Bandy

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, Russia, Finland, Norway, Belarus, The Netherlands, Estonia, Hungary, Canada, United States and Kazakhstan.

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

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In February 2004, Finland hosted the first World Championship for women. Sweden won the tournament.

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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 colour.

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

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Winter: Winter is one of the four seasons of temperate zones. Astronomically, it begins with the winter solstice (around December 21 in the Northern hemisphere and June 21 in the Southern hemisphere), and ends with the spring equinox (around March 21 in the Northern hemisphere and September 23 in the Southe...

Sport: A sport consists of a physical activity or skill carried out with a recreational purpose: for competition, for self-enjoyment, to attain excellence, for the development of a skill, or some combination of these. A sport has physical activity, side by side competition, and a scoring system. The differ...

Ice hockey: Ice hockey, known simply as hockey in Canada and the United States, is a team sport played on ice. It is one of the world's fastest sports, with players on skates capable of going high speeds on natural or artificial ice surfaces. The most prominent ice hockey nations are Canada, United States, Rus...