History of Hockey

Where did the game begin?

There is evidence to suggest that Egyptians played a form of hockey 4000 years ago, and the Greeks also played a similar game 2000 years ago. The Romans developed the game from the Egyptians and the Greeks and spread it to other European nations.

There is a German game called Kolbe and a Dutch game called Het Kolven, and a French game called Hocquet, all of which are considered to be directly related to the Roman game.

There is also a claim that hockey developed from the Irish game of hurling, which is claimed to be the oldest organised stick and ball game in the world.

The English influence

The first recorded set of standardised rules were drawn up by the Eton College Chronicle, in England in 1868. Teams were restricted to eleven player per side, and a type of goalkeeping position was included. Goals could only be scored from within a particular area, and the game was started with a 'bully-off'.

The game spread in popularity, and in 1887, at the Imperial Hotel, Clifton (in Bristol, England), the National Hockey Union was formed after a meeting of representatives from local clubs.

Around the same time, the cricketers from Teddington developed their own form of hockey. The main difference with their game is that it was played with a ball instead of a bung (a square piece of rubber).

This made the game much faster and hacking, sticking and scrummaging were less common. Pitch markings and patterns of play similar to football (soccer) began to be used.

In 1875, the first Hockey Association was formed. In 1886, another meeting was held, at the Holborn Restaurant in London where the rules of the game had been agreed, and the rules governing the Hockey Association were discussed.

Once the rules were clear, hockey began to become more successful. The main reason it had not been up to that point was because individual clubs would play their own rules.

The first international hockey match was played between Wales and Ireland at Rhyl, in Wales, in 1895. Ireland won 3-0. Three months later, Ireland played England at Richmond, in England. England won 5-0. This was England's first international match.

Women's hockey

The first known ladies' hockey club, Molesley, was formed in 1887, with Ealing and Wimbledon also forming clubs soon after. It is also known that students at Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville College, Oxford, were playing hockey in the 1880's and 1890's, and that by 1890, the game had reached Newnham College, Cambridge.

There was still no governing body for women's hockey in England. In Ireland, at Dublin in 1894, the Irish Ladies' Hockey Union, the first national association for women's hockey, was formed.

In the same year, a ladies' hockey team from England visited Dublin to play Alexandra College. The England team was made up of students and ex-students from Newnham College. The following year, in April 1895, Ireland came to Brighton, England to play.

The match ended in a goalless draw, but the enthusiasm was fired up. After the match, five ladies met in a Brighton tea shop and decided that a Ladies' Hockey Association should be formed, and that the rules of the Hockey Association would be used.

The first formal meeting of the Ladies' Hockey Association took place on 23 November 1895, at Westminster Town Hall. One of their first tasks was to seek affiliation with the newly-formed Men's Hockey Association. They were refused.

The Ladies' Hockey Association continued to play independently, using the men's rules, and there were many changes in the next ten years. The first, in 1896, was the name change, to the All-England Women's Hockey Association

Regular international matches began to be organised against Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and tours took place to New Zealand, South Africa, Australia, and the USA.

International hockey

Similar developments were taking place in the men's game, where British travellers, and particularly the British Army, introduced and established the game in many parts of the world.

India, in particular, took to the game, with the formation of the Calcutta Hockey Club in 1895. The game in India became so popular that India dominated the event in the Olympics, from its first outing in 1928, to 1960, when Pakistan broke their run.

While hockey was first included in the 1928 Olympics, it was left out of the 1924 Paris Olympics, and this prompted a Frenchman, Paul Leutey to set up the FIH (International Hockey Federation).

Women's hockey was not included in the Olympics until 1980. This is because there were two governing bodies. The IFWHA, the Women's International Hockey Federation, and the FIH.

At one point, there were two World Cups being staged for women's hockey. Holland won the first FIH title in 1974 in France, while England won the IFWHA World Cup in Scotland in 1975. However, by 1979, the IFWHA had been absorbed into the FIH.

The Olympics was the only major hockey tournament until 1962, but in the 1970's, there were World and European tournaments for both men and women. Junior (Under 21) events followed soon after.

It was not long before Club Championships and Champion's Trophies were included as well as international competitions for indoor hockey.

Hockey

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