Forward (bandy)

Bandy

Swedish bandy players in January 2011
Highest governing body	Federation of International Bandy
Nicknames	Winter football
First played	1875, London, England
Characteristics
Contact	Limited
Team members	11 field players
Type	Team sport, winter sport
Equipment	Bandy ball, bandy stick, skates, protective gear
Venue	Ice field, bandy arena
Presence
Olympic	Demonstration 1952

Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. Based on the number of participating athletes, bandy is the world's second most popular winter sport. Only ice hockey is more popular. Bandy also is the number two winter sport in tickets sold per day of competitions at the sport's world championship compared to the other winter sports.

The sport is considered a form of hockey and has a common background with association football, ice hockey and field hockey. Like football, the game is normally played in halves of 45 minutes each, there are eleven players on each team, and the bandy field is about the same size as a football pitch. It is played on ice like ice hockey, but like field hockey, players use bowed sticks and a small ball.

A variant of bandy, rink bandy, is played to the same rules but on a field the size of an ice hockey rink and with fewer people on each team. Bandy is also the predecessor of floorball, which was invented when people started playing with plastic bandy-shaped sticks and lightweight balls when running on the floors of indoor gym halls.

Russian monastery records dating back to the 10th to 11th centuries record games which may be ancestors of bandy. A game that could be recognized as essentially modern bandy was played in Russia by the early 18th century, although the rules used differed from those invented in England at a much later date. In modern times, Russia has held a top position in the bandy area, both as a founding nation of the International Federation in 1955 and fielding the most successful team in the World Championships. Russians see themselves as the creators of the sport, which is reflected by the unofficial title for bandy, "Russian hockey" (русский хоккей).

The first match, more recently dubbed the original bandy match, was held at The Crystal Palace in London in 1875. However, at the time, the game was called "hockey on the ice", probably as it was considered an ice variant of field hockey.