Bandy is a winter sport, where a ball is hit with a stick. It is an ancestor of ice hockey. It likely descended from shinty and in turn field hockey. Bandy is played outdoors on a sheet of ice, and has rules that are similar to soccer. It is now played in a few nations, including Sweden, Finland, Norway, the USA, Belarus, Hungary, The Netherlands, Estonia, Canada and Russia.

Bandy was the demonstration sport at the VI Olympic Winter Games in 1952 (Oslo, Norway). World Championships are held every year. There were 11 countries participiating in 2004 championships: Finland, Russia, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Norway, Canada, USA, Netherlands, Hungary, Estonia and Belarus. Finland won the 2004 championship. All the previous championships were won either by the Soviet Union/Russia or Sweden.

The size of a bandy field is in the range 4,050 - 7,150 square metres (45-65 by 90-100 metres). The size of the ball is 60-65 mm and is red to orange in color.

FIB, the Federation for International Bandy , has 15 members (2004).

Bandy in Britain

A game well-known in England from Yorkshire and Lancashire through the Midlands and home counties as far west as Devonshire is that of bandy, a game very similar to hockey and played with sticks bent and round at one end and a small wooden ball. This was known in Wales as bando, a game known throughout the country in varying forms and still to be found in some areas. The earliest example of the Welsh term bando occurs in a dictionary by John Walters published in 1770-94. It was particularly popular in the Cynfdg-Margam district of the Vale of Glamorgan where wide stretches of sandy beaches afforded ample room for play.

The `Margam Bando Boys', at the turn of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries, were celebrated in song in both English and Welsh:

Due praises I'll bestow

And all the world shall know

That Margam valour shall keep its colour

While Kenfig's waters flow.

Our master, straight and tall,

Is foremost with the ball;

He is, we know it and must allow it,

The fastest man of all.

Let cricket players blame

And seek to slight our fame,

Their bat and wicket can never lick it,

This ancient manly game.

Our fame shall always stand

Throughout Britannia's land

What man can beat us? Who dare meet us?

Upon old Kenfigs strand

(1 Manchester Guardian, 12.1.1959)

External links

• What is Bandy? - History and rules of Bandy.
• Bandy - Category about Bandy at the Open Directory Project.
• International Bandy Federation
• International Bandy Referees
• Another wiki about Bandy
• Bandysidan links - One of the most extensive link directories about bandy

National Bandy Federations

• Canada (Manitoba)- http://www.canadafloorball.ca/bandy.htm
• Belarus -
• Estonia -
• Finland - http://www.finbandy.fi/index_sjpl.htm
• Hungary -
• India - (not full member yet)
• Italy - (not full member yet)
• Kazakstan -
• Kyrgyzstan -
• Mongolia -
• Netherlands - http://home-2.wolmail.nl/~mvanonze/
• Norway - http://www.bandyforbundet.no/bandy/
• Russia - http://www.rusbandy.ru/
• Sweden - http://www.svenskbandy.se/
• United States - http://www.usabandy.com/

Bandy is also a Scottish word meaning "bow-legged", but is widely used elsewhere.