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schools…”.
Hockey’s popularity increased with that
of other team games. The game played
there was rougher than the modern
version, played on a very large field
(247m x 64m), and used a cube of black
rubber and rough sticks planed on one
side.
Although several countries claim that they started with the
modern version of hockey, yet the most
credible historical records indicate
that the modern game was developed near
London at the Middlesex Cricket Cubs
especially Teddington. The members of
these clubs were looking for winter
exercises, but did not particularly care
for football. In 1871, members of the
Teddington Cricket Club experimented
with a ‘stick’ game, based loosely on
the rules of association football.
Teddington played the game on the smooth
outfield of their cricket pitch and used
a cricket ball, so allowing smooth and
predictable motion.
India 1929 Amsterdam Olympics
By 1874 they had begun to draw up rules for their game,
including banning the raising of the
stick above shoulder height and
stipulating that the shot at goal must
take place within the circle (the dee
or ‘D’) in front of it. An association
was formed in 1875, which dissolved
after seven years, but in 1886 a more
substantial Hockey Association was
formed by seven London and Cambridge
clubs and the Association grew rapidly.
In the late 19th century,
largely due to the British army, the
game spread throughout the British
Empire, leading to the first
international competition in 1895
(Ireland 3 vs Wales 0). The
International Rules Board was founded in
1895, and hockey first appearance at the
Olympic games as a men’s competition at
the 1908 Olympic |
games in London, with only three team: England, Ireland and
Scotland.
India 1936 Berlin Olympics
After making its first appearance in the 1908 Games, hockey
was subsequently dropped from the 1912
Stockholm Games, and reappeared in 1920
in Antwerp before being omitted again in
Paris in 1924. The Paris organizers
refused to include hockey on the basis
that the sport had no international
Federation. Despite the setbacks, hockey
became a permanent fixture at the
Olympics at the 1928 Olympic Games at
Amsterdam.
The first step towards an international
structuring occurred in 1909, when
England and Belgium agreed to recognize
each other for international
competition, soon join in by the French
federation.
In 1924, the International Hockey
Federation (FIH, Federation
Internationale de Hockey) was
founded in Paris, under the initiative
of the French man, Paul Leautey, as a
response to hockey’s omission from the
1924 Paris Games.
Singapore vs. Afghanistan 1956 Melbourne Olympics
The founding members were Austria,
Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France,
Hungary,
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