Pe Homework

-------------------------------------------------

HOCKEY

HISTORY

The roots of hockey are buried deep in antiquity. Historical records show that a crude form of hockey was played in Egypt 4,000 years ago, and in Ethiopia around 1,000 BC. Various museums offer evidence that a form of the game was played by Romans and Greeks, and by the Aztec Indians in South America several centuries before Columbus landed in the New World. The modern game of hockey evolved in England in the mid-18th century, primarily around schools.

The first Olympic Hockey Competition for men was held in London in 1908 with England, Ireland and Scotland competing separately. After having made its first appearance in the 1908 Games, hockey was subsequently dropped from the 1912 Stockholm Games, and reappeared in 1920 in Antwerp before being omitted again in Paris in 1924. The Paris organisers refused to include hockey on the basis that the sport had no International Federation.

Hockey had made its first steps toward an International Federation when in 1909 the Hockey Association in England and the Belgium Hockey Association agreed to mutually recognise each other to regulate international hockey relations. The French Association followed soon after, but this was not considered sufficient.

ORIGIN

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice in which two teams of skaters use sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. In some countries such as Canada, the United States, and some European countries such as Latvia and Sweden, it is often known simply as "hockey"; the name "ice hockey" is more used in countries where "hockey" generally refers tofield hockey or both sports are almost as popular (such as South America, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and some European countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom). Ice hockey teams usually consist of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defencemen, and two goaltenders. Five...