Sport in the UK
MOSCOW STATE TEACHER`S TRAINING
UNIVERSITY
COURSE PAPER
SPORT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Written by Varlamova Anna
group 301
Checked by Makhmuryan K.
MOSCOW 2001
CONTENTS
·
INTRODUCTION
·
THE
MAIN PART
1. The social importance of sport
2. Football u Football pools
3. Rugby
4. Cricket
5. Animals in Sport
6. Racing
7. Gambling
8. Wimbledon
9. Other Sports
·
CONCLUSION
·
Questions
·
The
list of literature
INTRODUCTION
have I chosen such theme?
Sport is supposed to be interesting
only for men,
not for women. But I think it is a mistaken opinion. Sport is one of the most
amusing things in the world, because of fillings, experiences, excitements
connected with it. Particularly it is so when we speak about the UK.
Think of your favorite sport. Whatever it is, there is good chance
that it was first played in Britain, and an even better chance that its modern
rules were first codified in this country.
Sport probably plays a more important part in people’s life in
Britain than it does in most other countries. For a very large number it is
their main form of entertainment. Millions take part in some kind of sport at
least once a week. Many millions more are regular spectators and follow one or
more sports. There are hours of televised sport each week. Every newspaper,
national or local, quality or popular, devotes several pages entirely to sport.
The British are only rarely the best in the world at particular
sports in modern times. However, they are one of the best in the world in a
much larger number of different sports than any other country (British
individualism at work again). My course paper looks at the most publicized
sports with the largest followings. But it should be noted that hundreds of
other sports are played in Britain , each with its own small but enthusiastic
following. Some of these may not be seen as a sport at all by many people. For
most people with large gardens, for example, croquet is just an agreeable
social pastime for a sunny afternoon. But to a few, it is a deadly serious
competition. The same is true of the game such as indoor bowling, darts or
snooker. Even board games, the kind you buy in a shop, have their national
championships. Think of any pastime, however trivial, which involves some
element of competition and, somewhere in Britain, there is probably a ‘national
association’ for it which organized contents.
The British are so fond of competition that they even introduced it
into gardening. Many people indulge in an informal rivalry with their neighbors
as to who can grow the better flowers or vegetables. But the rivalry is
sometimes formalized. Though the country, there are competitions in which
gardeners enter their cabbage, leeks, onions, carrots or whatever in the hope
that they will be judged ‘the best’. There is a similar situation with animal.
There hundreds of dog and cat shows throughout the country at which owners hope
that their pet will win a prize. There are a lot of such specific kinds of
sport in the United Kingdom but I want to stop my thought on consideration of
more widespread.
THE
MAIN PART
British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or
when they cannot do that, to think about them.
Modern sport in Britain is very different. 'Winning isn't everything' and 'it's only a game' are still well-known sayings which reflect the amateur approach of the past. But to modern professionals,
sport is clearly not just a game. These days, top players in any sport talk about having a 'professional attitude' and doing their 'job' well,
even if, officially, their sport is still an amateur
one. The middle-class origins of much British sport means that it began as an
amateur pastime - a leisure-time activity which nobody was
paid for taking part in. Even in football, which has
been played on a professional basis since 1885, one
of the first teams to win the FA (Football
Association) Cup was a team of amateur players (the
Corinthians). In many other sports there has been resistance
to professionalism. People thought it would spoil the
sporting spirit. May be they are right.
The
social importance of sport
The importance of participation in sport
has legal recognition in Britain. Every local
authority has a duty to provide and maintain playing fields and other
facilities, which are usually very cheap to use and sometimes even free.
Spectator sport is also a matter of official public concern. For example, there
is a law which prevents the television rights to the
most famous annual sporting occasions, such as the Cup
Final and the Derby, being sold exclusively to
satellite channels, which most people cannot receive. In these cases it seems
to be the event, rather than the sport itself, which is important. Every year the Boat Race and the Grand National are watched on television by millions of people who have no great interest
in rowing or horse-racing. Over time, some events have developed a mystique
which gives them a higher status than the standard at which they are played
deserves. In modern times, for example, the standard of
rugby at the annual Varsity Match has been rather
low - and yet it is always shown live on television.
Sometimes the traditions which accompany an event can seem as important as the actual sporting contest. Wimbledon, for instance, is not just a tennis tournament. It means summer fashions, strawberries and cream, garden parties and long, warm English summer evenings. This reputation created a problem for the event's organizers
in 1993, when it was
felt that security for players had to be tightened. Because Wimbledon is
essentially a middle-class event, British tennis fans would never allow themselves to be treated like football fans. Wimbledon with security fences, policemen on
horses and other measures to keep
fans off the court? It just wouldn't be Wimbledon!
