Football (Soccer) is undoubtedly the most popular sport in England, and has been played for hundreds of years. In the English Football League there are 92 professional clubs. These are semi-professional, so most players have other full-time jobs. Hundreds of thousands of people also play football in parks and playgrounds just for fun.The highlight of the English football year is the FA (Football Association) Cup Final each May.

Did you know?

The first set of laws of the game of football, or soccer as it is known in the US, date from the formation of The Football Association in England in 1863.

Rugby is the most popular sport in Wales. It originated from Rugby school in Warwickshire. It is similar to football, but played with an oval ball. Players can carry the ball and tackle each other. The best rugby teams compete in the Super League final each September.

For many years Rugby was only played by the rich upper classes, but now it is popular all over the country. There are two different types of rugby - Rugby League, played mainly in the north of England, and Rugby Union, played in the rest of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, together with France and Italy, play in an annual tournament called the Six Nations.

Tennis The world's most famous tennis tournament is Wimbledon. It started at a small club in south London in the nineteenth century. It begins on the nearest Monday to June 22, at a time when English often have the finest weather. Millions of people watch the Championships on TV live.

It is traditional for visitors to eat strawberries and cream whilst they watch the tennis.

Did you know?

Wimbledon is the oldest of all the major tennis tournaments beginning in 1877. The rewards of prize money began in 1968 when the total purse allocated was £26,150 (about $40,000).

HURLING Together with Gaelic football, hurling is the sport most important to Ireland and is a Gaelic sport as well. It is very similar to field hockey but you can play the ball through the air rather than just on the ground. In this extremely fast game, two teams of 15 players each utilizing a hurley (a long wooden stick) driving a ball of cork and leather called a sliotar. The field has two goals marked by tall posts just as in rugby. If the ball passes under the bar, the team scores three points, if passes over only one point. The ball can be touched with your hand and you can take it whenever you take less than four steps if it is caught on the fly or is raised off the ground with the hurley. The two halfs are 30 min, and 35 min forthe semi-finals.

Horseracing, the sport of Kings is a very popular sport with meetings being held every day throughout the year. The Derby originated here, as did The Grand National which is the hardest horse race in the world. Some of the best-known horse races are held at Ascot, Newmarket, Goodwood and Epsom.

Ascot, a small town in the south of England, becomes the centre of horse-racing world for one week in June. It's called Royal Ascot because the Queen always goes to Ascot. She has a lot of racehorses and likes to watch racing.

Golf Scotland is traditionally regarded as the home of golf. There are over 550 golf courses in Scotland alone. The most important golf club in Scotland is in the seaside town of St. Andrews, near Dundee.

Highland games The more traditional Scottish sports, including tossing the caber, tug o’ war, cross-country running and hammer throwing, are all celebrated at over 60 Scottish Highland Games events across the country each year. The Highland Games are a host of fun for both spectators and participants, and they are a major event in Scotland’s summer sports calendar.

Polo Another equestrian sport is polo, brought to Britain from India in the 19th Century by army officers. It is the fastest ball sport in the world.

Polo is played with four men on horses to a team. A ball is hit with a stick towards the goal. A game consists of 4 to 6 periods called chukkas, a chukka is 7 minutes long. Teams change ends each time a goal is scored.

University Boat Race In the nineteenth century, students at Oxford and Cambridge, Britain's two oldest universities, were huge fans of rowing. In 1829, the two schools agreed to hold a race against each other for the first time on the Thames River. The Oxford boat won and a tradition was born. Today, the University Boat Race is held every spring in either late March or early April.

 

GAELIC FOOTBALL Irish usually call it simply football, but it is different from what you are used to.The main difference is that they carry the ball with their hands. Players can catch the ball in the air and and keep it whenever they take less than four steps, but they can’t throw it. They can only throw it with a kick or a punch. The All-Ireland Football Championship is the most prestigious and oldest tournament (1887) of the sport. The championship final held in September in Dublin is one of the main events and it attracts a great number of fans. Traditionally teams from Cork, Kerry and Dublin are the ones who most often contest the coveted title.

Sports vocabulary.

