Sports in Britain

     Sport plays an important part in many British people’s lives. Most towns, cities and villages have their own sports centres, cricket clubs and football clubs, and many big firms have their own sports facilities. Sport is also considered important in children’s education, for developing important qualities such as team spirit and as a way of keeping physically fit.

     Many secondary schools in Britain have a gym, playing fields and some have a swimming pool. Most school children spend about half a day a week playing games. In the past boys learned football, or cricket, while girls played hockey or netball. Now this is changing and children have more choice. Many schools offer other sports such as badminton, tennis, boxing, judo and rugby.

     Apart from practising a sport, British people also like watching sporting events live, or staying at home and watching them on TV.

     For sports in which people want to participate, Britain offers facilities for almost every sport and leisure activity. Around the coasts and lakes there are opportunities for swimming, surfing, sailing and water-skiing; in the mountainous regions there is skiing, climbing, and hiking; rivers are very good for fishing; while pony-trekking, riding and walking are very popular. 

     Source: Excursion, an old Italian book. 

The Sporting Spirit

The word sport, as well as many other English words associated with sports and games, has no translation. Sportsmen all over the world use such words as corner, offside, hands, dribbling, tackling, net and even those who are not boxing fans know the meaning of round, ring, knock-out, or uppercut.

Many of the most popular sports practised all over the world are of British origin and the English are traditionally considered good sportsmen.

The English think, however, that to be a good sportsman does not necessarily mean to play well and be able to beat the opponents. Beating the opponents is not the only reason for playing. Of course winning is important, but a game has a value in itself, for its own sake. It is first and foremost recreation and fun, and not a war for the ambitious.

In order to be a good sportsman one must be able to play with respect for the rules and the referee’s decisions, be modest when one wins and patient when one loses. This is what the English call sporting spirit.

In this sense, sport and fair play have a great educational importance, and this is the reason why British schools pay so much attention to them. Every English schoolboy is taught to live life with a sportsman’s attitude: to endure hardships, to respect his opponents, and above all to play the game, that is to act and to behave honestly.

When an Englishman wants to refer to something unfair, he usually save: That isn’t cricket!. For the English, in fact, cricket is something more than their national game: it is the pattern for a gentleman’s behaviour. 

Source: R. Colle – I. Vay, L’esame di inglese, Lattes, an old Italian book 1974. 

The world of snorkelling, scuba diving

     Go snorkelling and you’ll be surprised at the fantastic beauty of the underwater world. Like swimming, you start learning how to snorkel in a swimming pool and need swimming skills such as swimming 200 yards, and swimming  40 feet underwater. You must take lessons and learn how to use the equipment, before you try diving in the sea. Why not find out if there is a sub-aqua club in your town?

The snorkel

The important considerations are comfort and fit. Bite gently on the snorkel tube and practise breathing through it. Try this with your face in the water before you begin to swim.

The mask

Always test your mask. Press it against your face and breathe in. If it stays in place, it fits. Make sure you can touch your nose easily.

Flippers

Your flippers should be comfortable, so get professional advice. Put on the flippers in shallow water and walk backwards. Flippers help you to swim faster without using your arms.

Life-jacket

Wearing a life-jacket is a good idea – it helps you float in an emergency.

Golden rules for safe snorkelling

-          Never snorkel alone. Always take a friend with you.

-          Watch the weather. Diving is dangerous in bad weather.

-          Don’t go too far from shore or your boat.

-          Always keep your partner in sight.

-          Learn basic snorkelling skills with an instructor.

-          Don’t go out with badly fitting equipment.

-          Don’t tire yourself by swimming too fast.

-          Keep healthy and fit.

Have fun!

Source: Excursion, an old Italian book. 

The Home of Sport

     English people are very fond of sports and practise them much more than Italian people do. In English schools most after-noon lessons are devoted to games and sport activities. A boy who is good enough to play football in his school team is regarded by his fellows as a hero, and a Cambridge or Oxford undergraduate selected to be a member of his university crew in the Boat Race acquires life-long fame.

     Cricket is the national game in England. It is played by 22 men dressed in white on a large green field. All true cricketers must be gentlemen: this is one of the main rules of the game. It is difficult to describe a game of cricket to foreigners because it has very complicated rules. A game may even last for a few days on end !

