Army Reserve Sport

Regular and Reserve sports Secretaries are contactable here > Contacts.

Unit programmed or representative (representative sport is that organised at Brigade, Corps or Army level) sport is a duty. Army Reserve personnel are eligible to play for Regular or Reserve teams at all levels. A recent change also allows Army Reserve personnel to represent Single Services at Inter Service competitions.

Army Reserve personnel in possession of a service ID card are entitled to use any Army sports facilities.

Every major Reserve unit now gets an annual Sports Equipment Public Funding grant to fund clothing and equipment for sports teams.  Also see alternative Funding.

Some Regular Army sport is organised at weekends but the majority is organised during the week. Reservists are entering individual competitions, but it is impractical for Reserve units to enter team competitions.  Thus those sports with a Reserve Secretary will generally organise weekend sport.

Often there are insufficient players to produce a team or your unit simply does not play your sport. In order to maximise participation, units and individuals are encouraged, through the respective sport’s secretary or organiser to consider:

Affiliation. If the sport is not played within one’s own unit, one or several players can elect to be affiliated to another army reserve or regular unit.

Amalgamation. A detachment or unit may wish to pool its sporting talent with another unit to form a team.

Guidance changed in FY 2024/25, with COs now far more empowered to decide how to spend their allocated RSDs. While the aspiration is that all sport conducted with the Army Reserve qualifies as Paid Training, the reality of fiscal constraints means that there may be occasions where this is not the case. Key policy documents are as follows:

• • • Access To RSDS For Soldiers Participating In Authorised Sport – this provides a summary of other policy
    • Army Command Standing Order (ACSO) 1111 – Funding the Army Reserve
    • JSP 660: Sport in the UK Armed Forces, v3.0, Nov 2024”

All Army Reservists are encouraged to join the Army Sports Lottery. One ticket in each weekly draw costs £52.00 per year, the equivalent of just £1 per week.  The weekly prize fund is £25k with a top prize of £10k.  Members can also apply for grants.  More details are at the Army Sports Lottery.

You should join the Army Sports Lottery as members can apply for a grant of up to £500. The procedure for organizing an overseas visit is at the Policys.

Seek agreement from your chain of command and then compile an Admin Instruction to let everyone know that it is official.  If it is not part of the unit’s routine training programme, those participating must be published on Unit Part 1 Orders.

The first port of call should be your unit Chain of Command; if they cannot answer it then engage with the specific Reserve Sport Operations Manager Army Reserve Contacts | Army Sport; if that is not feasible then contact the Army Reserve Sports Operations Manager Oliver.ORMISTON363@mod.gov.uk