Editing Newtownards (section)

==Sport==
;Rugby
[[Ards RFC|Ards Rugby Football Club]] plays at Lansdowne Road, south of the town along the main Comber road.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/ards-rugby-club-to-redevelop-grounds-with-social-enterprise-fund-loan-31262057.html|title=Ards rugby club to redevelop grounds with social enterprise fund loan|date=28 May 2015|newspaper=Belfast Telegraph|access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref>

;Cricket
Ards and Donaghadee Cricket Club currently plays its home games take place at Londonderry Park, which is on Portaferry Road.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://newtownardschronicle.co.uk/ards-and-donaghadee-cricket-clubs-merge/|title=Ards and Donaghadee cricket clubs merge|date=18 February 2022|newspaper=The Newtownards Chronicle| access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref>

;Football
There are two local football teams: [[Ards F.C.]], who play in the [[Northern Ireland Football League|NIFL]]'s Danske Bank Premiership, and [[Ards Rangers F.C.]], who play in the [[Northern Amateur Football League]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thenafl.co.uk/teams/id/3|title=Ards Rangers|publisher=Northern Amateur Football League | access-date=25 November 2022}}</ref>

;Ards motor racing Circuit
{{main|Ards Circuit}}
The Ards Circuit through Newtownards was a motorsport [[street circuit]] used for [[RAC Tourist Trophy]] sports car races from 1928 until 1936. At the time it was Northern Ireland's premier sporting event, regularly attracting crowds in excess of a quarter of a million people.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/838/the-tourist-trophy-races|title=The Tourist Trophy Races|last=Ireland|first=Culture Northern|date=2005-12-23|website=Culture Northern Ireland|access-date=2019-02-03}}</ref>

On 5 September 1936, in appallingly wet conditions, local driver Jack Chambers lost control of his [[Riley (motor-car)|Riley]] approaching the Strangford Arms in Newtownards at the Newtownards rail bridge and crashed into the crowd, killing eight spectators. This tragedy brought an end to nine years of racing over the Ards street circuit.<ref name="BBC Article">{{cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7567063.stm |title=Memorial revives Ards TT memories |access-date=5 January 2009 |publisher=BBC | date=18 August 2008}}</ref>
<!-- From 1928 to 1936, the [[RAC Tourist Trophy]] (TT) motor car races took place on a (closed) road circuit encompassing Newtownards, [[Comber]] and [[Dundonald, County Down|Dundonald]] in County Down, run in a clockwise direction. The pits were still visible up until the 1960s. Industrialist and pioneer of the modern [[agricultural tractor]], [[Harry Ferguson]], was instrumental in setting up the race, which was known as the Ards TT.
At the time it was Northern Ireland's premier sporting event, regularly attracting crowds in excess of a quarter of a million people.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} Although it was a speed event, the entries were handicapped to allow cars of very different sizes and capabilities to race against each other on supposedly even terms over 30 laps (35 laps from 1933) of the 13.7-mile circuit. On 5 September 1936, in wet conditions, local driver Jack Chambers lost control of his [[Riley (motor-car)|Riley]] beneath the railway bridge coming into Newtownards, and crashed into the crowd killing eight spectators. This tragedy brought an end to nine years of racing over the Ards road circuit.<ref name="BBC Article">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7567063.stm|title=Memorial revives Ards TT memories|access-date=5 January 2009|publisher=BBC|date=18 August 2008|location=London, UK}}</ref>  -->