk;
South Bermondsey train station from London Bridge.
Queens Park Rangers (Championship) Loftus Road
Stadium, South Africa Rd, W12 (18,300 capacity) T 020
8743 0262, W qpr.co.uk; ! White City.
Tottenham Hotspur (Premiership) White Hart Lane
Stadium, Tottenham High Rd, N17 (36,000 capacity)
T 0844 499 5000, W tottenhamhotspur.com; White
Hart Lane train station from Liverpool Street.
West Ham United (Championship) Upton Park, Green
St, E13 (35,500 capacity) T 020 8548 2748, W whufc
.com; ! Upton Park.
Wimbledon (League Two) Kingsmeadow, Kingston-
upon-Thames (4850 capacity) T 020 8547 3528,
W afcwimbledon.co.uk; Norbiton train station from
Waterloo .

FOOTBALL
The English football (soccer) season runs from mid-Aug
to early May, when the FA Cup Final at Wembley finishes
off the season. There are four professional leagues: at the
top is the twenty-club Premiership, followed by the
Championship and Leagues One and Two, each of which
has 24 clubs. There are London clubs in every single
division, with around five or six in the Premiership at any
one time. Over the decades, London's most successful club
by far has been Arsenal . However, since the arrival of
Russian oil tycoon Roman Abramovich, fellow London club
Chelsea has had a resurgence, winning the league for the
first time in fifty years in 2005, and twice more since then.
Tickets Tickets for most Premiership games start at
£40-50 and are virtually impossible to get hold of on a
casual basis, though you may be able to see one of the Cup
fixtures. It's a lot easier and cheaper to see a game in the
Championship or one of the lower leagues, or to go on a
stadium tour (see club websites for details).
Fixtures Most Premiership fixtures kick off at 3pm on
Saturday, though there's also an early and late kick-off on
Saturday, plus a couple on Sunday and the occasional
midweek match; all matches, apart from the Saturday 3pm
kick-offs, are broadcast live on Sky TV.

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NATIONAL STADIUM
Wembley Stadium Wembley Way (90,000 capacity)
T 0844 800 2755, W wembleystadium.com; ! Wembley
Park or Wembley Central. The new stadium, designed by
Norman Foster and featuring a massive steel arch, is the
world's most expensive football ground, but it'll never reach
the iconic status of the old stadium, constructed for the 1924
British Empire Exhibition, and the main focus of the 1948
Olympic Games. The stadium's most famous features were its
“twin towers”, forever associated with England's victory here
in the 1966 World Cup Final. Erected as a mute reference to the
old Raj, they were, in fact, only added in 1963, to celebrate the
hundredth anniversary of the Football League. Guided tours
are available (daily 10am-4pm; £16).

CRICKET
The cricket season runs from April to September. If you're
new to the sport, the best introduction is to go to an inter-
county Twenty20 knock-out match, which take place in
the evening, lasts three hours and represents the game at
its most frenetic. The other option is to attend a match,
either in one of the one-day competitions or in the old-
fashioned county championship . Games in the latter
take place over the course of four days and are never sold

FOOTBALL CLUBS
Arsenal (Premiership) Emirates Stadium, Ashburton
Grove, N7 (60,000 capacity) T 020 7619 5000,
W arsenal.com; ! Arsenal.
Brentford (League One) Gri n Park, Braemar Rd
(12,300 capacity) T 0845 345 6442, W brentfordfc.co.uk;