The
long history of such events has meant that many of them, and their venues, have become world-famous. Therefore, it is not only the British who tune in to watch. The Grand National, for example,
attracts a television audience of 300 million. This worldwide enthusiasm has
little to do with the standard of British sport. The cup finals of other countries often have better quality and more entertaining football on view - but more Europeans watch the English Cup Final than
any other. The standard of British tennis is poor, and Wimbledon is only one of the world's major tournaments. But if you ask any top tennis player, you find that Wimbledon is the one they really want
to win. Every footballer in the world dreams of playing at Wembley, every cricketer in the world of playing at Lord's. Wimbledon, Wembley and Lord's are the 'spiritual homes'
of their respective sports. Sport is a British export!
There are a lot of sports in
Britain today and of course, there is no use in considering all of them. I try
to make a short review of the most famous in the world on the one hand and
unusual sports on the other hand. And the first one is the most popular game in
the world:
Football
Football is the most popular team game in
Britain. The British invented it and it has spread to every corner of
the world. There is no British team. England, Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland compete separately in European and World Cup matches. The
English and Welsh clubs have together formed a League with four divisions. The
Scottish League has three divisions. The champions of the English First
Division, and the Scottish Premier Division qualify to play in the European Cup
competition.
British
football has traditionally drawn its main following from the working class. In
general, the intelligentsia ignored it. But in the last two decades of the
twentieth century, it has started to attract wider interest.
The appearance of fanzines is an indication of this. Fanzines are magazines
written in an informal but often highly intelligent and witty
style, published by the fans of some of the clubs. One or two books of
literary merit have been written which focus not only on
players, teams and tactics but also on the wider social aspects of
the game. Light-hearted football programmes have appeared on television which
similarly give attention to 'off-the-field' matters. There has also
been much academic interest. At the 1990 World Cup there was a joke among
English fans that it was impossible to find a hotel room because they had all
been taken by sociologists!
Many
team sports in Britain, but especially football, tend to be men-only, 'tribal'
affairs. In the USA, the whole family goes to watch the baseball. Similarly,
the whole family goes along to cheer the Irish national football team. But in
Britain, only a handful of children or women go to football matches. Perhaps
this is why active support for local teams has had a tendency to become
violent. During the 1970s and 1980s football hooliganism was a
major problem in England. In the 1990s, however, it seemed to be on
the decline. English fans visiting Europe are now no worse in
their behavior than the fans of many other countries.
For the great mass of the British public
the eight months of the football season are more important
than the four months of cricket. There are plenty
of amateur association football (or 'soccer') clubs, and professional football is big business. The annual Cup Final match, between the two teams which have defeated their opponents in each round of a knock-out contest, dominates the scene; the regular 'league' games, organised in
four divisions, provide the main entertainment
through the season and the basis for the vast system of betting on the football
pools. Many of the graffiti on public walls are aggressive
statements of support for football teams, and the hooliganism of some British
supporters has become notorious outside as
well as inside Britain.
Football has been called the most popular
game in the world, and it certainly has a great many fans in Britain. And now I
want to mention the English terminology for
football.
Association football (or
soccer) is the game that is played in nearly all countries. A team is
composed of a goalkeeper, two backs, three half-backs and five forwards.
Association football
remains one of the most popular games played in the British
Isles. Every Saturday from late August until
the beginning of May, large crowds of people support their sides in football
grounds up and down the country, while an almost equally large number of people play the game in clubs teams of every imaginable variety and level of skill. Over the last 20 years though, the
attendance at football matches has fallen away
sharply. This is because of changing lifestyles and
football hooligans about I have already written but I want to add that violence
at and near the football grounds increased, there was an
ever-increasing tendency for people to stay away,
leaving the grounds to football fans.
After serious disturbances
involving English supporters at the European
Cup Finals in Brussels in 1985 which led to the deaths of 38 spectators, English clubs were withdrawn from European competitions for the 1985-1986 season by the Football Association. The Cup Final at Wembley remains, though,
an event of national importance. Here is a drawing of a football field, or "pitch", as it is usually called.
The
football pitch should be between 100 and 130 metres long and between 50 and 100 metres wide. It is divided into two halves by the halfway line. The sides of the field are called the touch-lines and the ends are called the goal-lines. In the middle of the field there is a
centre circle and there is a goal at each end. Each
goal is 8 metres wide and between 21/2
and 3 metres high. In front of each goal is the goal area and the penalty area. There is a penalty spot inside the penalty area and a penalty arc outside it. A game of football usually lasts for one and a half hours. At half-time, the teams change ends. The referee controls the game. The aim of each team is obviously to score as many goals as possible. If both teams score the same number of goals, or if neither team scores any goals at all, the result is a draw.
The final of the
football competition takes place every May at the famous
Wembley stadium in London. Some of the best known clubs in England are Manchester United, Liverpool and the Arsenal. In Scotland either
Rangers, Celtic or Aberdeen usually win the cup or the championship.
