House with view of Leeds United training ground is among three homes for sports lovers

Perhaps the ultimate sport-lover’s home can be found at those football grounds where the pitch is actually overlooked by the windows and balconies of neighbouring homes, effectively offering the owner a free season ticket. This is a very real option if you’re a fan of Leyton Orient, Grays Athletic, Raith Rovers or Greek team Panathanaikos.

Sadly, that’s not possible at Elland Road, home of Leeds United, but you could settle for the next best thing – on a quiet cul-de-sac in Thorp Arch.

Just beyond the garden at 28 Walton Chase, the team’s stars – Raphinha, Bamford and the rest – can be seen week in, week out, practising set-pieces and playing their legendary games of “murderball”. That’s because the club’s training pitches lie just over the other side of the house’s feature wall, built in folly ruin style, which frames the view.

The detached house, which is currently for sale, has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, utility room, dining room, lounge and conservatory, carport and attached single garage with part-boarded loft space. One of the bedrooms, the conservatory and the lawned back garden all have a fantastic view of the training ground action.

When pictures of this property hit Twitter recently, the flood of responses from die-hard Leeds fans included comments such as “I’d give my first-born child to live there”, and “I’d never leave”!

If football – or Leeds United – is not your thing, there are plenty of other options available.

If golf is what drives you, 39 Oakdale may be more to your taste. The detached house, adjoining the Duchy estate on the north-west edge of Harrogate, has four bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, utility room, store room, two reception rooms and, below the sitting room, a single garage.

More to the point, it’s just a long putt away from the 19th hole at Oakdale Golf Club. The course was designed in 1914 by the legendary Alister MacKenzie, who laid out courses the world over, including Augusta National, home of The Masters, and is the only 18-holer lying within Harrogate’s town boundaries.

Finally, if you fancy a flutter and like to see the runners and riders in the flesh, 40 Skelldale View in Ripon might be your odds-on favourite. The semi-detached bungalow has two bedrooms, a shower room, a large, open-plan kitchen, dining and living room, and garden room extension. Outside, there’s a lawned front garden and drive, as well as an enclosed paved garden with shed to the rear.

But for racegoers, it’s the proximity to Ripon Racecourse, which is just a short canter away, that adds that extra incentive. Known as Yorkshire’s Garden Racecourse, it was established in 1900 and has been named Best Small Racecourse in the North a number of times in recent years.

If this sounds like your kind of property, act quickly and you might just be able to get your hands on the keys by the time the flat racing season starts in April.