History of field hockey

Hockey is a popular game possibly depicted on walls in Egypt. Drawings of what looks to be hockey have been found in an Egyptian tomb that was 4000 years old. Hockey is a popular game in India and Pakistan. It was played for hundreds of years before other countries like England modernised it. Hockey is similar to an ancient game played in Scotland called shinty. Hockey is often played at schools in the UK but its origins are unclear. Later came ice hockey, which developed in Canada.

Stick and ball games with some similarities to field hockey include the Irish game of hurling (and its Scottish cousin shinty) which dates from at least 1272 B.C to Ireland and India. In Inner Mongolia, China, the Daur people have been playing Beikou (a game similar to modern field hockey) for about 1,000 years. European settlers in Chile in the 16th century described a hockey-like game of the Araucano Indians called chueca (or 'the twisted one' from the twisted end of the stick used by players). In Western Australia, early white settlers witnessed Noongar people played a game called dumbung, in which bent sticks were used to hit a ball made of dried sap from the native peartree.[1] (The game is believed to be the source of the name of Dumbleyung, a town near where it was played.)

A game called hockey was played in English public schools in the early 19th century. Lord Lytton wrote in 1853 that On the common some young men were playing at hockey. That old-fashioned game, now very uncommon in England, except at schools.... Hockey's popularity increased with that of other team games. A version of the game played in south-east London was rougher than the modern version, played on a very large field (247m by 64m), and used a cube of black rubber and rough planed sticks. The modern game was developed on the other side of London by Middlesex cricket clubs, especially Teddington Hockey Club. The members of these clubs were looking for winter exercise, but did not particularly care for football. In 1870, members of the Teddington cricket club, who had recently moved to play in Bushy Park, were looking for a winter activity. They 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. 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 a shot at goal must take place within the circle in front of it. An association was formed in 1875, which dissolved after seven years, but in 1886 the Hockey Association was formed by seven London clubs and representatives from Trinity College, Cambridge. Blackheath were one of the founder members, but refused to accept the rules drawn up by the other clubs and left to found the National Hockey Union. The Union failed, but the Association grew rapidly.

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