Today, many people are only interested in football because of the pools
and the chance of winning a lot of money.
Football pools
"Doing the pools" is a popular form of betting on
football results each week. It is possible to win more than half a million pounds for a
few pence.
The English have never been against a gamble though most
of them know where to
draw the line and wisely refrain from betting too often. Since the war the most
popular form of gambling is no doubt that of staking a small sum on the football pools. (The word "pool"
is connected with the
picture of streams of money pouring into a common fund, or "pool" from which the
winners are paid after the firm has taken its expenses and profit.) Those who do so receive every week from one of the pools firms a printed
form; on this are listed the week's matches. Against each match, or against a number of them, the optimist
puts down a I, a 2 or an x to show that he thinks the result of the match will be a home win (stake on
fun’s team), an away win (stake on a team of opponent) or a draw. The form is
then posted to the pools firm, with a postal order or
cheque for the sum staked (or, as the firms
say, "invested"). At the end of the week the results of the matches are announced on television and
published in the newspapers and the "investor" can take out
his copy of his coupon and check his
forecast.
Rugby
There is another game called rugby
football, so called because it originated at Rugby, a well-known English public
school. In this game the players may carry the ball. Rugby football (or 'rugger') is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown (but not forward). The
ball is passed from hand to hand rather than from foot to foot. If a player is carrying the ball he may be 'tackled' and made to fall down.
Each team has fifteen players, who
spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very dirty, but do not need to wear
such heavily protective clothing as players of American football.
There are two
forms of rugby - Rugby Union, which is strictly amateur, and Rugby League,
played largely in the north, which is a professional sport. Rugby Union has
fifteen players, while Rugby League has thirteen, but the two games are
basically the same. They are so similar that somebody who is
good at one of them can quickly learn to become good at the other. The real difference between them is a matter of social history. Rugby union is the older of the two. In the nineteenth century it was enthusiastically
taken up by most of Britain's public schools. Rugby league split off from rugby union at the end of the century. There are two versions of this fast and aggressive ball game: rugby union and rugby league. Although it has now spread to many of the same
places in the world where rugby union is played (rugby union is played at top level in the
British Isles, France, Australia, South Africa and New
Zealand; also to a high level in North America, Argentina, Romania and some Pacific islands).
Rugby can be considered the 'national sport' of Wales,
New Zealand, Fiji, Western Samoa and Tonga, and
of South African whites. Its traditional home is
among the working class of the north of England, where
it was a way for miners and factory workers to make a little bit of extra money
from their sporting talents. Unlike rugby union, it has always been a professional sport.
Because of these social origins, rugby league in Britain is seen as a working class sport, while rugby union is mainly for the middle classes. Except in south Wales. There, rugby union is a sport for all
classes, and more popular than football. In Wales, the phrase 'international day' means only one thing — that the national rugby team are
playing. Since 1970, some of the best Welsh players have been persuaded to 'change codes'. They are 'bought' by one of the big rugby league clubs, where they can make a lot of money. Whenever this
happens it is seen as a national disaster among the Welsh.
Rugby union has had some success in
recent years in selling itself to a wider audience. As a
result, just as football has become less exclusively working class in
character, rugby union has become less exclusively
middle class. In 1995- it finally abandoned amateurism. In fact, the amateur status of top rugby union players had already become
meaningless. They didn't get paid a salary or fee for playing, but they received large 'expenses' as well as various publicity contracts and paid speaking engagements.
Cricket
The game particularly associated with England
is cricket. Judging by the numbers of people who play it
and watch it (ê look at ‘Spectator attendance at major sports’),
cricket is definitely not the national sport of Britain.
In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, interest in it is largely confined to the middle classes. Only in England and a small part
of Wales is it played at top level. And even in England, where its enthusiasts come from all classes, the majority of the population do
not understand its rules. Moreover, it is rare for the English national team to be the best in the world.
Cricket
is, therefore, the national English game in a symbolic sense. However, to some people cricket is more than just a symbol. The comparatively low attendance at top class matches does not give a true picture of the level of interest in the country. One game of cricket takes a terribly long time, which a lot of people simply don't have to spare. Eleven
players in each team. Test matches between
national teams can last up to five days of six hours each. Top club teams play
matches lasting between two and four days. There are
also one-day matches lasting about seven hours. In
fact there are millions of people in the country who
don't just enjoy cricket but are passionate about it! These people spend up to
thirty days each summer tuned to the live radio commentary
of ‘Test’ (= international) Matches. When they
get the chance, they watch a bit of the live television coverage. Some people even do both at the same time (they turn the sound down on
the television and listen to the radio). To these people, the commentators become
well-loved figures. When, in 1994, one famous commentator died, the Prime
Minister lamented that 'summers will never: be the
same again'. And if cricket fans are too busy to listen to the radio
commentary, they can always phone a special number to be given
the latest score!
