Hockey - one of man's earliest games

A.C. De Silva

HOCKEY: One of man's earliest games and one played in the roughest, toughest manner - is hockey. There is substance in the belief that the game, played with sticks and a ball, similar to its modern form, originated in Persia or India.

The early hockey games in India featured players completely unprotected, using their sticks pitilessly against any contestant and obstructing their way in the chase of the ball.

Not infrequently, play turned into a riotous battle with plenty of bruises and injuries! Yet, the moment it was over, players forgot the heat of battle, and celebrated the conclusion of the game with a happy feast.

Pursuits similar to hockey existed in ancient Greece and no doubt, these were introduced there from Persia. In fact, the earliest pictorial representation of the game stems from Athens; and was found quite by chance in 1922 when workmen were repairing the ancient wall built by: Themistoles nearly 2500 years earlier, to guard the city from the sea.

The old Olympian and Isthamian Games included a sporting event in which contestants hit a ball with a hooked stick.

Modern hockey, as finally created in England, resembles most closely games once popular in the British Isles and, no doubt, hockey's immediate forerunners;' the Scottish `shinty', the English and Welsh `bandy' and the Irish hurling.

Shinty was a favourite sport of the Scottish Highlanders, in which the players propelled a ball at extraordinary speed with a curved, broadbladed stick called a `caman' in Gaelic either alone the ground or through the air. The name shinty may have been derived from the same root as `shindy', meaning a commotion and brawl.

But others favour the Irish game `hurling' to be a truer ancestor of modern hockey. The game appears even in their early legends. It was played in pre-Christian times, long before the coming of St. Patrick, Cuchullain, chief of the Irish heroes, is said to have been a champion hurler.

On one occasion, when on his way to the annual athletic feast at Java - the seat of the high kings of Ireland, he carried the ball on his hurling stick over a distance of 9 miles, repeatedly throwing it to the air and catching it without once letting it to the ground!

In early record speak of a hurling match, with 9 contestants on each side, in which the losing team also lost their lives. It was the most savage, spectacular game - as Irish as the Shamrock!

The game Hurling Crossed the sea from Ireland to England, to be brought into the English way of life, and to eventually become `hockey'.

Hockey banned in 1365

Hockey became a game so enthusiastically taken up that the Government became perturbed it would interfere with men's national service as archers. Hockey was therefore included in a ban, issued by King Edward III in 1365,which is the first definite record of the existence of the game in Britain. It was then still called bandyball, Landowners who despite the ban permitted playing of the game on their property, faced a fine of Sterling Pound 20 and imprisonment for 3 years!

But, the love of hockey most have been stranger than the fear of prosecution, as the ban had to be repeated several times.

Implements used in the forbidden sport were not only to be confiscated, but, to prevent further re-use, had to be destroyed.

Eventually, with the intervention of gunpowder and firearms, archery became obsolete; and there has no longer any reason to ban hockey.

The position of the players, and their numbers often varied greatly. More would think nothing of injuring an opponent on the head with a stick, in their quest for the ball. They were determined to win at all costs. Anyone going in the fray did so at their own peril.

Slowly, and very gradually, the game became more civilised and its non-sprees, if not totally eliminated, was lessoned considerably.

Among the earliest refinements introduced were the prohibition on raising the stick above the shoulder end, and the immediate suspension of any player who struck his opponent either with the stick or hand in an attempt to dispossess him of the ball. A wider sport gradually mattered.

The foundation of the Balackhealth Club around 1,840 led to the drafting of the first code of rules.

The first international match was played in 1895 - between England and Ireland. In 1908, hockey was included in the modern Olympic Games, in London. It had come a long way from its appearance in the ancient Olympics.

It is also amazing that a game once so roughly and unruly, was adopted by the gentle sex (at Molesey, England, in 1887); women took it up with as much favour and proficiency as males.