Text 2 sports

The British are great lovers of sports, especially competitive sports. Many sport games originated from England and later were adopted in many countries of the world. The most popular organized sport is soccer, followed by Rugby Union, but other sports are also enjoyed, among them sailing, darts, snooker (billiards). Many people play golf. The English are avid walkers. Scotland is famous for its fishing.

Soccer The most popular team game in Britain is association football, or soccer. The British invented it and has spread to every corner of the world. Soccer is a national win-r game in Britain. It is played from late August until the beginning of May.

Soccer in the present form dates from 1863, when eleven clubs got together in a London pub to form the Football Association (the F.A.). In the next twenty years many of England's greatest clubs were born. Today the F.A. is the controlling body of soccer in England, with more than 350 clubs. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all have similar controlling bodies. There is no British team. England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland compete separately in European and World Cup matches.

Professional football is big business. Every large town has at least one professional football club. The players are bought and sold between the clubs. Apart from the professionals, there are nearly two million people in Britain who play football as amateurs.

amateur — любитель

apart from — кроме, за исключением

Cricket In summer the English national game is cricket. It |₈ played from May to the end of September. As in soccer, there are many amateur clubs, school teams, and professional clubs, though the game is making no progress in popularity. It is popular only in Britain and in Commonwealth countries, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.

Pioneers of cricket were the men of Hampshire ['haemp/iaj].The first recorded game was played in 1697. By 1744 a written code governing the game was used.

The game is very slow. A cricket match may be a one-day match, or a two- and three-day match (when it lasts two or three days). Cricket is played between two sides of eleven players each. Cricket is also played by women and girls. The bat is the emblem of the game.

bat — бита

code — свод правил

Australia — Австралия

New Zealand — Новая Зеландия

Rugby Rugby football, or “rugger”, is a very popular sport activity in the British Isles. Rugby got its name from the English public school, Rugby, where about a century ago, a boy picked up a soccer ball and ran with it. Rugby is played between two teams of fifteen players with an egg-shaped ball.

There are two forms of Rugby — Rugby Union and Rugby League Rugby Union is amateur, Rugby League is a professional sport.

League — лига

Tennis Modern lawn tennis was also first played in England and has become very popular all over the world. The centre of lawn tennis is Wimbledon, South London. The first world lawn tennis championship in Wimbledon was held in 1877. The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament is the most important championship for many tennis players.

Table tennis was first invented in England in about 1880. At first the game had several strange names like Gossima, Whiff Whaff and Ping Pong. Although the game was invented in England British players don't have much chance in international championships.

tournament — турнир

Golf is often called a “walking” game. Golf was invented by thе Scots. But it is also suggested that the Romans may played a similar type of game. The Dutch have also a claim. The word “golf” derives from the Dutch word “kolf”, which means a club.

Originally the balls were made of leather, stuffed with feathers. In 1850 these made way for the solid gutta-percha (guttie) balls. Half a century later came the invention of the rubber-cored ball, which became very popular.

Today all golf equipment has become more sophisticated. Balls have a semi-fluid core surrounded by strips of rubber, wound under high tension.