Many other games which are English in origin have been adopted with enthusiasm all over the world, but cricket has been seriously and extensively adopted only in the former British empire, particularly in Australia, New
Zealand, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the West Indies
and South Africa. Do you know how to play cricket? If you
don't live in these countries you won't learn it at school. English people love cricket. Summer isn't summer
without it. Even if you do not understand the rules, it is attractive to watch the players, dressed in white playing on the beautiful green cricket fields. Every Sunday morning from May to the end of September many Englishmen get up very early, and take a lot of sandwiches with them. It is necessary because the games are very long. Games between two
village teams last for only one afternoon. Games between counties last for
three days, with 6 hours play on each day. When England plays with one or other
cricketing countries such as Australia and New Zealand it is called a test
match and lasts for five days. Cricket is played in schools,
colleges and universities and in most towns and villages by teams which play
weekly games. Test matches with other cricketing countries
are held annually.
Cricket is also played
by women and girls. The governing body is Women's
Cricket Association, founded in 1926. Women's cricket clubs have regular
weekend games. Test matches and other international matches take place. The women's World Cup is held every four years. But
There is The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and Lord's cricket ground in
the United Kingdom. The MCC was founded in 1787, and is still the most
important authority on cricket in the world. As a club it is exclusively male.
No woman is allowed to enter the club buildings. There are special stands for
members and their wives and quests.
Organised amateur
cricket is played between club teams, mainly on Saturday
afternoons. Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its cricket club, and there must be few places in which the popular image of
England, as sentimentalists like to think of it, is so
clearly seen as on a village cricket field. A
first-class match between English counties lasts for up
to three days, with six hours play on each day. The game is slow, and a spectator, sitting in the afternoon sun after a lunch of sandwiches and
beer, may be excused for having a little sleep for half
an hour.
When people refer to cricket as the
English national game, they are not thinking so much of its
level of popularity or of the standard of English
players but more of the very English associations that it carries with it. Cricket is much more than just a sport; it symbolizes a way of
life - a slow and peaceful rural way of life. Cricket is associated with long sunny summer afternoons, the smell of new-mown grass and the sound of leather (the ball) connecting with willow (the wood from which cricket bats are made). Cricket is special because it combines competition with the British dream of rural life. Cricket is what
the village green is for! As if to emphasize the rural connection, ‘first
class’ cricket teams in England, unlike teams in other sports, do not bear the
names of towns but of counties (Essex and Yorkshire, for example).
ANIMALS IN SPORT
Traditionally, the
favourite sports of the British upper class are hunting,
shooting and fishing. The most widespread form
of hunting is foxhunting — indeed, that is what the word ‘hunting’
usually means in Britain. Foxhunting
works like this. A group of people on horses,
dressed in eighteenth century riding clothes, ride
around with a pack of dogs. When the dogs pick up the
scent of a fox, somebody blows a horn and then
dogs, horses and riders all chase the fox. Often the
fox gets away, but if not, the dogs get to it before the hunters and tear it to pieces. As you might guess in a country of
animal-lovers, where most people have little experience of
the harsher realities of nature, foxhunting is strongly
opposed by some people. The League Against Cruel Sports
wants it made illegal and the campaign has been
steadily intensifying. There are sometimes violent
encounters between foxhunters and protestors (whom the hunters call
'saboteurs').Foxhunting is a popular pastime
among some members of the higher
social classes and a few people from lower social classes, who often see their
participation as a mark of newly won status. The hunting of foxes is
sport associated through the centuries with ownership of land. The
hounds chase the fox, followed by people
riding horses, wearing red or black coats and conforming with various rules and customs. In a few hill areas
stags are hunted similarly. Both
these types of hunting are enjoyed mainly by people who can afford the cost of keeping horses and carrying them to
hunt meetings in 'horse boxes', or
trailer vans. Both, particularly stag-hunting, are opposed by people who
condemn the cruelty involved in chasing and killing frightened animals. There have been attempts to persuade Parliament to pass laws to forbid hunting, but none has been
successful. There is no law about hunting foxes, but there is a fox-hunting
seasons – from November to March.
