Bandy might be at first sight confused with ice hockey, since it is also played on ice with a stick, however bandy is a traditional winter sport and a very organised team sport. It is a combination of ice hockey and football and is most popular in northern Europe particularly among Nordic nations. What You Should Know About Bandy is that it has cultural and historical connections to both the football and ice skating tradition, and its development is directly connected to other similar games played on the continent.
Bandy’s popularity has fluctuated over time, but some area residents consider it to be the second-most popular winter sport. Supporters still work towards giving the sport more visibility, achieving Olympic status, and increasing national membership. The players pass or dribble the bandy ball through the other team’s defense towards the goal and try to score using a curved bandy stick.
What is the aim of the bandy team sport?
At the end of the game, the authorities announce the team that has scored more goals as the winner. In case both teams have scored the same number of goals, they announce the game a draw and declare it so. Players attempt to score by pushing the ball into the other team’s goal, bypassing the defense.
As in football, the offside rule is imposed on the players, who also are not allowed to score a goal directly from a corner throw-in. The goalkeeper, who is the only player allowed to use hands, arms, and the head, touches the ball during the game. The referees count the goals when the bandy ball crosses the goal line completely. Players take part in the game for two 45-minute halves, just like in football.
A brief history of bandy
The inaugural international bandy match and the later international bandy matches have had a lot to do with the popularisation of the sport in the earlier decades of the sporting history and particularly in the European nations. It was in England that the National Bandy Association developed its rules and played a role in codifying and advancing international bandy. As an ice hockey-like game, the players in the early days played a game that belonged to the ball game and stick-and-ball game families, wearing ice skates on a natural ice rink
The early evolution of bandy was strongly based on other traditional games, and the British soldiers contributed to the expansion of the sport across the borders. They renamed the sport Russian hockey in Russia, and they used the bandy rink — a large ice field roughly the size of a football field — to codify the sport. Association football also influenced the rules andplay of bandy, similarities exist in the size of the field and the composition of the teams. Soviet Union later came to dominate international bandy competitions raising the profile of the sport further.
Playing bandy
A number of European countries took part in the early tournaments. The sport’s popularity has risen and fallen over the decades, though, for instance, in Scandinavia, it remains the second-most popular winter sport. Professionalization and international exposure came to the sport with modernization. Historical variants of the sport, such as time bandy, also influenced the development of the sport. Not even the husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, could resist the temptation to act as goalkeeper in a well-known exhibition game in 1853 at Windsor Castle.
Bandy has historical roots in Europe, in particular England and Russia, and was the accepted name of the sport after the early 20th century. A traditional winter sport, combining skating and a ball, it is related to both ice hockey and field hockey, and its name indicates its cultural and historical connections to other stick-and-ball sports as well as the longer tradition of football and ice skating.
Conclusion
Bandy clubs provide players with set positions, similar to football, although—excluding the goalkeeper—players will often change positions in the team. The structure of the club and national teams is usually the same and includes Defenders − Preventing bandy players to shoot to the goalkeepers and disturb the attacking actions. Midfielders − Intercepting the passes, tackling the players and then passing the ball to the attacking players.Forwards − building of attacking play and putting the ball in the net.
The women teams have also experienced great progress in the international front with Russia being termed as the top women bandy nation. Countries like Sweden, Finland and Norway have created separate women bandy leagues which have helped to develop and make women team successful in the world arena.
