Warsop Vale has always been well supported in sport and every other 
event including gardening, flower shows, harvest festivals and carnivals. The Staveley Coal & Iron Company ensured that sporting activities prevailed in the village. An excellent sports field was afforded to all that wished to partake in a wide variety of sport, cricket, football, tennis, bowls etc. A full time groundsman kept all these facilities to a high standard.
There have been some excellent sportsmen and celebrities within the village and sport in general has flourished throughout the years. The village was fortunate enough to have many stalwarts of football including Walter Millership who went to Bradford and then Sheffield Wednesday and played for England in the 1935 match against Scotland.
T. Cooke went to Mansfield along with Harry and Harold Everett who had previously been with Notts County, Jimmy West went to Rotherham and Bournemouth F.C. took J. Hayward and H. Hayward. H. Goddard went to Aston Villa, Lenny Thorpe and Robin Peace went to Nottingham Forest and Steve Unwin went to Notts County. At the end of the 1940-41 season no fewer than seven players went to the league clubs.
The village was also fortunate enough to have a successful local team playing in the Bassetlaw League with several cricketers who were on the verge of county cricket and indeed Fred Newton who represented his county prior to his untimely death in a colliery accident.
Athletics has also played its part in village life and a prime example of this was Olympic runner, Cyril Ellis, who was world champion in the mile and 1,000 metres and it took the great Sydney Widderson to beat his mile record, however no-one succeeded in beating his 1,000 metre record and it still stands today.
In fields other than sport the village has had a very successful man in Kim Winfield, who progressed through education and the army to become Brigadier Commander in Hong Kong and is now defence attaché at SHAEF headquarters in Belgium. His father, Jack, is a well-respected man in the village and former deputy manager at the colliery. Other celebrities include a Colonel, a Police Superintendent, a Canon and someone that works for NASA.
More detailed information on Warsop Main Colliery history can be found in the Societies book “The Hundred Year History of Warsop Vale & Warsop Main Colliery (1889-1989)”.