Killing birds with
guns is known as 'shooting' in Britain. It is a minority
pastime confined largely to the higher social classes; there are more than three times as many licensed guns for this purpose in France as there are in Britain. The birds which people try to shoot (such as grouse) may only be shot during certain specified times of the
year. The upper classes often organize 'shooting parties' during the 'season'. The British do not shoot
small animals or birds for sport, though some farmers
who shoot rabbits or pigeons may enjoy doing so. But 'game birds', mainly
pheasant, grouse and partridge, have traditionally provided sport for the landowning gentry. Until Labour's election victory of 1964 many of
the prime ministers of the past two
hundred years, along with members of their cabinets, had gone to the grouse moors of Scotland or the
Pennines for the opening of the
shooting season on 12 August. Since 1964 all that has changed. Now there
are not many leading British politicians carrying guns in the shooting parties, though there may be foreign
millionaires, not all of them from
America. Some of the beaters, whose job is to disturb the grouse so that they fly up to be shot, are students earning
money to pay for trips abroad. But there is still a race to send the first shot
grouse to London restaurants, where
there are people happy to pay huge amounts of money for the privilege of eating
them.
The only kind of
hunting which is associated with the working class
is hare-coursing, in which greyhound dogs chase hares. However, because
the vast majority of people in Britain are urban dwellers, this too is a
minority activity.
The one kind of ‘hunting’ which is
popular among all social classes is fishing. In fact,
this is the most popular participatory sport of all in Britain. Between four
and five million people go fishing regularly. When
fishing is done competitively, it is called ‘angling’.
The most popular of all outdoor sports is fishing, from the banks of lakes or rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some
British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract
enthusiasts from all over the world.
Apart from being
hunted, another way in which animals are used in
sport is when they race. Horse-racing is a long-established and popular sport in Britain, both ‘flat racing’ and ‘national hunt’ racing
(where there are jumps for the horses), sometimes known
as ‘steeplechase’.
The former became known as 'the sport of kings' in the seventeenth
century, and modern British royalty has close connections with sport involving horses. Some members
of the royal family own racehorses
and attend certain annual race meetings (Ascot, for example); some are also active participants in
the sports of polo and show-jumping
(both of which involve riding a horse). The
steeplechase (crosscountry running) is very popular
in most European countries. The first known organized
crosscountry race in 1837 was the Crick Run
at Rugby School. Originally, crosscountry running took
place over open country where the hazards were the natural ones to
be found in the country. These included hedges,
ditches, streams and the like. Schools and some clubs still run over open
country. Sometimes, however, the competitors run
off the course as, on one occasion, happened to all the runners in a race. Because of this, the organization of these races has to be very strict. Nowadays, crosscountry races (or steeplechases) are often run in
an enclosed area where the hazards are artificial. This
makes organization easier.
The chief attraction of
horse-racing for most people is the opportunity
it provides for gambling (see below). Greyhound racing, although declining, is still
popular for the same reason. In this sport, the
dogs chase a mechanical hare round a racetrack. It is easier to organize than horse-racing and ‘the dogs’ has the reputation of being the ‘poor man's racing’. Greyhound racing has had a
remarkable revival in the 1980s, and by 1988
it accounted for about a quarter of all gambling. Its stadiums are near town centres, small enough to be floodlit in the evenings. Until
recently the spectators were mostly male and poor,
the surroundings shabby. The 1980s have changed all this, with the growth of
commercial sponsorship for advertising. There are
fewer stadiums and fewer spectators than in 1970,
but the old cloth cap image has become much less appropriate. But one thing has not changed. The elite of Britain's dogs, and their
trainers, mostly come from Ireland.
INFORMATION:
Famous
(horse) race meetings
The Grand National: at Aintree, near
Liverpool, in March or April It is England's main steeplechase (race over
fences). The course is over seven kilometres and includes thirty jumps, of
which fourteen are jumped twice. It is a dangerous race Jockeys have
been hurt and horses have been killed.
The Derby: at Epsom, south of London, in May or June. It is
England's leading flat race (not over fences).
Ascot: near Windsor in June.
Very fashionable. The Queen always attends.
As I have mentioned horse-racing,
I think it will be good to draw attention to racing in hole.
RACING
There are all kinds
of racing in England — horse-racing, motorcar
racing, boat-racing, dog-racing, and even races for donkeys. On sports days at school boys and girls run races, and even train for
them. There is usually a mile race for older boys,
and the one who wins it is certainly a good runner.
Usually those who run a race
go as fast as possible, but there are some races in which everybody has to go
very carefully in order to avoid falling.
There is the "three-legged" race, for
example, in which a pair of runners have
the right leg of one tied to the left leg of the other. If they try to
go too fast they are certain to fall. And there is the egg-and-spoon race, in
which each runner must carry an egg in a spoon without letting it drop. If the egg does fall, it must be picked up with
the spoon, not the fingers.
Naturally animals don't race
unless they are made to run in some way, though it often
seems as if little lambs are running races with each other
in the fields in spring.
Horses are ridden, of course. Dogs won't race
unless they have something to chase, and so they are given a hare to go after,
either a real one or an imitation one.
The University boat-race
started in 1820 and has been rowed on the Thames
almost every spring since 1836. At the Henly Regatta in Oxfordshire, founded in 1839, crews from all over the world compete each July in various kinds of race over a straight course of 1 mile 550
yards (about 2.1 km).
