Author: Purple Brolly

The team game of hockey, or ‘field hockey’, has been played in its modern form in British public schools, grammar schools and universities since the late 19th century. It  is played with a small hard ball and long sticks that have a curve at the bottom end. In the 20th century it was associated more with girls and women than with men. The gleeful exclamation “Jolly hockey sticks!” became an adjectival phrase for a privileged young lady.

Nowadays, men’s and women’s participation is roughly equal in a thriving league system and in international competitions. In 2016, the British women’s hockey team won Olympic Gold and this inspired thousands more people to join their local hockey clubs. There are separate governing bodies for the UK’s constituent countries, as follows:-

• England Hockey
• Hockey Wales
• Ulster Hockey
• Scottish Hockey

(Image: Kenneth Allen at geograph.ie / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Isle of Man, a Crown Dependency, has hosted the world’s fastest and most dangerous road race for motorbikes since 1907. The Isle of Man TT (Tourist Trophy) takes place every year during a fortnight in May/June. The circuit is called the Snaefell Mountain Course (or ‘TT Course’) and there have been almost 150 crashes resulting in deaths to riders and sometimes spectators and marshals.

One lap of the circuit is 37.73 miles long and the record average speed is 135mph (as at 2018). The races are time trials, with riders setting off at 10-second intervals. There are seven different classes, including Sidecar, and a new class called TTZero which is for electric motorbikes.

The TT continues to attract more spectators each year, many of them staying at camp-sites. The Sunday in the middle of the fortnight is known as ‘Mad Sunday’ as there is no racing on that day and spectators can try out the circuit for themselves, under the watchful eye of the local police.

(Image: Agljones at Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Britain’s most successful athlete, Sir Mo Farah, CBE, was born in Somaliland in 1983 but came to live in England when he was eight years old. His running talent was spotted early on and one of his first ambitions was to play professional football for Arsenal.

Farah has the distinction of winning Olympic Gold medals in two events ~ the 5,000 metres and the 10,000 metres ~ at two successive Games, those being the 2012 and the 2016. He has run all distances from 800m to the marathon (IAAF, 2018). The photo above shows his trademark winning gesture of the ‘M’ for Mo (Mohamed). In 2017 he was voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year.

He ‘retired’ from track events in 2017 to concentrate on road races, but has said that he may compete in the 10,000 metres again in the 2020 Olympics. This amazing athlete could win it for a record-breaking third successive time and add to his very long list of titles.

(Image: Dept. of Digital, Culture, Media & Sports at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)