national game of england

[fishendeep]

Sport plays a prominent role in English life. Popular team sports in England are football , cricket, rugby union football and rugby league football. Major individual sports include athletics, tennis, golf, motor sport, and horse racing. A number of modern sports were codified in England during the nineteenth century, among them cricket, rugby union, rugby league, football, tennis and badminton.

[Charless]

Football was played in England as far back as medieval times. The first written evidence of a football match came in about 1170, when William Fitzstephen wrote of his visit to London, "After dinner all the youths of the city goes out into the fields for the very popular game of ball." He also went on to mention that each trade had their own team, "The elders, the fathers, and the men of wealth come on horseback to view the contests of their juniors, and in their fashion sport with the young men; and there seems to be aroused in these elders a stirring of natural heat by viewing so much activity and by participation in the joys of unrestrained youth." Kicking ball games are described in England from 1280