Horse racing is big
business, along with the betting which sustains it. Every day of the year,
except Sundays, there is a race meeting at least one
of Britain's several dozen racecourses. Nine-tenths of the betting is done by people all over the country, by post or at local betting shops,
and it is estimated that a tenth of all British men bet regularly on horse
races, many of them never going to a race course.
Horse racing accounts for
about half of all gambling, dog racing for a quarter (after increasing by 27
per cent in 1987-88). The total gambling expenditure is estimated at over three
billion pounds a year, or nearly 1 per cent of the gross domestic product -
though those who bet get about three-quarters of their stake back in winnings.
There is no national lottery, though premium bonds are a form of national
savings, with monthly prizes instead of interest. About half of all households
bet regularly on the football pools, although half of the money staked is divided between the state, through taxes, and the
operators. People are attracted by
the hope of winning huge prizes, but some winners become miserable with their sudden unaccustomed wealth.
Bingo sessions, often in old
cinemas, are attractive mainly to women, and have a good social element. More popular are the slot machines in
establishments described as
'amusement arcades'. There has been some worry about the addiction of young
people to this form of gambling, which can lead to theft.
Gambling
Even if they are not taking part or watching, British people like to be
involved in sport. They can do this by placing bets on future results. Gambling is widespread throughout all social classes. It is so basic to sport that the word 'sportsman' used to be a synonym for 'gambler'.
When, in 1993, the starting procedure for the
Grand National did not work
properly, so that the race could not take place, it was widely regarded as a national disaster. The £70
million which had been gambled on the
result (that's more than a pound for each man, woman and child in the country!) all had to be given
back.
Every year, billions of
pounds are bet on horse races. So well-known
is this activity that everybody in the country, even those with no interest in horse-racing, would understand the meaning of a question such as 'who won the 2.30 at Chester?' (Which horse won the race that was scheduled to take place at half past two today at the Chester racecourse? The questioner probably wants to know because he or she has gambled some money on the result.) The central role of horse-racing in gambling is also shown by one of the names used to denote companies and individuals whose business it is to take bets. Although these are generally known as 'bookmakers', they sometimes call
themselves 'turf accountants' ('turf is a word for ground where grass grows);
Apart from the horses and the dogs, the
most popular form of gambling connected with
sports is the football pools. Every week, more
than ten million people stake a small sum on the results of Saturday's professional matches. Another popular type of gambling, stereotypically for middle-aged working class women, is bingo.
Nonconformist
religious groups traditionally frown upon gambling and
their disapproval has had some influence. Perhaps
this is why Britain did not have a national lottery until 1994. But if people
want to gamble, then they will. For instance, before the national lottery started, the British gambled £250,000 on which company would be given the licence to run it! The country's big bookmakers are willing to offer odds on almost anything at all if
asked. Who will be the next Labour party leader? Will it rain during the
Wimbledon tennis tournament? Will it snow on Christmas Day? All of these offer opportunities for 'a flutter'.
Apropos of the Wimbledon tennis tournament: Wimbledon is a place to which every
tennis-player aspire. And I want to write some words about it.
WIMBLEDON
People all over the world know Wimbledon
as the centre of lawn tennis. But most people do not know that it was
famous for another game before tennis was
invented. Wimbledon is now a part of Greater
London. In 1874 it was a country village, but it had a railway station
and it was the home of the All-England Croquet Club. The Club had been there since 1864. A lot of people
played croquet in England at that
time and enjoyed it, but the national championships did not attract many spectators. So the Club had very
little money, and the members were
looking for ways of getting some. "This new game of lawn tennis seems to have plenty of action, and
people like watching it," they thought. "Shall we allow people to
play lawn tennis on some of our
beautiful croquet lawns?"
In 1875 they changed the name of the Club
to the "All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club", and that is the
name that you will still find in the
telephone book. Two years later, in 1877, Wimbledon held the first world lawn tennis championship
(men's singles).3 The winner
was S. W. Gore, a Londoner. There were 22 players, and 200 spectators, each paid one shilling. Those who
watched were dressed in the very
latest fashion — the men in hard top hats and long coats, and the ladies in dresses that reached to the ground!
The Club gained £ 10. It was
saved. Wimbledon grew. There was
some surprise and doubt, of course, when the Club allowed women to play
in the first women's singles championship
in 1884. But the ladies played well—even in long skirts that hid their
legs and feet.
The Wimbledon
championships begin on the Monday nearest to June
22, at a time when England often has its finest weather. It is not only because
of the tennis that people like to go there. When the weather is good, it is a very pleasant place to spend an afternoon. The grass is fresh and green, the players wear
beautiful white clothes, the spectators
are dressed in the latest fashion, there may be members of the Royal Family among them, and there are cool
drinks in the open-air cafes next to the tennis courts. Millions of people watch the championships on
television.
