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1. Contents

Introduction	2
1. The social importance of sport.	3
2. Kinds of sport.	6
2.1. Football.	6
2.1.1. Football pools.	10
2.2. Rugby.	12
2.3. Cricket.	14
2.4. Tennis.	17
2.5. Golf.	19
2.6.Racing.	20
2.6.1. Horse racing.	21
2.6. Other kinds of sport.	23
3. Animals in sport.	29
Conclusion.	32
References	36
Appendices.	37

3. Introduction

4. As I’m a sport lover, I’m interested in the sport life not only in my country, but abroad, especially in Great Britain. I don’t do any kind of sport regularly, though I like to play football, volleyball or basketball. When reading books, different newspapers, articles I have got to know, that the British gave a lot to the world in sport. The British are great lovers of all kinds of sports and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like talking about them, or when they cannot do that, they think about them. Sport is one of the most amusing things in the world, because of feelings, experiences, excitements connected with it. Especially it is so when we speak about the UK.

5. Think of your favorite sport. Whatever it is, there is a good chance that it was first played in Britain, and an even better chance that its modern rules were first systemized in this country. Sport probably plays a more important part in people’s life in Britain than it does in most other countries. For a very large number it is there a main form of entertainment. Millions take part in some kind of sport at least once a week. Many millions more are regular spectators and follow one or more sports. There are hours of televised sport each week. Every newspaper, national or local, quality or popular, devotes several pages entirely to sport. The British are often among the best sportsmen of the planet especially, when it concerns team kinds of sports. My essay deals with the most popular kinds of sports. But it should be noted that many other kinds of sports are played in Britain, each with its own small but enthusiastic number of fans. For most people with large gardens, for example, croquet is just an agreeable social pastime for a sunny afternoon. But to a few, it is a deadly serious competition. The same is true of the games such as indoor bowling, darts or snooker. Even board games, the kind you buy in a shop, have their national championships. Think of any pastime, however trivial, which has some element of competition and somewhere in Britain there is probably a ‘national association’ for it that organizes competitions.

6. So the aim of my work is to investigate different kinds of sports and the role of sport in the life of the British. There are a lot of rather specific kinds of sports in the UK but I want to tell you about some of them. Some of them are very popular in our country too, and we know much about these kinds of sport, the others are almost unknown here. And for me it is very interesting to learn something about them.