9 clubs and groups you can join, with training nights, fees and the beginner route into each.
An award-winning Shorinji Kempo club in Camden, a Japanese martial art of self-defence, throws, meditation and philosophy taught step by step, with an LGBTQIA+ community at its heart and most members starting with no martial arts at all. Thursday and Sunday evenings, two hours each, and a twenty-day free trial of unlimited classes to begin.
Thu, Sun · Beginners
The world's first gay cricket club, founded in 1996 and playing since: two Sunday sides most weeks from April to September in the Chess Valley League and friendlies, winter nets at Lord's and the Oval, a home ground in Broxbourne, and tours. New players of any experience are asked for every season. £91 to play for the year, £35 to support, match fees £6 to £10.
Sun, Mon · Beginners
A non-profit boxing club for London's LGBTQ+ community and friends, England Boxing affiliated, nearly a thousand classes on OutSavvy since 2021. Bags and pads, no fighting unless you choose to spar. Everyone starts with Round One, a monthly beginners' taster at Sobell in Finsbury Park; then Monday in Covent Garden, Thursday and Saturday at Sobell. Pay what you can, a pub after most classes.
North · Sat, Mon, Thu · Beginners
The UK's LGBTQ-inclusive rowing club, going since 2014 at the Royal Docks, with nearly a hundred people on the water on a weekend and a regatta most months. The way in is Otterpups, a six-weekend learn-to-row course for complete beginners, £300, up to three times a year; places go in under a minute, so you register interest first.
East · Sat · Beginners
The UK's first LGBTQ+ hockey club and the largest, men's, women's and mixed teams in the London leagues, training at John Orwell Sports Centre in Wapping. The door for a newcomer is the monthly mixed Sunday session for people new to hockey or coming back to it; the first two are free. League teams train Tuesdays and Thursdays in alternate months.
East · Sun · Beginners
London's longest-running and biggest gay men's volleyball club, going since 1995, with coached league teams from September to April, weekly pay-as-you-go open sessions for beginners up, Sunday social sets and a pub after, and free park volleyball on summer Sundays. Players from more than forty countries, predominantly gay but not only.
Sun · Free · Beginners
An LGBTQ+ and ally tennis community in Finsbury Park, started in 2022 with the Access to Sports Project and now Out For Sport's Emerging Club of the Year: four coaching and social doubles sessions a week, all year, with beginner coaching on Thursdays. About £4 to £5 a session, booked through Spond. Over a thousand people on its Meetup.
North · Thu, Sun, Mon, Wed · Beginners
An LGBTQIA+ squash group thirty years old, five social sessions a week at central London leisure centres for every level from complete beginner up, with a pub or brunch after each. First session free, rackets to borrow, bookings opened weekly on WhatsApp. £30 a year to be a member, £2.50 more a session if you are not.
Central · Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun · Beginners
The netball club for queer people of all genders and abilities, started in 2021 by a London Frontrunner who found there was none: monthly beginner-friendly Saturday afternoon sessions at venues around London, coaching for stronger players, tournaments abroad, and England Netball's inclusion award. The first two sessions are free, then £5 a time or £30 a year.
Sat · Beginners
New clubs, changed training nights, and the occasional weekend. No more than that.
A weekend away with a group of gay men, and nothing to prove.