OTHER SPORTS
Almost every sport which exists is played in
Britain. As well as the sports already mentioned,
hockey (mostly on a field but also on ice) is
quite popular, and both basketball (for men) and netball (for women) are
growing in popularity. So too is the ancient game of rounders.
Rounders
This sport is rather similar
to American baseball and ancient Russian lapta, but it certainly does not have
the same image. It has a long history in England as
something that people (young and old, male and female) can play together at
village fetes. It is often seen as not being
a proper ‘sport’.
However, despite this
image, it has recently become the second most popular sport for state schools
in Britain. More traditional sports such as cricket and
rugby are being abandoned in favour of rounders, which is much easier to organize. Rounders
requires less special equipment, less money and
boys and girls can play it together. It also takes up less time. It is especially attractive
for state schools with little money and time to spare.
More than a quarter of all state-school sports fields are now used for rounders. Only football, which is played on nearly half of all state-school fields, is more popular.
The British have a
preference for team games. Individual sports such as athletics, cycling,
gymnastics and swimming have comparatively small
followings. Large numbers of people become interested in
them only when British competitors do well in international events. The more popular individual sports are those in which socializing is an important aspect (such as tennis, golf, sailing and snooker). It is notable in this context that, apart from international competitions, the only athletics event which generates a lot of enthusiasm
is the annual London Marathon. Most of the tens of thousands of participants in this race are 'fun runners' who are merely trying to
complete it, sometimes in outrageous costumes, and so collect money for charity. The biggest new development
in sport has been with long-distance running. 'Jogging', for healthy
outdoor exercise, needing no skill or equipment,
became popular in the 1970s, and soon more and more people took it seriously. Now the annual London Marathon
is like a carnival, with a million
people watching as the world's star runners are followed by 25,000
ordinary people trying to complete the course. Most of them succeed and then collect money from supporters for
charitable causes. Many thousands of
people take part in local marathons all over Britain.
The Highland Games
Scottish Highland
Games, at which sports (including tossing the caber,
putting the weight and throwing the hammer), dancing and piping competitions take place, attract large numbers of spectators from all over
the world.
These meetings are
held every year in different places in the Scottish Highlands.
They include the clans led by their pipers, dressed in their kilts, tartan plaids, and plumed bonnets, who march round the arena.
The features common
to Highland Games are bagpipe and Highland dancing competitions
and the performance of heavy athletic events
— some of which, such as tossing the caber, are Highland in origin. All competitors wear Highland dress, as do
most of the judges. The games take place in a large roped-off arena. Several
events take place at the same time:
pipers and dancers perform on a platform; athletes toss the caber, put the weight, throw the hammer, and
wrestle. There is also a competition
for the best-dressed Highlander.
Highland dancing is performed to bagpipe
music, by men and women, such as the Sword Dance and the Reel.
No one knows exactly when
the men of the Highlands first gathered to
wrestle, toss cabers, throw hammers, put weights, dance and play music. The Games reflected the tough life of the early Scots. Muscle-power was their means of livelihood — handling timber, lifting rocks to
build houses, hunting. From such activities have
developed the contests of tossing the caber, putting the weight and
throwing the hammer. Tossing the caber originated among woodmen who wanted to
cast their logs into the deepest part of a river. Tossing the caber is not a question of who can throw it farthest. For a
perfect throw the caber must land in the 12-o'clock position after being thrown in a vertical semicircle. The caber is
a very heavy and long log..
Conker Contest and British
Marbles Championship
Every year, usually
on the Wednesday nearest to 20th October, about
a hundred competitors gather to take part in the annual conker competition in a
chosen place. The conkers are collected by children from
an avenue of chestnut trees. The conkers are carefully examined and numbered on their flat sides, then bored and threaded on nylon cord. Each competitor is allowed an agreed number of
"strikes", and a referee is present to see
fair play. There are prizes for winners and runners-up. The contest usually
starts at about 7 p. m.
It is said that in Elizabethan times
two suitors for a village beauty settled the matter by means
of a marbles contest. What is now the Marble Championship
is believed to be a survival of that contest. The game
of marbles dates back to Roman times. Teams of six compete on a circular, sanded rink. Forty-nine marbles are placed in the centre of
the rink, and the players try to knock out4
as many as possible with their marble. The marble is
rested on the index finger and flicked5 with the thumb. The two highest individual scores battle for the championship with only thirteen marbles on the rink. Similar contests are now held in some other English-speaking countries.
INFORMATION
The well-known
sporting events
The Boat Race: (between Oxford and Cambridge
universities), on the River Thames
in London at Easter. The course is over seven kilometres. Oxford
have won 64
times, Cambridge 69 times.
