Sports Beginnings Trivia Quiz

Answer: Archery

The use of a long bow and arrows was probably first used for hunting (as King William Rufus could tell you - he was killed by an arrow while hunting in the New Forest). People being what they are it was soon used as a weapon in war, and the success of English archers at Agincourt is probably the best known occurrence, especially if you saw the film of 'Henry V' with Olivier in the title role.

Answer: Table Tennis

At the end of the nineteenth century there was a craze at least among the well-to-do for playing a game inspired by Lawn Tennis but indoors on the family dining table. Various commercial versions were produced under names like Whiff-Whaff and Gossima, but only the name Ping Pong really stuck.

It was not until the 1920s when both balls and bats became standardised that the game became popular internationally under the name Table Tennis. Although in the USA it is still generally called Ping Pong, in other countries that name is looked on rather dismissively.

Answer: Snooker

In the British Army, first year cadets were nicknamed "Snookers", and the name was also applied to inexperienced or inept soldiers. One of the pioneers of the game used this derogatory term when an opponent missed an easy shot, and the name gradually became attached to the game itself. The coloured objects are of course balls, originally made of ivory, and the stick is called a cue.

In playing any of the family of games played with balls on a table, a white ball is hit first by the cue, in an attempt to collide with other balls and send them into a pocket.

Although the table it is played on is usually called a billiard table, and many English country houses have a billiard room, the actual game of billiards is no longer in fashion.

Answer: Croquet

Apparently Pall Mall in London was named for the French game pallemaile, the aim of which was to drive a ball through hoops along an alley, using a mallet.
The game was revived in England in the mid 1800s, played on a lawn with a number of hoops, and called by the new name, croquet.
Four acres of grassy land was obtained at Wimbledon, and the All-England Croquet Club was formed. Later the new game of Lawn Tennis was given use of a court, and its popularity was disastrous for the more sedate game of croquet. Over a few years the name of the club went through changes - The All-England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, then croquet was dropped, then it became The All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.

Answer: Lawn Tennis

Royal tennis was played at the French and English courts, as indicated by an episode in Shakespeare's 'Henry V'. SW19 is the district where Wimbledon is located. In the 1870s it was the home of the All-England Croquet Club, but then the new sports of Badminton and Lawn Tennis were given space on the Wimbledon lawns. Badminton was soon dropped, as it is really not suitable for playing outdoors, but tennis rapidly became more popular than the original croquet.

Although the full name is often still used, tennis is now played on courts with different surfaces, and grass courts are a minority.

Answer: Golf

While the story of the shepherd and his stick is apocryphal, there seems to be no doubt that it was in Scotland that it was developed into the world-wide sport we see today. As to the actual origin though, it appears that a similar game was payed by the Romans who probably brought it to northern Europe and certainly the word 'golf' is Dutch for a club.

Answer: Ten-pin Bowling

A whole set of games exist involving bowling a ball at a set of wooden blocks called pins. Variations in the shape and number of the pins, and the use of holes in the ball, have given rise to games such as skittles (aka nine-pins), candlepin bowling, and you might even include cricket where a leather ball is used to try to hit the three thin stumps that make up the wicket, but obviously the decimal version is ten-pin bowling.

Answer: Badminton

Using the implements battledore and shuttlecock, children used to play a game in which they tried to keep the shuttlecock in the air as long as possible. British soldiers and administrators in India used the same implements to play a new game, drastically changed into a combative sport in which you played against your opponent rather than cooperating with him.

There is evidence that it was played at country estates in England, and the game certainly takes its name from Badminton House, home of the Dukes of Beaufort, but whether it was actually invented there is unproven.

Answer: Lawn Bowls

Although the origin of Lawn Bowls is far from definite, there is some evidence that a similar game involving rolling a ball at a target was played in ancient Egypt from which it spread to classical Greece and Rome. The Romans introduced the game to northern Europe, and a record from 1299 proves that it was being played on a green in Southampton, England, and the same green is in use for the same game today although no doubt the actual grass has been changed. Basically a very simple game, it has subtlety in that the target may be moved during play.

Answer: Baseball

The story of baseball provides a striking example of the pitfalls of historical "research" by amateurs. Amid controversy about the game's origins, a committee of seven men of high repute was set up in 1905 which produced a largely fictional report stating that the game was invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstowm in 1839. The author Abraham Mills who had been a close friend of General Doubleday wrote his report based on the flimsiest of hearsay evidence.
In fact like most games, it was not "invented", but gradually evolved and improved, probably from the old English game of rounders.