Leisure and sport activities in the UK

The British are known to be great sports-lovers. According to the latest figures the most
popular activity of all is walking: 35 million British people regularly walk two miles or
more. More energetically, ten million people go to keep-fit classes or take part in aerobics
or yoga and half as many do some kind of weight training in a gym. Nine million people
go cycling and four million go jogging and the same number play golf. Other popular
sports are bowling, badminton, tennis and squash. Less actively, twelve million play
snooker or pool, seven million play darts. For three million fishing is a popular leisure
activity. England is the home of several kinds of sport. Many of the games now played all
over the world originated in Britain. The English proverb All work and no play makes
Jack a dull boy does not mean that play is more important than work. It means that Jack
will do his work better if he plays as well, so he is encouraged to do both. Certainly, in
ordinary times, the average English man is more interested in games and sport than in
politics. The average schoolboy may not be able to tell you the name of the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, but he is able to tell you which team won the football championship last
year and who is the present boxing champion.
What is the British idea of a sportsman? He is one, of course, who is interested in sport,
but that is only one meaning of the word. Even is a person is not interested in any sport
and has no opportunity to play any game, he may be called a sportsman if he has the socalled sporting spirit. The sporting spirit is something that playing games develops in
people. It is the ability to overcome hard knock of life without getting angry, the ability to
smile in times of danger, the ability to win without boasting afterwards and to lose
without complaining. We should all try to become good losers and accept our
disappointments cheerfully. Everyone has disappointments at some time or other. Various
kinds of sports are encouraged in all British schools, universities and clubs.
Other popular outdoor sports field sports that are popular on the British Isles include
hunting, shooting, fishing, horse racing and certainly football, cricket, golf and tennis.
Popular indoor games are billiards, darts, chess and draughts.
Football, which is originated in Britain, has become the most popular game in the world
and is played in nearly all countries. There is another game called rugby football, so
called because it started at Rugby, a well-known English school. In this game players
may carry the ball Rugby is also very popular, but it is played mainly by amateurs. This
game is played by teams of 15 men with an oval ball and it is often considered to be a
violent game. There is also an American kind of football different again from the other
two. Hockey is not very popular in England. Tennis has become an international game.

The world champions are held each year in the Davis Cup Competition. A great number
of people play and watch tennis. Among many tournaments the most famous is the one in
Wimbledon.

Another game which attracts great attention is soccer, European football. There are plenty
of amateur and professional soccer clubs in every town. The Cup Final played in London
is the culminating event of the football season.
One of the most popular British games is cricket, which foreigners can hardly understand.
Cricket is sometimes called the national game of England. It is a game between two team
of eleven players using bats, hard balls and wickets as targets.
Horse racing is also extremely popular in Great Britain. The racing season includes five
races. The annual race for Derby is perhaps the most famous sporting event in Britain
as the Queen comes to watch it. Englishmen also play basketball, badminton and polo.
Both teenagers and grown-ups enjoy bowling. The annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race
on the River Thames attracts lots of people. In Scotland, where there are good conditions
for winter sports, skiing is very popular.
The British are great lovers of competitive sports. When they do not play or watch
games they like to talk about them, and when they cannot do that they think about them.
The game that is especially connected with England is cricket. Many other games too are
English in origin; they have become popular in other countries; but cricket has become
popular only in some countries like Australia, India, South Africa and the West Indies. So
cricket continues to be a game which expresses the British spirit.
Organized amateur cricket is played between club teams mainly on Saturday afternoons.
Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its cricket club. A first-class match, as
played between English counties, lasts for up to three days, with six hours play on each
day. The game is thus indeed slow, and a spectator, sitting in the afternoon sun after his
lunch of sandwiches and beer, may even have a little sleep for half an hour. The game is
played between two teams, each of 11 people. They play on a grass field at the centre of
which is the pitch (playing zone). The aim is for one team (the batsmen) to win a large
number of runs by hitting the ball with a bat bowled (thrown) to them by the other team
in the field (the fielders). The fielders try to send the batsmen out of the game as quickly
as possible, for example, by catching a ball hit by a batsman before it touches the ground.
However, for the great mass of the British public the eight months of the football season
are more important than the four months of cricket. There are plenty of
amateur football(or soccer) clubs, but professional football is big business. Every large
town has at least one professional football club. The players may not personally have any
personal connections with the town for whose team they play. They are bought and sold
with their agreement between the clubs.
Money has invaded the world of football through the football pools, which are a big
system of betting on the results of these games. English league football is organized in
four Divisions with 22 or 24 teams in each. Besides the League games there is also a
knock-out contest each season for the Football Association Cup, and the Cup Final,

