SPORT İN ENGLAND

Sport is quite important for England as a nation,

and some sports have even been “born” in
England. England's main competitors in
international sports are usually Scotland (because
Scottish and English just always have to fight each
other, and sports are a good way to do so) and
Australia. While the sports on this page are
amongst the most popular sports in England,
other sports are also very active and popular. If
you have an interest in a particular sport, then it is
likely that you will be able to participate in it in
England.
Many important games (e.g. football and rugby)
are shown in pubs, and are often quite social
events.

Lords ground from the grandstand, St John's

Wood, London, England.
Rugby
There is the rugby league, and the rugby union –
but we don't go into much detail here. Just know
that much: there has been quite a bit of
antagonism between those two types of rugby in
the past. The origins of Rugby in general are
English – the game came from a school called
Rugby school, where running around with a ball
became more and more popular and then turned
into a proper game with a set of rules (this
happened in the early 1800s). Over time, the game
became more and more popular all over the world
– and of course the English still have a great
passion for their game. England has a National
Rugby League and there is also Rugby Union. This
sport adopted its rules at the beginning of the
XNUMXth century and became very popular in
schools, later it reached the world level.
Rugby here is professional and recreational. Yes,
you should know that they are different rugby,
Rugby Union and Rugby League. There are
different rules, number of players, ways to
advance with the ball.
Rugby is more popular in Yorkshire, North West
England and Cumbria. This is where the biggest
games are played.
Football
Do not confuse this with the American football.
English football is what other countries usually
call soccer. It has a long history in England, and
England is usually seen as this sport's country of
origin. There are records that speak of the game
dating back to the year 1314. England had the first
soccer competitions in the world, and also the first
football league. Today, there are thousands of
clubs that play football in England, and England's
top leagues are the richest in the world (hint:
David Beckham is an example). Soccer has a long
history and in fact there are documents about
soccer in 1314. It is also where the world's first
competition took place and where the first
professional league was founded.
There are over a hundred football clubs and the
most popular league is known as the Premier
League. This league has 20 teams across England
and among the most popular are Arsenal,
Liverpool or Manchester United.

Football here is governed by the Football

Association, one of the oldest institutions in the
world. He was born to regulate the different
versions of football played in public schools of the
country at that time. We can say that these rules
originate from the Cambridge rules established by
the said university in 1848.
Traveling along the companies, hand in hand with
the British crossed the borders of world sports.
Today, it is one of the most played sports in the
world, both professionally and recreationally. The
FIFA World Cup is undoubtedly a crowd pleaser
and a lot of money.
Cricket
Though people still argue about the actual origins
of cricket, everyone is quite sure that England is
the birthplace of the game, and cricket plays quite
an important role for England. English teams are
also quite good at the game, often winning
international competitions. Their main competitor
in cricket is Australia.
The history of cricket goes back all the way to
1550 AD or even earlier, with cricket first being
mentioned in the year 1598. People are quite sure
that the game had been played before 1550 AD,
most likely as some sort of children's game, but as
said before, nobody is really 100% sure about the
origin. The date belongs to the 16th century or a
little earlier, as the name of the sport is mentioned
in the documents of that time. Of course, it can
even be played earlier as a kind of child's play.
There are currently 18 professional cricket clubs
in England and each has a county name. Each
summer, each of these clubs competes in the First
Grade Country Championship, a two-league
tournament played over four days.
Cricket is a game of bat and ball, with two teams
facing each other on a field in the middle of which
is a mound with sticks to which they must pass the
balls.
Ice Hockey
Though ice hockey is very popular in England (it is
the indoor sport that attracts the most spectators
in England), most news about it can still only be
found online. However, the paid TV channels also
start to broadcast the more important games.
Badminton
Badminton is very popular in England, even more
popular than tennis. The reason for this might
very well be that Badminton is easier accessible
than tennis, and even if you are a beginner, you
have a chance of achieving one or the other
success. It may not come as a surprise that
Badminton is another game with an English origin,
though it was not created in England itself but in
British India (as a variation of a more traditional
English game with rackets). Then there is the
Badminton Association of England, founded in
1893, which regulates the nation's sport and
supports the other 41 nations where this sport is
practiced.
Athletics
The summer Olympic games were hosted in
England three times, but England itself does not
have a national team. English athletes are part of a
general team from the UK. Some individual
athletic sports are popular in England, but
generally speaking it is safe to say that England
has a bigger interest in team sports.
 Horse racing
Horse racing is quite popular with the rich and
beautiful as horse races give them a chance to
dress up and stroll around, mingling with other
rich people. But also more “normal” people enjoy
horse racing, and often betting is a very important
factor when it comes to this sport. It is the second
most watched sport in England and the longest
running. It makes a ton of money, and its two main
events are Royal Ascot (where royalty go with
huge and very rare headgear) and the Cheltenham
Festival.
Horse racing has been held on the islands since
Roman times, where many of its rules originated.
The Jockey Club dates back to 1750 and is one that
defines everything in the sport.