The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament: in July, at Wimbledon,
south London, regarded
by many tennis players as the most important championship to
win. There is great
public interest in the tournament. Many tennis fans queue all
night outside the
grounds in order to get tickets for the finals.
The Open Golf Championship: golf was invented by the
Scots, and its headquarters
is at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland.
Henley (Rowing) Regatta: at Henley on the Thames
(between London and Oxford).
An international summer event. It is a fashionable occasion.
Cowes Week: a yachting regatta. Cowes is a small town on
the Isle of Wight,
opposite Southampton, and a world-famous yachting centre.
CONCLUSION
At the end of my course paper I want to
make a short review of what I have already written and write what I haven’t
written.
Many kinds of sport
originated from England. The English have a
proverb, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." They do not think that play is more important than work; they think that Jack will
do his work better if he plays as well, so he is encouraged to do both. Association football, or soccer is one of the most popular games
in the British Isles played from late August until the
beginning of May. In summer the English national
sport is cricket. When the English say: 'that's not cricket' it
means 'that's not fair', 'to play the game' means 'to be fair'.
Golf is Scotland's chief contribution to British
sport. It is worth noting here an
interesting feature of sporting life in Britain, namely, its frequently close connection with social class of
the players or spectators except
where a game may be said to be a "national" sport. This is the case with cricket in England which is played
and watched by all classes. This is true of golf, which is everywhere in the
British Isles a middle-class
activity. Rugby Union, the amateur variety of Rugby football, is the Welsh national sport played by
all sections of society whereas,
elsewhere, it too is a game for the middle classes. Association football is a working-class sport as are boxing,
wrestling, snooker, darts
and dog-racing. As far as fishing is concerned it is, apart from being the most
popular British sport from the angle of the number of active participants, a sport where what is caught
determines the class of a fisherman.
If it is a salmon or trout it is upper-class, but if it is the sort offish found in canals, ponds or the sea, then
the angler is almost sure to be
working-class.
Walking and swimming are
the two most popular sporting activities, being almost equally undertaken by
men and women. Snooker (billiards), pool and darts are the next most popular
sports among men. Aerobics (keep-fit
exercises) and yoga, squash and cycling are among the sports where
participation has been increasing in recent years.
There are several
places in Britain associated with a particular kind of sport. One of them is
Wimbledon — a suburb to the south of London where the All-England Lawn Tennis
Championships are held in July (since
1877). The finals of the tournament are played on the Centre Court. The
other one is Wembley — a stadium in north London where international football
matches, the Cup Finals and other events
have taken place since 1923. It can hold over 100,000 spectators. The third one is Derby, the most famous flat race
in the English racing calendar, it is run at Epsom near London since
1780.
Having written my course paper I think that I have
proved sport’s deserving attention. Especially sport is a very interesting
theme concerning the United Kingdom. Of course, I couldn’t illustrate all
Britain sports, but which I still do reflect Britain’s life with all
contradictory combinations. Both life is calm and exciting, and sport is calm
with golf’s followers and exciting with football’s fans.
QUESTIONS
1.
Which is the English summer national sport?
2. Which kinds of sport can you name in English?
3. Which game can be called the most popular game in the world?
4. How many players are there in a football team?
5.
What has given British football a bad name
recently?
6. What is a football pool?
7.
Football is played chiefly with the feet.
What about rugby?
8.
How do Rugby Union and Rugby League differ
from each other?
9. What is called a test match in cricket?
10. Which
place in Britain is associated with lawn tennis championships?
11. Which
place in Britain is associated with a yachting regatta?
12. Which famous horse-race meetings does
the Queen call on?
13. What
kinds of racing do you know?
14. What
events take place at Scottish Highland Games?
15. Where
is the Royal and Ancient Golf Club located?
16. What
was about half of all money bet on in 1993?
17. What
is a ‘conker’?
18. What
is ‘jogging’?
20. What English idioms which have come from the world of
sport do you know?
21.
THE LIST OF
LITERATURE
1.
Приложение к
газете «1 сентября» «English»//
«Football, made in Britain, loved by the world», 2001, №13, p.2
2.
Britain
in Brief, Просвещение,
1993
3.
Peter
Bromhead «Life in Modern Britain», Longman, 1997
4.
James
O’Driscoll «Britain. The country and
its people», Oxford University Press,
1997
5.
David
McDowall «Britain in close-up», Longman, 2000
6.
Satinova
V.F. «Read and speak about
Britain and the British», Minsk, 1997
7.
Material
from the site: www.scotland.com
THE LIST OF LITERATURE
1.
Levashova
V.A. «Britain today»
2.
David
McDowall «Britain in close-up», Longman, 2000
3.
Oshepkova
V.V., Shustilova I. I. «Britain in brief»