     Rugby football, or rugger, is more popular in England than it is in Italy. It is considerably different from Association football, or soccer, because each rugger team has fifteen men instead of eleven, the ball is oval instead of round anal it can be played with both hands and feet.

     Golf is the national game of Scotland. It is very popular among middle-aged people, and it is played with a number of clubs and a small ball that must be hit into the 18 little holes of the golf course.

     Rowing is the best-liked sport at public schools and at universities. The Boat Race, the famous contest between the students of Oxford and Cambridge Universities, is rowed every year on the Thames. It is always watched from the river banks by thousands of fans wearing the colours of their favourite University: dark blue for Oxford and light blue for Cambridge.

     Horse racing is also a great favourite among English people. The Derby, the annual race which takes place at Epsom Downs, is perhaps the world’s most famous sporting event and is almost invariably attended by a member of the Royal Family. Fox hunting is chiefly practised by the aristocracy and upper classes. The opponents of blood sports consider fox hunting cruel and barbarous; the defenders, on the other hand, advance strange theories: one is that the fox is a good sportsman and enjoys being hunted. 

     Source: R. Colle – I. Vay, L’esame di inglese, Lattes, an old Italian book 1974. 

British Sports

     Soccer (football) is Britain’s most popular team game. There are about 129 professional clubs in Britain and the season lasts from August to May. Football matches are usually on Saturday afternoons and the highlight is the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium in London in May.

     Rugby is also very popular and is played in two versions: Rugby Union with fifteen amateur players per side, and Rugby League with thirteen-a-side professional teams. The season starts in September and you can watch matches every Saturday during the winter.

     Cricket is often considered the English national sport and is difficult to understanding. It is played with a bat and ball with two teams of eleven players. A match can last up to five days. The season starts in April and people love watching games on village greens and County grounds. The main international competitors are: the West Indies, New Zealand, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa and India.

     Tennis is also a popular sport. The world's top tennis players come to Wimbledon (in London) every year in the last week of June and the first week of July for the Lawn Tennis Championships.

     Motor-racing is very popular. Britain’s motor racing championship for Formula One cars, is the British Grand Prix, held in July every year at Silverstone racing circuit.

     Golf is a very old game and St Andrews in Scotland is the oldest Course in the world. The most important annual golf tournament in Britain is the British Open Golf Championship. It takes place in July and is for professional and amateur players, and is on a different course every year.

     Rowing s a very popular sport and is about 500 different schools, colleges and rowing clubs Every year there are about 250 regattas in England — the most traditional is the 6.8 km long Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race held at the end of March on the River Thames in London. Another AP important event is the Henley Royal Regatta in July.

     Equestrian events can be seen all year round and many people love ‘a day at the races’. The most famous events are the Derby (in June at Epsom), the Grand National that takes place each spring (March or April) at Aintree, and Ascot (June) famous for its hats! The main showjumping events are the Royal International Horse Show in July, and the Horse of the Year Show in October. Both are at Wembley, in London. 

     Source: Excursion, an old Italian book. 

Surf in Australia. What a passion!

     Some people in the world cannot swim. Australian children would laugh about it. They learn to swim as part of their school curriculum and swimming, boating and surfing are all extremely popular. 
     The whole Australian coastline, 19,200 km, is rich in golden sandy beaches and rolling surf and everywhere in the country summer holidays normally mean camping or caravanning along the coast by the sea. Also big towns, like Melbourne and Adelaide, have long suburban beaches in bays sheltered from the ocean, while Sydney and Perth are well-known for having surf beaches an their doorstep.

     Australians love lazing on the beach not only in the sunshine; on very hot summer evenings many families go to the beach to relax, to swim or to enjoy a picnic in the cool. And if swimming is a popular pastime, best of all young Australians love riding on big waves on surf boards. They will proudly tell you that their waves are the biggest, the most dangerous and the best surfing waves in the world.

     Many young people, both boys and girls, spend all their spare time surf riding. They drive up and down the coast, sleeping by the beach looking for the right winds and tides to give them perfect waves.

     At all main Australians beaches life-savers are placed to warn of sharks and to look out for anyone who gets dragged out by currents. The life-savers do their work for fun, not for money; they have to be very good swimmers and each beach takes great pride in its life-saving team. They regularly hold competitions known as Surf Carnivals. Rival life-savers’ club compete in swimming, rescue works and life-saving techniques and in surf boat racing.

     Source: Excursion, an old Italian book.