Bando (sport)
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Bando is a team sport – related to field hockey, hurling, shinty, and bandy – which was first recorded in Wales in the eighteenth century.[1]
A bando game is played on a large level field between teams of up to thirty players each of them equipped with a bando: a curve-ended stick resembling
History
Bando is believed to have common origins with
Although many pre-industrial games are recorded to be lawless affairs with haphazard rules, the contrary appears true with bando. Once a challenge of a game was made between villages, wagers were normally set which demanded an agreed set of rules, including the number of players, normally between 20 and 30 and the size of the playing area.[6] Matthews records a playing area of 200 yards, with the goal markers at each end set ten yards apart.[6] Despite a set of rules, the game was still open to violent play with players often using their bando sticks to strike their opponents.[7]
One of the more notable teams of the time were the "Margam Bando Boys", a team who played on Aberavon Beach. The team are celebrated in a macaronic ballad, "The Margam Bando Boys", written in the earlier part of the nineteenth century.[1]
"Margam Bando Boys", (first three verses)
Due praises I'll bestow
And all the world shall know
That Margam valour shall keep its colour
When Kenfig's waters flow
Our master, straight and tall
Is foremost with the ball;
He is, we know it, and must allow it,
The fastest man of all
Let cricket players blame,
And seek to slight our fame,
Their bat and wicket can never lick it,
This ancient manly game
Bando is believed to be the first mass spectator sport of Glamorgan and Wales, and in 1817 a match between Margam and
Now a minority sport, the game survives as an amateur game in parts of Wales, and some small-scale attempts have been made to revive the game in the country. Despite having no religious links with Easter, the sport became a tradition on the date as part of some parish festivals.
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7083-1953-6.
- ^ a b Morgan (1988) p. 383
- ^ Denning, Roy (1962). "Sports and Pastimes". In Williams, Stewart (ed.). Vale of Glamorgan Series, Saints and Sailing Ships. Vol. 4. Cowbridge: D Brown & Sons. p. 47.
- ^ "The History of Hockey". Society of North American Hockey Historians and Researchers. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
- ^ a b Morgan (1988) pp. 383–384
- ^ a b c d e Morgan (1988) p. 384
- ^ "Bando – An ancient manly game (chapter 2)". People Collection of Wales. Archived from the original on 2011-09-17. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
- ^ "Bando – An ancient manly game (chapter 1)". People Collection of Wales. Archived from the original on 2011-09-17. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
Bibliography
- Morgan, Prys, ed. (1988). Glamorgan County History, Volume VI, Glamorgan Society 1780 to 1980. Cardiff: University of Wales Press. ISBN 0-904730-05-0.
External links
- Bando – An ancient manly game Peoples Collection of Wales, brief history of the sport with an image of a bando stick.