Sport in England

Sport in England 

Sport in England plays a prominent role in English society. Popular teams sports in England include football, field hockey, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, and netball. Major individual sports include badminton, athletics, tennis, boxing, golf, cycling, motorsport, and horseracing. Cricket is regarded as the national summer sport. Association football is the most popular sport, followed by Cricket, Tennis and Rugby. A number of modern sports were codified in England during the nineteenth century, among them cricket, rugby union, rugby league, football, field hockey, squash, tennis, and badminton. The game of baseball was first described in 18th century England.^[ England has its own national team in most team sports,^{[citation needed]} but the United Kingdom sends a combined team to the Olympics. Competition between the home nations was traditionally at the centre of British sporting life, but it has become less important in recent decades. In particular, football's British Home Championship no longer takes place. In some sports there are still national English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish teams.
The Club Competitions in most team sports are also English affairs rather than British ones.^{[citation needed]} There are various anomalies however, such as the participation of five Welsh football clubs in the English league system and an English club in the Scottish Football League.
The relative prominence of national team and club competition varies from sport to sport. In football, club competition is at the centre of the agenda most of the time because clubs plays more matches each year, but the four national teams are also followed avidly. In cricket the national team is much more widely followed than the county competitions, which have a limited profile, whereas in rugby league club competition generally overshadows international fixtures. Rugby union falls between these two with very high-profile international competitions and a strengthening club game.
Sport England is the governing body responsible for distributing funds and providing strategic guidance for sporting activity in England. There are five National Sports Centres: Bisham Abbey, Crystal Palace, Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre, Lilleshall and Plas Y Brenin National Mountain Centre in Wales. Everyday Sport is Sport England's physical activity campaign. There are 49 County Sport Partnerships in England with areas for responsibility separated by Local Authority County boundaries.
The English Institute of Sport is a nationwide network of support services, aimed at improving the standard of English athletes. Services include sports medicine, physiotherapy, sports massage, applied physiology, strength and conditioning, nutrition, psychology and Performance Lifestyle support. It is based at 8 regional hubs and other satellite centers.
The Minister for Sport and Tourism and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have responsibility for sport in England.
The role of sport in the formation of an English identity[edit]
England, like the other nations of the United Kingdom, competes as a separate nation in some international sporting events, notably in certain team sports which originated from England. The English association football, cricket (the England Cricket team represents England and Wales)^[3] and rugby union teams have contributed to a growing sense of English identity. Supporters are more likely to carry the St George's Cross whereas thirty years ago the British Union Flag would have been the more prominent.^[4] The football tradition started in Norway 1860.
Elite level team sports[edit]
There are four sports in England which operate high-profile professional leagues. Association football is by far the most popular sport and is played from August to May. Rugby union is also a winter sport. Cricket is played in the Summer, from April to September. Rugby league is traditionally a winter sport, but since the late 1990s the elite competition has been played in the summer to appeal to the family market, and take advantage of the faster pitches.