1. Sports from England

2. Football
• The Ancient
Greeks , Romans and
Japanesse are known to
have played many ball
games, some of which
involved the use of the
feet.
• However, the main
sources of modern
football codes appear to
lie in western Europe,
especially England.
Ancient Greek football player

3. • The History of English football is a long and detailed one, as it is not
only the national sport , it-s also England where the game was
developed and codified.
• The modern global game of Football was first codified in 1863 in
London.
• The impetus for this was to unify English public school and university
football games.
• There is evidence for refereed, team football games being played in
English schools since at least 1581.
• An account of an exclusively kicking football game
from Nottinghamshire-Notts County in the 15th century bears
similarity to football.
• England can boast the earliest ever documented use of the English
word "football" (1409) and the earliest reference to the sport in French
(1314).
• England is home to the oldest football clubs in the world (dating from
at least 1857), the world's oldest competition (the FA cup founded in
1871) and the first ever football league (1888).
• But the first ever inter league was in the 20th century. For these
reasons England is considered the home of the game of football.

4. • An early reference to a ball game
played in Britain comes from the
9th century Historia Brittonum,
which describes "a party of boys ...
playing at ball".
• The early forms of football played
in England, sometimes referred to
as "mob football", would be
played between neighbor towns
and villages, involving an unlimited
number of players on opposing
teams who would clash each
other, struggling to move an item,
such as inflated animal's
bladder, to particular geographical
points, such as their opponents'
church, with play taking place in
the open space between neighbor
parishes.
• The game was played primarily
during significant religious
festivals, such as
Shrovetide, Christmas or Easter.

5. • Because the game was so violent and with no
rules , in 1363, King Edward III of
England issued a proclamation banning
football.
• King Charles II in the mid 1600s, allowed
football again.
• The word "football" was used by William
Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King
Lear contains the line: "Nor tripped neither,
you base football player" (Act I, Scene 4).
Shakespeare also mentions the game in A
Comedy of Errors.

6. Public schools
• The first attempt to draw up a uniform set of rules took
place at Cambridge University in 1848. Although the
originals are lost, a set of Cambridge Rules from 1856
survives in the library of Shrewsbury School.

7. • The first football clubs
also emerged around this
time, most notably
Sheffield FC (1857 - the
world's oldest club),
Hallam (1860) and Notts
County (1862).
• The first reference to
"colours" comes from the
rules of Sheffield FC in
1857, which stated:
• "Each player must provide
himself with a red and
dark blue flannel cap, one
colour to be worn by each
side."

8. • In 1863 leading players formed the Football Association and drew up the
first set of national laws of the game, drawing upon the Cambridge
Rules and those of the Sheffield Club.
• Spectators were generally regarded as a nuisance and the game was a
robust pursuit for gentlemen from public schools. The leading clubs of the
day were formed by old boys of the major public schools (Old Etonians, Old
Carthusians etc), by officers serving in the Army (Royal Engineers) and
at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

9. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming
the first of many professional football competitions. During the
twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew
to become among the most popular team sports in the world.

10. Cricket
• The origins of the game of cricket
are lost in the mists of time.
• There is a reference in the
household accounts of Edward I
in 1300 of a game like cricket
being played in Kent.
• It seems clear that the English
game originated in the sheeprearing country of the South East,
where the short grass of the
down land pastures made it
possible to bowl a ball of wool or
rags at a target. That target was
usually the wicket-gate of the
sheep pasture, which was
defended with a bat in the form
of a shepherd's crooked staff.

11. By the 17th century the game was quite popular as a rough rural pastime, but in
the following century the leisure classes took up the sport, particularly in
Sussex, Kent, and London. We know that an organized match was held at the
Artillery Grounds, Finsbury, London, in 1730. By the middle of the 18th century
cricket was being played at every level of society, from village greens to wealthy
estates. However, the game lacked a coherent set of rules.

12. • The first and most
influential cricket club in
the land was formed at
Hambledon, Hampshire,
in the 1750's. The club
was sponsored by
wealthy patrons, but the
players were local
tradesmen and farmers.
The Hambledon club
established techniques of
batting and bowling
which still hold today, and
Hambledon claims a page
in history books as the
"Birthplace of Cricket".

13. • The centre of power in the
game soon shifted to
London, most notably with
the establishment of the
Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC), which had its
headquarters at Lord's
ground. In 1835 the MCC
gave cricket its first formal
laws, which still stand
largely intact today.

14. •
•
A major boost for the sport of cricket was provided by public schools such as Eton,
Harrow, and Winchester. The sport proved so popular among the well-to-do students
that an annual match called "Gentlemen vs. Players" took place at Lord's from 18061963. The amateur "Gentlemen" from the schools and universities played their semiprofessional counterparts; the "Players" in a match that was a highlight of the season.
Major cricket matches can last as long as 5 days, with each side having two "innings", or
turns at bat. A recent alternative to the longer matches are "limited over" matches.
These events may take a relatively short 3-5 hours during the course of one day.

