Which words are homophones?

 Sports in English speaking countries

The English speaking countries are famous for their popular sports that have spread throughout the world, only in the United Kingdom many famous sports such as football, basketball, baseball, hockey, rugby and many more have been invented or practised there in a professional manner by players. Besides most of the English-speaking countries in the world participate in the international multi-sport event every four years in the Commonwealth Games which reflects many issues about their culture and present day societies. Students of English can get another entertaining, dynamic and passionate way to learn it through the knowledge, liking and practice of any of the most famous sports originated or related to the following English-speaking countries in Europe, America, Africa and Australasia.

 

-UNITED KINGDOM: here the first football club was created in 1857 (Sheffield F.C.) and it is organized in four associations made up of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Football has spread to all the world which is played by nearly two million clubs in the world and it has changed forever the society in terms of media and leisure. There are many famous English clubs such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsey FC, Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Leeds United, Leicester United, Newcastle United, Blackburn Rovers, Everton, Scottish clubs such as Dundee United, Hibernian, Celtic, Rangers, then Welsh clubs such as Cardiff City, Caernarfon City, Swansea City or Northern Irish clubs such as Portadown FC, Glentoran FC, Belfast Celtic, Derry City FC or Linfield FC.  

Cricket originated in south-east England and the Laws of Cricket are maintained by Marylebone Cricket Club in London and its peak of success was named the “Golden Age of Cricket” two decades before the First World War. It is a bat and ball game played between two teams of eleven players each. The cricket field is usually circular or oval and its centre has a rectangular pitch on which a wooden target called a wicket is sited at each end, each wooden stump is topped by two bails. The pitch is marked at each end with four white painted lines: a bowling crease, a popping crease and two return creases. Each phase of the match (innings) one team bats, attempting to score runs while other team bowls and fields the ball attempting to restrict the scoring and dismiss the batsmen. The main objective of each team is to score more runs than their opponents and in some sorts of cricket also dismiss all the opposite batsmen in their final innings. First class cricket is played in England by the eighteen county clubs being Yorkshire most frequently the winner in counties championships for two centuries ago. Rugby is the third most renowned sport in the United Kingdom, and it originated in the town´s school of the same name in the nineteenth century when a defiant pupil picked up the ball and carried it on the arm. Its rules were established there by the rugby union football in 1845 and it is played with an oval ball by two teams of fifteen players (rugby union) or thirteen players (rugby league). Rugby was promoted as a dribbling game played with the feet at Eton and Harrow and a handling game in Rugby, Blackheath, Marlborough and Cheltenham. There are also University sponsored clubs such as Cambridge MCCU, Oxford MCCU, Durham MCCU, Loughborough MCCU, Cardiff MCCU and Leeds/ Bradford MCCU.

 

-IRELAND: The Gaelic games such as Gaelic football, hurling, rounders and handball are traditional Irish sports which governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) and Gaelic football is by far the most popular sport in the Emerald Island though the most played team game is soccer especially in Northern Ireland. The All Ireland Finals attract more than eighty thousand spectators to the Croke Park stadium in Dublin. Camogie is hurling just played by women and hurling is more than three thousand years old and it is a mixture among hockey, rugby and lacrosse and it is played with a stick called hurly and the teams are made up of fifteen players and the two goals are om H shape just as Gaelic football, now they wear a helmet because of the blows they used to suffer in their face and teeth. Gaelic football is similar, but it only uses bare hands by kicking and punching the ball to the other teams´ goals. Rounders is very popular in schools and played since the Renaissance and very popular among children and girls. The teams are made up of nine players and points are scored by the batting team when one of the players finishes a circuit past and the matches are divided into innings such as in cricket. Gaelic handball originates in the sixteenth century in Galway and it is said to be adapted from the “pelota vasca” because of the commercial relations with the Basque Country. It is played by two or four players hitting the ball against a wall and it has spread to the USA and Australia and there are competitions such as County, Province and All-Ireland Championships and the Junior B Interclub.