Sport is an integral part of the social fabric in country communities and Balaklava is no different. At any given point of the year, there is likely to be some form of sporting event taking place in the town.

Football, netball and hockey are popular pursuits during the busy winter sport season from April to September.

Although Balaklava has its own football and netball clubs, locals also head out to outlying clubs at Hummocks-Watchman Eagles and United football clubs. Balaklava’s home ground is at Ralli Park, Balaklava, while HWE is based at Port Wakefield and Lochiel, and United calls Long Plains home. These clubs compete in the Adelaide Plains Football League and Adelaide Plains Netball Association. 

Hockey is also played at Ralli Park, Balaklava, during the winter, with players from the town competing for either Balaklava or merged sides in the Barossa and Clare competitions.

Cricket, tennis, lawn bowls and basketball take up the warm spring, summer and early autumn months.

Lower North Cricket Club calls Balaklava home but takes in the surrounding areas of Port Wakefield, Lochiel, Nantawarra, Watchman and Halbury, all former clubs which competed in the defunct Lower North Cricket Association. The Buffalos compete in the Stanley Cricket Association and train weekly in Ralli Pavilion, an air-conditioned facility featuring three indoor nets. 

Balaklava Tennis Club competes in the Mid North Tennis Association at senior level, and the Lower North Junior Tennis Association for younger players. The tennis courts can be found at Ralli Park. 

On Friday nights, the basketball courts light up and hundreds of players tip-off for their respective sides in the Adelaide Plains Basketball Association.

Lawn bowls remains as popular as ever, with competition offered on Saturday and Thursday, while social night owls events are scheduled during the season after dark.

Other social options which bob up from time to time include indoor soccer and mixed netball.

Some sports just don’t stop too! Golf, gliding and pistol shooting continue 12 months of the year.

The Balaklava Golf Club is located three kilometres east of the township on the Auburn Road, Balaklava. The golf club offers competition on Saturdays and Wednesdays each week, plus more scheduled during the year, on a fully watered 18-hole 5,987 metre championship golf course with neatly manicured greens. Visitors welcome.

The Balaklava Gliding Club is located six kilometres north of Balaklava on the Whitwarta Road.

Founded in 1953, the club presently owns four gliders and offers passenger flights most weekends.

Balaklava Sports Shooting Club is home of local legend, David Chapman, a three-time Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist.

Chapman also competed alongside daughter, Hayley, at the 2012 London Olympics in the same sport.

The facility is used for both competition and training purposes.

The town’s swimming pool precinct includes three pools of different depths, solar heating, and also provides a large area of shade over the wading pool and lawn area with bench seating and tables.

The facility is open from October through to April each year and regularly open to the public during this period, weather permitting.

The precinct is owned by Wakefield Regional Council and managed by a committee of community volunteers.