SPORTS team have seen a surge in interest since lockdown measures ended in early July.

Oxford City Lacrosse Club saw a 200 per cent rise in membership compared to last year.

Brucie Morris, founder of Oxford City Lacrosse Club said, “Since our return to lacrosse in early July, Oxford City Lacrosse Club has trained weekly, following the most up-to-date guidelines to keep all our players and their families safe.

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"Unlike other indoor activities which are ‘struggling’, lacrosse can be played safely outdoors with only minor changes.

"Despite the national restrictions, our club has grown in numbers and we are looking forward to playing competitively and safely throughout the winter.”

Mr Morris said that because lacrosse is an outdoor sport, it had been less affected by restrictions than indoor sports.

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He added: “We stepped up our social media in summer because we realised how vulnerable our sport was to attendance.

“A 50 per cent drop in our membership would mean that we would no longer be able to maintain our costs, so if we couldn’t sustain our memberships, we could not play anymore.

“We were just hoping to hit our 25 member target and so we started summer training as soon as we could.

“Immediately we hit our target. Pubs weren’t even open ad this point so people were bored and anyone with previous knowledge of the game seemed desperate to get back into it.

“Now we have far more people playing than before and people are more willing to travel.

“We are keeping 2m apart, using hand gel, doing temperature checks before each session.

“We are very aware of how this will change when different restrictions are put out. “Our key philosophy is to keep people as safe as possible.”

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Emma O’Connor, co-founder of Wheatley Oaks FC, set up her women’s only, thirty-plus football team after lockdown ended and has since been amazed by the number of participants.

Ms O’Connor said: “I am fairly new to the area, we moved to Wheatley in March and me and my partner decided to set up a women’s over-thirty team.

“There weren’t really any team sports around and I am a qualified football coach and Rebecca is a PhD student at Brookes.

“Within two weeks 45 women got back to us.

"I’ve set up clubs before and it has taken six months to get eight women.”

Ms O’Connor also believes that lockdown had a huge impact on participation levels.

She added: “The effects of lockdown and women wanting to do exercise.

“The demand is clearly there. At the moment we want to see how it goes.

“Women are busy, they are still the main family carers. some people are on furlough and will be going back, but we’ve kept it really flexible. “It is only £4 membership for the whole year and £2 per session.”

Wheatley Oaks FC now has more than 90 women signed up less than two months after its launch.