Bandy

Bandy is a ball and team sport that is played on ice. Bandy is the forerunner of today's ice hockey and is today run mainly in Northern and Eastern Europe and in North America. In Sweden Bandy is the third largest team sport, the most successful team is the men's team of Russia.

The rules of Bandy resemble more those of football and hockey as those of ice hockey. The playing field is the size of a football field, the variant Rinkbandy is played on smaller playing surfaces in ice rinks.

• 3.1 Pitches and Equipment
• 3.2 Rinkbandy

History

Precursor of Bandy already existed in the Middle Ages. In the 13th century a process called bandja ball game with bats is occupied on ice in Iceland, a similar game called Knatteikr was played in the 9th century. Since the mid-18th century, the existence of Bandyspiels in approximately its present form is detectable. A related variant is the Scottish Shinty. Bandy was never an exclusively male sport since its formation there were women's teams.

The modern Bandy is formed at the beginning of the 19th century in the Fens in eastern England. The first clubs were the Bury Fen Bandy Club, where in 1790 Bandyspiele mentioned, Sheffield United ( 1855) and Nottingham Forest (1865 ). To bandy strongholds mainly Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire developed. 1875 the first regular match at Crystal Palace in London was held. The founding of the English national association, the National Bandy Association, took place in 1891. Thereafter, the game spread rapidly in Europe, not least through the pioneering work of CG Tebbutt from Bury Fen. The first international match was an encounter between Britain and the Netherlands in 1891.

In Germany the first Bandy Club was founded in 1901, the Charlottenburg skating club, fought out of its games in the winter on the Spree embankment. Other clubs were the Leipzig -HK, BFC Preussen, Academic, SC and Victoria from Berlin. Since 1880 Bandy is played in Switzerland. As of 1894, the duel between St. Moritz and Davos was one of the annual winter sports attractions. The first leagues were in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, Russia ( 1898), Norway ( 1903), Sweden ( 1907) and Finland ( 1908). Many of the early clubs playing in the summer field hockey and winters in the same places Bandy. Most Bandymannschaften later switched to ice hockey.

Already in 1913 the first European Championship was held in Switzerland ( Davos ), which won England. 1955, the International Bandy Federation was founded. 1952 Bandy demonstration sport was at the Olympic Winter Games in Oslo, since 1957 world championships are held.

The development of Bandysports was stopped with the First World War first. Since the Bandyspielfeld has the size of a football field and therefore must be played outdoors, Bandy could be long term not prevail in countries with temperate winters and was replaced with the advent of ice rinks from the ice hockey. Later, however, came with Rinkbandy a variant that is played on smaller surfaces.

Current situation

In Sweden and Russia, the sport is very popular. In Finland and Norway, he is a marginal sport. In addition, Bandy is played in the Netherlands, Hungary, Kazakhstan, the USA, Canada, Estonia, Latvia, Mongolia and Belarus. 28 nations are members of the Bandy World Federation, the Federation of International Bandy.

Club Sports

The Elitserien in Sweden is a professional league. The most important international tournament for professional teams is the 1974-2008 discharged annually in the Swedish town Ljusdal and since 2009 in Sandviken Bandy World Cup. Also since 1974 there is a European competition for national champion, who has been almost exclusively obtained from Swedish and Russian teams. This dominance could only be broken in 1976 by ​​a Finnish team ( Oulu Luistinseura ). Most world championships could Russia, or earlier, the Soviet Union win.

National

In 1957, the first Bandy World Championship took place. Since 1961, this biennial, held annually since 2003. It was the Soviet Union and Russia as the successor to win 22 titles, Sweden was eleven times successfully, only Finland has succeeded once again in 2004 to break the dominance of these two countries. In addition to these three teams could only Norway and Kazakhstan win more medals. Since 1991, a B- group is played.

First time in 2004 a Women's World Championship was held. Sweden 's record title holders with six titles. Russia won the first title in 2014. Finland won so far four and Norway three bronze medals.

Play

Pitches and Equipment

A team consists of eleven players, there are two halves of 45 minutes each, large gates, not a game behind the goal, offside and corners.

The season runs continuously and does not stop at a stoppage in play.

The playing field is 90 to 110 feet long and 45 to 65 meters wide, so about the size of a football field. It is coated with a layer of ice and is usually in the open air. The gates are 3.50 meters wide and 2.10 meters high. The semi-circular area has a radius of 17 meters. The penalty point is twelve meters from goal.

The players use a racket that is bent and flattened at the striking end; on a mixture of field hockey and ice hockey sticks. The shaft of the club is 1.20 meters long. The goalkeeper has no bats, but tries to stop the ball with his hands or body or catch. The ball having a core of cork is made ​​of bright red or yellow plastic and has about seven inches in diameter.

Kit includes helmet, knee and arm, a protection for the genitals as well as ordinary ice hockey skates. Until the introduction of the helmet law in 1966, the players wore a cap that was often padded.

Rinkbandy

Rinkbandy is adapted to the Hockey Fields variant of Bandys. The rules are very similar to those of ice hockey, while the equipment is that of Bandys. In addition to the ball to break the 182 x 122 cm large gate is the biggest difference between the two sports. Rinkbandy has its umbrella organization also in the Bandy World Association FIB. The FIB has spread to the goal Rinkbandy in order to allow nations to whom the original Bandy is a little too much on large fields participations in international tournaments. The German team has played a Rinkbandyturnier in Nijmegen.