Bandy

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Bandy is a winter sport, where a ball is hit with a stick. It is the ancestor of ice hockey. It likely descended from shinty (Scotland) or hurling (Ireland) and in turn field hockey. Bandy is played outdoors on a sheet of ice, and has rules that are similar to association football.

A synonym to bandy used to be the term hockey on the ice, due to the sport being "field hockey played on ice", but since this term can be confused with ice hockey, most people prefer the term bandy nowadays.

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[edit] Origin

The origins of bandy or hockey on the ice go back to almost 4000 years. Traces and remains showing the existence of the ancestors of our players of today are mainly to be found in Iran (Persia), Egypt, and Greece. On the walls of a tomb No. 16 at Beni Hassan in the Valley of the Nile, close to Minia, a scene of a game appears with two players, stick in hand, starting a games with a wouldbe ball.

A more recent fresco from about 480 b.c. in Greece shows six players in what is nearly the same movement of starting a game. Since then principles of the game have been applied in various forms and under various names in many parts of the world. Historians mention French hocquet, Irish hurling, Scottish shinty, English hawkey and hockey, Welsh bandy, Georgian lelo and Icelandic knattleikr. Bandy, hockey, knattleikr and shinty have been played in a field in the summer and on an ice surface in the winter.

The origin of the Welsh word bandy can most likely be derived from the Teutonic word bandja (a curbed stick). In a book Sports and Pastimes from 1801, Joseph Strutt identifies the stick with the bandy (pl. bandies) writing about a field game called bandy-ball from the 13th century. The distinction between the game and the stick got settled and today it does not exist. Bury Fen is the original home for the modern winter game called bandy and it can be dated back to the middle of the 18th century. Bury Fen Bandy Club is no doubt the most famous one. Some well-known soccer clubs such as Sheffield United (originally Sheffield Southerand and Bandy Club, 1855) and Nottingham Forest (1865) had bandy in their names together with football. The first bandy match between two London Clubs took place in 1875. But previously matches had been played in the country with Bury Fen BC, Virginia Water BC, Wenchester BC, and Northampton BC amongst others.

Rules were compiled in 1891 when the National Bandy Association was established in England. Previously teams had made up rules and set up boundaries for the playing field before each game. Two long willow branches formed the goal posts in early British games with the bottoms frozen to the ice and tops bent over to define the goal. Goals for each team were most often placed as far apart as the ice allowed (for example a pond). The stick was preferably made of willow or ash, curved to fithe the ice and to hit the ball along the ice.

The game of bandy was introduced to Sweden in February, 1894 by a Bury Fen player named C. G. Tebbutt, who was also the organizer of the first International bandy-match in 1891 between the English team Bury Fen and the Dutch team Haarlem. A well known Swede, Clarence von Rosen started the first Swedish club in Stockholm in 1895. However, the organized bandy then appeard to some extent in Switzerland, Germany, Holland in the early 1890's but more officially in Russia 1898, in Norway in 1903, in Sweden, 1907, and Finland in 1908. Bandy entered it's present form in 1955, when the International Bandy Federation (IBF) was founded.

Bandy, also known as banty, probably originated as a form of field hockey on ice and is the ancestor of modern ice hockey. (The verb bandy means to toss things back and forth, though the things are usually words or ideas rather than balls.)

In the Fen district there are many fens that freeze quickly during the winter and are safer than ponds because they're obviously shallower.

Bandy was originally a form of field hockey, played on grass during summer. By the 1890s, though, it had become an ice sport. The National Bandy Association, founded in 1891, developed the first official rules, which were based largely on the rules for soccer. Bandy is still sometimes referred to as winter football.

Bandy and hockey were used in parallel for the same sport, but today bandy is played on a frozen football pitch, and hockey on a smaller rink. Bandy/Hockey was divided by the North Americans in the 1800's by shrinking the pitch, goals and reducing the number of players.

England won the European Bandy Championships in 1913, but that turned out to be the Grand finale, and bandy is now virtually unknown in England.

Bandy is now played in a few nations, including Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Kazakhstan, Belarus, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Estonia, Hungary, and Mongolia.