15. • The game of cricket is now played worldwide.
• In England the major focus of the game is the
county championships, with both four-day
and one-day competitions running
simultaneously during the summer months.
But traditional village cricket is still played in
towns and villages all across the UK.

16. Tennis
• Historians believe that the
game's ancient origin lay in
12th century
northern France, where a
ball was struck with the
palm of the hand. Louis X of
France was a keen player
of jeu de paume (“game of
the palm”), which evolved
into real tennis, and
became notable as the first
person to construct indoor
tennis courts in the modern
style.

17. • It wasn't until the 16th century that racquets came into
use, and the game began to be called "tennis", from
the Old French term tenez, which can be translated as
"hold!", "receive!" or "take!", an interjection used as a
call from the server to his opponent. It was popular in
England and France, although the game was only
played indoors where the ball could be hit off the
wall. Henry VIII of England was a big fan of this game,
which is now known as real tennis.
• Further, the patenting of the first lawn mower in 1830,
in Britain, is strongly believed to have been the
catalyst, world-wide, for the preparation of modernstyle grass courts, sporting ovals, playing fields, pitches,
greens, etc. This in turn led to the codification of
modern rules for many sports, including lawn tennis,
most football codes, lawn bowls and others.

18. Between 1859 and 1865 Harry Gem and his friend Augurio
Perera developed a game that combined elements of racquets and the
Basque ball game pelota, which they played on Perera's croquet lawn
in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.[In 1872, along with two local
doctors, they founded the world's first tennis club in Leamington Spa.

19. • In December 1873, British army officer
Major Walter Clopton
Wingfield designed and patented a
similar game – which he
called sphairistikè(meaning "ballplaying"), and was soon known simply
as "sticky" – for the amusement of his
guests at a garden party on his estate
of Nantclwyd, in Llanelidan, Wales. He
produced a boxed set which included
a net, poles, racquets, balls for playing
the game and most importantly you
had his rules. He was absolutely
terrific at marketing and he sent his
game all over the world. He had very
good connections with the clergy, the
law profession, and the aristocracy
and he sent thousands of sets out in
the first year or so, in 1874.

20. • The world's oldest tennis tournament,
the Wimbledon Championships, were first
played in London in 1877. The first
Championships culminated a significant
debate on how to standardize the rules.

21. Table tennis
• Table Tennis, probably
evolved in England
descending, along with
tennis and badminton, from
the ancient medieval game
of tennis. During the second
half of the nineteenth
century it was played using
the names of Gossima,
patented in 1891 by John
Jacques and Son, and WhiffWhaff, patented by
Slazengers.

22. • The name of Ping Pong
was derived as a result of
the imitation of the sound
made by the ball striking
the table and the vellum
bats that were in use. By
the 1880s the game had
become fashionable
amongst the upper
classes being played on
the dining room table and
in the 1890s several
patents with simple rules
were being registered.

23. • By the early 1900s Ping Pong
had already acquired some of
its present day complexities,
though it was still seen as
mainly an after dinner
amusement rather than a
sporting activity. In an account
published in 1903 participants
were warned against wearing
a dress suit and stiff collar for
the men, and a white satin
gown for the ladies – it then
went on to give detailed
technical advice about
pimpled rubber, the penholder
grip and tactics.

24. • In England two rival organisations were set up ‘The Table
Tennis Association’ being formed on 12th December 1901
and 4 days later ‘The Ping Pong Association’. The two then
amalgamated as ‘The United Table Tennis and Ping Pong
Association’ on 1st May 1903 later reverting back to the title
‘The Table Tennis Association’. Unfortunately the merger
came too late to prevent the decline and near extinction of
the game in England with the Association ceasing to exist
during 1904 with only a few organised ‘outposts’ in
Sunderland, Manchester, Plymouth and Bristol.

25. • In the early 1920s the game began its revival in
England and Europe . In England this was mainly
due to the efforts of the Hon. Ivor Montagu,
academics at Cambridge University and a number
of stalwarts from the earlier years of the sport
who had set up a club at St Bride’s Institute in
London . The name of Ping Pong had been
registered as a trademark so the Table Tennis
Association was reconstituted in 1922 with the
prefix ‘English’ being added in 1927.

26. • The International Table Tennis
Federation was formed in 1926
with the first World
Championships being held in
London that year. These were
later held in Budapest in 1929
and were won by Fred Perry of
tennis fame. More national
associations were formed and a
standardisation of the rules
began in both Europe and the Far
East .
• Over the next 60 years the sport
continued to develop world wide
practised by as many as 30
million competitive players and
millions who play less seriously.

27. • The basics of the game have not changed in
essence over the years although the ITTF have always
tried to ensure the game remains a contest of human
skills rather than reliant on new technological
developments. Some of the major changes are:
• • The lowering of the net
• Service rules
• Ball size
• Changes to the rules of the sport can only be made at
the ITTF’s Biennial General Meeting subject to the
agreement of a substantial majority of the 186+
member associations all of whom have an equal vote.
• In 1988 the sport became part of the Olympics and in
2002 joined the Commonwealth Games.

28. The End!