Топик: Sport in the UK
Highland dancing is performed to bagpipe music, by men and women, such as the Sword Dance and the Reel.
No one knows exactly when the men of the Highlands first gathered to wrestle, toss cabers, throw hammers, put weights, dance and play music. The Games reflected the tough life of the early Scots. Muscle-power was their means of livelihood — handling timber, lifting rocks to build houses, hunting. From such activities have developed the contests of tossing the caber, putting the weight and throwing the hammer. Tossing the caber originated among woodmen who wanted to cast their logs into the deepest part of a river. Tossing the caber is not a question of who can throw it farthest. For a perfect throw the caber must land in the 12-o'clock position after being thrown in a vertical semicircle. The caber is a very heavy and long log..
Conker Contest and British Marbles Championship
Every year, usually on the Wednesday nearest to 20th October, about a hundred competitors gather to take part in the annual conker competition in a chosen place. The conkers are collected by children from an avenue of chestnut trees. The conkers are carefully examined and numbered on their flat sides, then bored and threaded on nylon cord. Each competitor is allowed an agreed number of "strikes", and a referee is present to see fair play. There are prizes for winners and runners-up. The contest usually starts at about 7 p. m.
It is said that in Elizabethan times two suitors for a village beauty settled the matter by means of a marbles contest. What is now the Marble Championship is believed to be a survival of that contest. The game of marbles dates back to Roman times. Teams of six compete on a circular, sanded rink. Forty-nine marbles are placed in the centre of the rink, and the players try to knock out4 as many as possible with their marble. The marble is rested on the index finger and flicked5 with the thumb. The two highest individual scores battle for the championship with only thirteen marbles on the rink. Similar contests are now held in some other English-speaking countries.
INFORMATION
The well-known sporting events
The Boat Race: (between Oxford and Cambridge universities), on the River Thames
in London at Easter. The course is over seven kilometres. Oxford have won 64
times, Cambridge 69 times.
The Wimbledon Tennis Tournament: in July, at Wimbledon, south London, regarded
by many tennis players as the most important championship to win. There is great
public interest in the tournament. Many tennis fans queue all night outside the
grounds in order to get tickets for the finals.
The Open Golf Championship: golf was invented by the Scots, and its headquarters
is at the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland.
Henley (Rowing) Regatta: at Henley on the Thames (between London and Oxford).
An international summer event. It is a fashionable occasion.
Cowes Week: a yachting regatta. Cowes is a small town on the Isle of Wight,
opposite Southampton, and a world-famous yachting centre.
CONCLUSION
At the end of my course paper I want to make a short review of what I have already written and write what I haven’t written.
Many kinds of sport originated from England. The English have a proverb, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." They do not think that play is more important than work; they think that Jack will do his work better if he plays as well, so he is encouraged to do both. Association football, or soccer is one of the most popular games in the British Isles played from late August until the beginning of May. In summer the English national sport is cricket. When the English say: 'that's not cricket' it means 'that's not fair', 'to play the game' means 'to be fair'.
Golf is Scotland's chief contribution to British sport. It is worth noting here an interesting feature of sporting life in Britain, namely, its frequently close connection with social class of the players or spectators except where a game may be said to be a "national" sport. This is the case with cricket in England which is played and watched by all classes. This is true of golf, which is everywhere in the British Isles a middle-class activity. Rugby Union, the amateur variety of Rugby football, is the Welsh national sport played by all sections of society whereas, elsewhere, it too is a game for the middle classes. Association football is a working-class sport as are boxing, wrestling, snooker, darts and dog-racing. As far as fishing is concerned it is, apart from being the most popular British sport from the angle of the number of active participants, a sport where what is caught determines the class of a fisherman. If it is a salmon or trout it is upper-class, but if it is the sort offish found in canals, ponds or the sea, then the angler is almost sure to be working-class.
Walking and swimming are the two most popular sporting activities, being almost equally undertaken by men and women. Snooker (billiards), pool and darts are the next most popular sports among men. Aerobics (keep-fit exercises) and yoga, squash and cycling are among the sports where participation has been increasing in recent years.
There are several places in Britain associated with a particular kind of sport. One of them is Wimbledon — a suburb to the south of London where the All-England Lawn Tennis Championships are held in July (since 1877). The finals of the tournament are played on the Centre Court. The other one is Wembley — a stadium in north London where international football matches, the Cup Finals and other events have taken place since 1923. It can hold over 100,000 spectators. The third one is Derby, the most famous flat race in the English racing calendar, it is run at Epsom near London since 1780.
Having written my course paper I think that I have proved sport’s deserving attention. Especially sport is a very interesting theme concerning the United Kingdom. Of course, I couldn’t illustrate all Britain sports, but which I still do reflect Britain’s life with all contradictory combinations. Both life is calm and exciting, and sport is calm with golf’s followers and exciting with football’s fans.