History
Bandy, also known as banty, probably originated as a form of field hockey on ice and is most likely the ancestor of modern ice hockey.
The history of the sport is obscure, though. One problem is that "bandy" was often used as a generic term for any game played with a stick and a ball, so early references to bandy could mean any number of sports.
Several sources say that the name originated in a Welsh word, bando, which means crooked stick. It's more likely that it came from the French bande, which was a kind of tennis.
(The verb "bandy" still means to toss things back and forth, though the things are usually words or ideas rather than balls.)
Although there are references to bandy as early as the 13th century, modern bandy seems to have developed in England about 1800. Bury Fen, a town about 70 miles north of London, is often considered the birthplace of the sport.
In that part of the country, there are many fens (marshes) that freeze quickly during the winter and are much safer than ponds because they're obviously shallower.
Bandy was originally a form of field hockey, played on grass during the summer and on ice during the winter. By the 1890s, though, it had become an ice sport. England's National Bandy Association, founded in 1891, developed the first official rules, which were based largely on the rules for soccer. (In England, bandy is still sometimes referred to as "winter football.")
A Bury Fen player introduced bandy to Sweden in 1894, and it spread quickly to other Scandinavian countries, as well as Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia. When the International Bandy Federation was founded in 1955, the charter members were Finland, Norway, the Soviet Union, and Sweden. The United States joined in 1981, Canada in 1986, Holland and Hungary in 1988. World championships have been held every two years since 1957.
Outdoor bandy is played on an ice-covered soccer pitch, 90 to 110 meters long and 45 to 65 meters wide. A team may be made up of 8 to 11 players, but 11 is standard in major competition.
Players wear skates and all except the goalie use curved wooden sticks, similar to field hockey sticks, to propel the bright red-orange ball, which is about the size of a tennis ball and made of cork, with a cover of hard rubber. Leather straps on the hitting surface of the stick allow a player to put spin on the ball.
Only the goalkeeper may touch the ball with the hands. The goalie is also allowed to kick the ball; other players may kick it only to position it better for a shot.
Goals are similar in size to those of ice hockey, 2.1 meters high and 3.5 meters wide. A game is made up of two 45-minute halves.
An indoor version, called rink bandy, is played on a hockey rink with five players and a goalie on each team.