Ipswich has been named the "sportiest town in the UK" - thanks to its sports complexes and facilities, and the fifth most active place in the country.
New research done by outdoor retailer Blacks focused on the number of activities and attractions such as parks, hiking trails and sports complexes in comparison to each city's population, to discover which of them have the most to offer.
Ipswich won with its nine sports complexes, which vary from skateboard parks to swimming pools.
There are 5.03 sports complexes per 100,000 people inthe town.
Cambridge was placed second, with its seven sports complexes, including the Cambridge County Polo Club and the Ice Arena.
Dundee, with six sports complexes to explore, won third place.
Ipswich has been also named the third best town for parks - with 15 in total, there are 8.39 parks for every 100,000 people.
York was placed first and Norwich came second in the category.
Chris Grimwood from Ipswich Sports Club said: “We’re delighted to see that Ipswich has been named the best UK town for sports complexes in the UK.
“Having been at the heart of the town's sporting infrastructure for over 75 years, we’re proud to still be the leading sporting venue in Suffolk providing top sports facilities and coaching from grassroots to elite level across tennis, squash, racketball and hockey, and with the recent addition of padel to our offering we couldn’t be more excited about the future of sports in Ipswich”
Mark Patterson, the director of Clip ‘n’ Climb Ipswich, said: "This is superb news for Ipswich and is very well deserved after so much public and private investment in the area, particularly over the last decade.
"It is so important to provide people of all ages with the opportunity to get active and live a healthy lifestyle, so all of us at Clip 'n Climb Ipswich feel very privileged to be playing our part.
"To those looking for a fun way to get fit, there are so many opportunities around and we would love to see more people join us for a climb!"
Play Areas are also a valuable part of Ipswich parks and are loved by children and their parents.
In March 2022, the council’s budget meeting agreed to invest £3.5million to fund a major programme of improvements to play areas right across the town.
Councillor Philip Smart, Ipswich Borough Council portfolio holder for environment and climate change, said: “It is right that we are making our well-regarded play areas even more of a priority with further of them on the way across the town as new ones are provided near new housing developments.
"We are investing a million pounds in play areas in 2022/23, including £180,000 on Castle Hill Rec and £250,000 in Holywells Park on improvements.
"This commitment shows that our new Play Area Strategy is a step-change improvement to make our play areas even better."
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