THE start of the summer holidays has brought with it the sights and sounds of children going sport-mad in Ulverston.

The town's leisure centre will play host to six weeks of exciting action, as youngsters take the chance to try out new sports or enjoy familiar ones.

Already, there have been football, tennis and multi-sports activity days, with many more to follow before the end of August.

This week has seen around 25 children each day heading down to the leisure centre for the multi-sports sessions.

They have been kicking football, diving into the swimming pool, picking up cricket bats and swinging tennis rackets.

Under the guidance of staff and coaches, the children have had smiles adorning their faces, with Ulverston Leisure Centre's Hannah Paling happy with how things have gone so far.

“We've been doing a mixture of all the things – we've even had an inflatable slide!” she said.

“We've had good numbers and there have been quite a few new faces, which has been good. With the weather, we have the option of coming inside, which you can't always get around here.

“People come who are not meant to be here all week, but they end up enjoying it and they want to come back – you know you're doing something right if they want to come back.

“We always try to do a bit of football, and quite a few of them join in, but others have been able to do something else.

“If someone wanted to play cricket, we can go and do that, if they want to play rounders, we can go and do that.

“There's always dodgeball and swimming as well – as long as they are having a good time, that's all that matters.”

During their lunch breaks, the children have been busy preparing for the upcoming visit of the Tour of Britain to the area, on Friday, September 7. They have been decorating wheels which will be seen when the racers flash by the road directly outside the leisure centre.

Further camps specialising in gymnastics, tennis and football will follows this summer, and Paling added: “We want to offer the variety. We know there are people who just want to do those sports – there are some people who don't always want to join in with all the sports.”

There will be further Better Activity days running between Monday, August 13 and Friday, August 17 – excluding Thursday, from Monday, August 20 until Friday, August 24, and on August 28, 29 and 30. All run between 10am and 3pm.

A football camp will operate on Monday, August 6 and Tuesday, August 7, and on Friday, August 31, all from 10am until 3pm, with a gymnastics session on Thursday, August 16, from 10.30am until 2.30pm.

A tennis session will take place on Friday, August 10, between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

For further information, or to book a place, call the leisure centre on 01229 581123.