which is played in May each year in London. This is, of course, the greatest event of the
season.
Rugby football (or rugger) is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and
thrown (but not forward). If a player is carrying the ball he may be tackled or attacked
and made to fall down. Each team has 15 players, who spend much time lying in the mud
or on top of each other and become very dirty, but they do not need to wear such
protective clothing as men playing American football who look like ice-hockey players.
Rugby is a game very popular at the schools where they have good playing fields for that.
Boys normally play rugger or soccer in winter and cricket in summer. Grass hockey is
also widely played at schools by boys and girls. Schoolgirls like to play tennis.
Golf and tennis are played by great numbers of people. Golf courses are meeting places
of people of different social background. There are plenty of tennis clubs, but every town
provides numerous tennis courts in public parks, and anyone may play tennis on a court
for a small payment. The greatest event in tennis is the Wimbledon international tennis
championship held near London. The ancient game of bowls is played mainly by middleaged people. In the game a heavy wooden ball (bowl) is rolled over a smooth lawn
(bowling green) in such a way that it stops as close as possible to a small white ball
(jack). The game has from two to eight players, each bowling two or more bowls. The
game may be played indoors in specially built halls.
Another popular spectator sport in British life is horse racing. There are many race
tracks all over the country, and each of these has from two to about six meetings every
year, with each meeting consisting of two, three or four days of racing. There are
totalisators at the race-courses, but bookmakers are also allowed to take the bets of the
spectators.
When there are races people all over the country bet on the results. A famous race-course
is located near Epsom, where a popular annual horse race is held. The event is named
after the Earl of Derby who first organized such a race in 1780. The Derby Cup usually
attracts rich and well-to-do people because the tickets are very expensive. Such people
also show off in their best clothes. For an ordinary working man a visit to horse races
may be quite a rare thing, though he may make bets on most days of the week. However,
he can easily go to dog races if he wants to. In nearly every town there is at least one
greyhound racing track, on which races are held on Saturday afternoons and on several
evenings a week after working hours. There are 89 tracks in Britain. The dogs race round
a track after an electric hare, which is really a trolley carrying a piece of meat. Bets are
placed on the dogs.
Another popular game is bingo or lotto, which is usually played in halls or former
cinemas. Players buy cards with rows of numbers and cross off the numbers as they are
called out by a special announcer. The winner is the first player to cross out all the
numbers on his or her card. Today it is also possible to play bingo by filling in cards
which are published in the newspapers.
Athletic sports and gymnastics are practiced at school. Jogging is becoming more
popular today, but still it isnt as popular as in the United States or Canada. The same
may be said about bicycle racing. On the other hand, rowing, in fours and eights,

occupies a leading place in the sporting life of schools and universities which have
suitable water nearby, and several regattas held mainly in summer are watched from the
river banks by large crowds of spectators. Among these is the Henley Royal Regatta held
every year in late June and early July on the river Thames at Henley near Oxford.
When the British people use the word hunting they usually mean fox-hunting which is a
popular sport among the rich. Specially trained hounds are brought to the meet where
the hunt starts. The horses too are brought in vans. The riders usually wearing pink
(that is, red coats) make a very colourful sight. Having received permission from the local
farmers the hunt for the fox starts. There are many people who consider fox-hunting to be
cruel. They take action to prevent the hunt, and this leads to clashes between the
supporters and those opposed to this sport.
Americans use the word hunting to include the shooting of birds, but the British do not.
The shooting season in Britain starts in August in the north of England and in Scotland.
Once again this is the sport of the rich, as well as the fishing of salmon and trout in some
of the rivers of Scotland and Wales for which you have to pay much. All around the
coasts there is sea-fishing, mainly from piers and from boats and in inland waters there is
coarse fishing (catching the ordinary fish well known in our country) with many
competitions.
Britain was the first home of many of the modern worlds most popular sports. However,
the British cannot claim to be the best, even in these sports. The British pay much
attention to the sporting spirit, which means to play with respect for the rules and the
opponents, to win a competition with modesty and to lose with good temper. They apply
this sportsmanship not only to sports, but to a persons behaviour in everyday life.