Motorsports
The English love their motor sports, and a big
number of Formula One teams is based in
England. Names like Lewis Hamilton and Richard
Burns might ring a bell. While car races have
always been popular, motorbike racing has
become more and more popular in recent years,
too.
Tennis
Of course, tennis is quite popular and also
prestigious in England. After all, there is
Wimbledon. Plus: England is the country that
invented tennis. There are plenty of amateur
players, but not a huge number of professional
players. Tennis has a background and as if it
belongs to twelfth century France, it was played
by passing a ball on the court with the palm of the
hand. It seems that Louis X did not like to play
outdoors, so he inaugurated indoor courts, a
custom that spread to royal palaces in Europe.

Racquets came on the scene in the sixteenth

century, and then the sport was not called tennis,
a French word, but keep, hold, or take, something
shouted among opponents. So it became very
popular in France and England. Henry VIII was a
super fan of tennis.
Modern tennis dates back to the 30s of the
century, and after that they began to define the
rules and regulations of the sport. Today, the
tournament Wimbledon is one of the most
popular in England and one of the grand slams of
the ATP Tour. It has been played since 1877.
Golf
Golf was invented in Scotland (even the English
have to admit that), but that does not lessen its
popularity in England. England has also left some
marks in the history of golf, and you can find a
variety of golf courses in England. Born on the east
coast of Scotland, near Edinburgh, and later the
players were throwing pebbles on the sand dunes.
The Scots were so enthusiastic that they even
neglected military training in the 15th century, so
King James I decided to ban it.
Nobody paid much attention to it, and golf later
became a royally supported game with the
approval of King James IV in the XNUMXth
century. From Scotland to England and from
England to the world. It became official in England
with the establishment of Gentlemen Golfers in
Leith, the first golf club, in 1744. The first 18-hole
golf course was opened in 1764 in St. It was built
at Andrews and set the standard for the game.

Golf spread from the hands of the British Empire

in the XNUMXth century to India, Ireland,
Australia, Canada, the United States of America
and Hong Kong. The industrial revolution brought
many changes and drove golf clubs from the cities
to the countryside, gaining followers and players.
The production of balls and clubs has also
changed. The British Open was born in 1860.
When the English dominance of golf ended In
1894, it appeared in the United States. Your
association defined the final rules of the game and
created many clubs. While golf courses in the
United States today look nice and well-
maintained, those in England are more rugged and
untidy.
In any case, in honor of its birthplace, some of the
most famous golf courses in the world are still in
Scotland today: Gleneagles, Carnoustie, Saint
Andrews, Royal Troon ...

o Pull The Paddle

o

o This sport was born in Ancient Egypt and

today is synonymous with English universities
and schools. In fact, the sport as we know it
was born at the beginning of the seventeenth
century in London, in regattas organized on
the River Thames, where different professions
and companies competed. In the XNUMXth
century, "boat clubs" were born in public
schools such as Eton College or Durham
School and in more famous universities such
as Cambridge or Oxford.
o The International Rowing Federation was
founded in 1892 and regulates the sport. In
fact, there are 150 member countries. Rowing
is an Olympic sport and has been participating
in the games since 1896. Men have been
competing ever since, but women only since
1976.