[edit] Rules

The size of a bandy field is in the range 4,050 - 7,150 square metres (45-65 by 90-100 metres), about the same size as a football field. The size of the ball is 60-65 mm and it is usually red to orange in colour. The goal measures 7 ft by 11½ ft.

Each team has 11 players in the field at one time, including a goalkeeper. While the goalkeeper wears more padding than other players he or she does not use a stick, but the goalkeeper is the only player allowed to use his hands to control the ball.

A game goes on for two 45 minute halves. A ten minute interval takes place at half-time when the teams change ends. Ties are usually broken with 15 minute overtime periods.

The rules of bandy are overall very similar to the rules of association football.

[edit] International

World map showing the 15 members of the Federation of International Bandy.
Enlarge
World map showing the 15 members of the Federation of International Bandy.

[edit] Bandy in the Olympics

Bandy was the demonstration sport at the VI Olympic Winter Games in 1952 (Oslo, Norway).

Even though the IOC frequently states that they are looking for more sports to add to the Winter Game programmes, bandy is still waiting for acceptance as an Olympic sport.

[edit] World Championships

World Championships for men were first held in 1957 and then semiannually starting in 1961, and every year since 2003. There were 12 countries participating in the 2006 championships: Belarus, Finland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia, Sweden (group A) and Canada, Estonia, Hungary, Mongolia, The Netherlands, United States (group B). Finland won the 2004 world championship. All the previous championships were won by the Soviet Union, Russia, or Sweden.

In February 2004, Finland hosted the first World Championship for women. Sweden won the tournament. The second women's World Championships were held in Roseville, Minnesota in the USA in 2006. The outcome was, Sweden defeated Russia in the final (3-1).

For all the tournaments since 1957, see Bandy World Championships.

[edit] World Cup

There is an annual Bandy World Cup held in Ljusdal in Sweden. This is not played by national teams but is for bandy clubs from around the world.

[edit] International federation

FIB, the Federation of International Bandy, has 22 members (2006).

[edit] Bandy in Britain

A game similar to bandy was once known in Wales as bando, known throughout the country in varying forms and still to be found in some areas. The earliest example of the Welsh language term bando occurs in a dictionary by John Walters published in 1770–94. It was particularly popular in the Cynfdg-Margam district of the Vale of Glamorgan where wide stretches of sandy beaches afforded ample room for play.

Modern bandy was founded in England in the 19th century. The first rules were written down in 1891 by Charles Goodmann Tebbutt from Bluntisham near Saint Ives. Goodmann Tebbutt also took initiatives to international exchange, particularly with the Netherlands and introduced bandy in Sweden and Norway (where it is still played today) and a couple of other countries. England won the first European Championships in 1913. Goodman Tebbutt's home-made bandy stick can be seen in the Norris Museum in Saint Ives.

[edit] Bandy in Russia

In Russia bandy is known as hockey with a ball or simply Russian hockey. The game became popular among nobility in early 1700s, with the royal court of Peter I the Great playing bandy on Saint Petersburg frozen Neva river. Russians played in bandy with sticks made out of juniper wood later adopting metal skis. By second half of the 19th century the game became also popular among the masses throughout the Russian Empire. Russia has adopted the international rules of the game developed in England in 19th century. Russia in the Champion of the World in 2006. Next International Bandy Championship will be in 2007 in Siberian city of Kemerovo Bandy Kemerovo 2007.

[edit] Bandy in Sweden

Bandy was introduced to Sweden in 1895. The Swedish royal family, barons and diplomats were the first players. In the 1920s students played the game and it became a largely middle class sport. After Slottsbron won the Swedish title in 1934 it became popular amongst workers in the smaller industrial towns and villages. Bandy remains the main winter sport in many of these places.

Bandy in Sweden is famous for its "culture" - both playing bandy and being a spectator requires great fortitude and dedication. A "bandy briefcase" is the classic accessory for spectating - it must be made of brown leather, well worn and contain a warm drink in a thermos and/or a flask of liquor.

The play-off match for the Swedish Championship is played every year on the third Sunday of March in Uppsala.

In Sweden you can also find the biggest bandyclub in the entire world, GT-76.

[edit] External links


Bandy at the Open Directory Project

[edit] National Bandy Federations

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