Großbritannien

Exciting sporting facts

Cricket versus tennis
England's classic national game is cricket, a game for two teams of 11 players each. The game, which has been around since about 1550, derives its name from the word "cric" or "cryc" meaning "bent bat". In 1598 the word cricket was first mentioned in a document and in 1744 the first cricket rules were published.
Cricket became so important that in 1877 the first ever Wimbledon final was postponed from the 12th to the 19th of July, so that nobody would have to miss the cricket game between Harrow and Eaton. Cricket has some similarities with the German "Schlagball" and the American baseball.

Record-breaking ring-a-ring-o'-roses
On August 4th 1999, 1,296 people joined hands in the town of Sutton-in-Ashfield in Nottinghamshire and danced to the English children's song Ring-A-Ring-O'-Roses.

"Crawling" record
On 28th and 29th of March 1992, Peter McKinlay and John Murrie armed themselves with thick gloves and strong kneepads and crawled 115 times round an athletics arena.

top