Sport in Great Britain.

It is true to say that many kinds of sports come from Britain. Moreover, the British are known to be great sports lovers. So, if they are neither playing, nor watching games, they like to talk about them.

Football or soccer is one of the most popular games in Britain. Every Saturday from late August till the beginning of May, large crowds of people support their favorite team at football grounds.

There are plenty of professional and amateur soccer clubs all over Britain. International football matches and the Cup Finals take place at Wembley.

One of the most favorite British games is cricket. It is often played in schools, colleges, universities and all over the country. 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. Cricket is played by two teams of 11 each. One team must bat and the other team must field. When the first team finished batting, the second team must begin. The batsman must all the time guard his «wicket». The game is very slow.

The chief spectator sport in British life is horse racing. A lot of people are interested in the races and risk money on the horse, which, they think, will win. There are all kinds of racing in England — horse racing, motor-car racing, boat racing, dog racing, and even races for donkeys.

Naturally animals don't race unless they are made to run in some way. For example, 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.

A great number of people play and watch tennis. Tennis tournaments at Wimbledon are known all over the world. The innumerable tennis courts of Britain are occupied by people between the ages of 16 and 60 who show and try their skills at tennis.

The British also like to play golf, which is mainly Scotland's contribution to British sport. Baseball, hockey and grass-hockey are also popular. People are very fond of various forms of athletics, such as running, jumping, swimming, boxing. Of course there are winter sports in England. The weather is not always cold enough to ski, skate or toboggan, but winter is a good season for hunting and fishing.

So, sport and different activities are very important and it is an essential part of daily life in Britain.

Outstanding people.

In the history of Britain there were certain Kings and Queens whose names are specially remembered in the country and are well-known in the whole world. One of them was king Henry VIII (1491 – 1547). Most people remember him only because he had six wives. But in fact he was a very important monarch. Under him Britain became independent of the Roman Catholic Church, it got richer and more powerful. In 1534 Parliament named Henry head of the Church of England and gave the King all the power in the country.

Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth (1533 – 1603) became the Queen in 1558. She never married and is remembered as a very popular and strong queen. She is known for saying: “I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a King…”. During her reign England became very important in European politics, the Spanish Armada was defeated, arts and especially the theatre developed, and the country became very powerful.

Another strong queen was Queen Victoria (1819 – 1901), whose monument you can see in front of Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria came to the throne as a young woman in 1837 and reigned until her death in 1901. She ruled for the longest period in the English history, for 64 years. Victoria married a German, Prince Albert, but he died at the age of forty-two in 1861. That was a great tragedy for Queen Victoria. She left London and never lived in the city where she had been so happy with her husband and nine children (five sons and four daughters). But there are places in London that remind us of their love, for example, Royal Albert Hall and Victoria and Albert Museum.

Queen Victoria’s great-great-granddaughter, Elizabeth II, is on the British throne now. The Queen’s title in the United Kingdom is Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, etc.

One can hardly come across any other name in world literature that could be compared with the name of William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616). His wife Ann Hathaway was eight years older than him. They had three children together. In 1592 he was already a famous playwright. By that time he has written his plays Henry VI and Titus Andronicus. In 1594 Shakespeare became one of the organizers of the Lord Chamberlain’s Company in which he played the triple role of an actor, shareholder and playwright. The Company was later renamed as the King’s men. Shakespeare wrote many great plays for the group – Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth and others. In 1599 the company built its own theatre, the Globe, on the south bank of the river Thames. At the end of his life, in 1610, Shakespeare returned to Stratford where he had a house at New Place. He died of a fever and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford.