Modern Hockey

A game called hockey was played in England in the 19th century. It was very uncommon at the time and was played mostly in schools only. Many members of cricket clubs in London (particularly Middlesex cricket clubs which developed Teddington Hockey club)  were looking for winter exercise but did not really like the idea of football. Thus they began to experiment a game involving stick and ball. They played the game on the smooth outfield of the cricket pitch and used the hard heavy cricket ball which created smooth movement. In 1874 Teddington began to draw up some rules including not allowing players to lift the stick above head height and only allowing players to score from the circle or the d. In 1886 the Hockey Association was formed. Many of the first club hockey matches did not go too well as different clubs had different sets of rules.



Later in the 19th century the game spread through the British empire due to the travelling of the British army. This lead to the first even international game played by Ireland vs Wales which resulted in a score of 3-0 to Ireland.
Because of the previous hassle with different understandings of rules in club hockey, the International Rules Board was founded in 1895. After the sport being made official, hockey was entered into the Olympics in 1908 and was played in the games in London by three teams, England, Ireland and Scotland. In order to make hockey an international sport the International Hockey Federation was formed in 1924. The founding members of this organisation were Austria, Belgium, Spain, Hungary, France, Switzerland and Czechoslovakia. By now hockey had spread to all these countries and many more. It was being played in many competitions and tournaments. Hockey also spread to India by British servicemen and in 1885 the first club was formed in Calcutta. By 1928 India had developed its hockey skills greatly and had become a very competitive team. On entering the Olympic games in 1928 they won all five of of their games without conceding a single goal.

 India in the 1928 summer Olympics

I myself have been playing hockey for nine years and only now have I discovered this information. It is very interesting to look at hockey from a different point of view. Instead of looking at the fitness, the scoring and the teamwork but to look at the origins, the first clubs, and how it became the sport we play today.