1. To play badminton you need to hit a __________ over a high net using a __________.2. In hockey, you need to strike a puck with a hockey __________.3. In football, you have to use your feet to kick the ball. However, one man is allowed to touch the ball with his

hands. He is called the __________.4. A __________ can stop a boxing match.5. After only 3 __________, David Hayne was declared the winner of the boxing match.6. In table tennis, a __________ separates the two sides of the table.7. Wow, that player scored 100 __________ in the cricket match yesterday.

Did you know?

The UK doesn’t actually have a football or rugby team! All the countries in the UK have their own teams (Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England) because these two sports are so popular and there is a lot of competition between the countries. However, during the Olympic Games and some other sporting events, the UK is represented as one team.

Although football was invented in the UK, the last (and only) trophy won by a British team during an international football competition was the World Cup in 1966, when England won! It has been nearly 50 years without a new European or International trophy…!

More recently, Andy Murray (native of Scotland) won the 2013 Wimbledon Tournament, one the most famous world grand slam competitions! This was a huge relief for the UK who had not had a British winner since… 1936 when Fred Perry won!

Thankfully, the last world cup in Rugby was won just 10 years ago!

So, although we might not have won many trophies, the United Kingdom is definitely a nation of sport lovers and it is surprising that so many sports originated here!

Sports that originated in the UK

Whenever you find yourself talking about sports to your friends or in your English classes, I’m sure you talk about ‘British sports’ even if you don’t realise it! Did you know that many of the world’s most popular sports originated in the United Kingdom? Since the middle of the 19th century, more than 10 official sports have been created in the UK!

Examples of British team sports:

- Football: Probably the most popular sport created in England, football rules were first written in 1863! The name of the sport is “Football”, because you have to use your feet to kick the ball and the only person who can use their hands in the goalkeeper. A game needs 2 teams of 11 players and teams win points when they put the ball in the goal.

- Rugby: Rugby is also a kind of football game. “The Rugby Football Union” was created in the UK in 1871! However, unlike Football, this game needs 2 teams of 15 players and you need to use your hands to get the ball into the enemy zone to win points. It is a very fast-paced and fun game to watch!

- Cricket: The word ‘cricket’ was created in 1598 but the game may have been created up to 300 years earlier! It is a team game where players use a bat and a ball. The game needs 2 teams of 11 players. In turn, a player in one team uses the bat to strike the ball and score ‘runs’ while the other team ‘fields’ and tries to get the player ‘out’.

- Hockey: The first hockey club was created in 1849 but the word ‘hockey’ was actually recorded by King Edward III in 1363! It’s a popular game particularly in India and Pakistan. The game is similar to football as there are 11 players in each team and you score points by hitting a small ball or a ‘puck’ into a goal, but players need to use hockey sticks to hit the ball.

- Curling: According to some sources, curling was invented in Scotland in the medieval period, around the year 1540. Two teams of 4 players take turns to slide a stone on ice to a circular target. It takes a lot of skill to make sure the stones stop inside the target and players often knock their opponents’ stones out of the way too!

Examples of British individual sports:

- Tennis: The modern game of tennis was created between 1860 and 1865 in Birmingham, England. One or two players stand on each side of a net which separates the court and they use tennis rackets (with cords) to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt to their opponents. A player wins a point when his opponent can’t return the ball within the correct area of the court.

- Badminton: Badminton was created in the mid 1800’s in Badminton House, Gloucestershire. The game is similar to tennis; however, the net is much higher, the rackets are longer and instead of using a ball, players hit a shuttlecock (a projectile with a small cork ball and plastic or feathers).

- Squash: Squash was invented near London in 1830. To play squash you need a four-walled court, squash rackets (slightly smaller than tennis rackets) and a small rubber ball. Players need to strike the ball with their rackets to a playable wall. If a player can’t strike the ball, the other wins a point. This is a very fast-paced and exciting sport!

- Boxing: Boxing appeared in the 1700s in England. It is a combat sport in which players try to punch their opponent with gloved hands. A referee is designated to supervise the match (a series of rounds). A match can stop any time if an opponent is incapable to continue.

- Table tennis: Table tennis originated in England and was created at the end of the 1800s. Two opponents hold a table tennis racket and hit a lightweight ball on a table. Similar to tennis and badminton, a player only wins a point if the opponent cannot return the ball on the correct part of the table.