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BANDY 

Bandy was being played in northeast England in the mid-1800s. "Bandy" comes from an old Welsh word that means "curved stick." The sport was introduced in Sweden in 1894 and soon spread through Scandinavia and many countries in Europe. When the International Bandy Federation was formed in 1955, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia were the first members. They have had World Championships every two years since then. Other countries that have joined the IBF include the United States in 1981, Canada in 1986 and Holland and Hungary in 1988. Bandy is usually played outdoors on a soccer-sized field and the rules are more like soccer than hockey. Bandy is played with a bright red orange tennis sized ball made out of cork with a hard rubber cover. The bandy stick has leather straps on the hitting surface, so that you can put a spin on the ball. Bandy is called the fastest team sport in the world. Many spectators bring a strong drink mixture called Glögg to the bandy arenas to fight off the cold. There is also an indoors version of the sport called Rink Bandy that is played on a hockey-sized rink with four players and a goalie.

Bandy is one of the many team sports where a stick is used to hit a ball. As in Shinty, Hurling, Field Hockey and Floorball the main objective is to get the ball into a goal. Unlike these sports, Bandy is played on ice with the players skating, but in contrast to Ice Hockey the playing field is the size of a Football (Soccer) field and is played with eleven players in each team. Many rules, like offside, are the same as, or very similar those in Soccer. Hence, Bandy is sometimes referred to as "the winter soccer."

Jeff Turtinen defending against Finland's Timmo Ruutu in the 13th Bandy World Championships in Oslo, Norway. Also pictured for Team USA are (the late) Michael Blessing, left, and Tom Howard.


Games similar to Bandy have been played for thousands of years. The earliest known record is this 4000-year old Egyptian drawing from a tomb at Beni Hasan in the valley of the Nile close to Minia in Egypt. It is unclear if the round object is a ball or a ring, but the shape of the sticks is very familiar. Other similar ancient sports are the South central Asian "Polo" (believed to initially have been without the horses), Japanese "Kachi"/"Dakyu" and the Aztec "Cheuca" where bones from deer were used to hit wooden balls.

Another documented bandy-like sport was played in Greece around the time of the battle at Marathon. It is believed that the Romans imported this game and that it later became their "Paganica" which was played with curved stick and a leather ball filled with feathers. As the Roman Empire expanded the game is likely to have spread, in some form or another, across Europe and the Mediterranean area.

In the Middle Ages, a number of ball games are described in Northwest Europe. "Knattleikr" in Iceland is described as early as late in the 9th century and also appears in many of the Icelandic legends. It seems that Knattleikr was brought to Iceland by immigrants from the British Isles as it had large similarities to the games played there, Hurling, Shinty and Bandy. These games share large similarities and may very well stem from the same game, possibly influenced by the Roman Paganica. As in Iceland, the Irish legends often have heroes who display their skill with their hurley (hurling stick). In Scotland, the closely related Shinty was played by, among others, King Alexander I (died 1124).

Bandy, which was the English relative of Hurling and Shinty, has its oldest record is a 13th century painted glass window in the Canterbury cathedral where a boy is holding a curved stick in one hand and a ball in the other. This picture from a 14th century book of prayers is another early record of what looks like Bandy. Shakespeare also mentions Bandy in Romeo and Juliet..."The Prince expressly hath forbidden Bandying in the Verona streets."

Jeff Turtinen, Mike Baskfield and Captain Chris Middlebrook playing in VI World Cup Ljusdal (Sweden) for the U.S. National Champion Bagheera Blades against the Boltic Blades who were the best club team in the world at the time and whom the USA team's nickname was derived from. The game ended 2-1 for the Swedes.

The Welsh also played Bandy, or Bando, a word that is derived from the Teutonic word "bandja" meaning a "curved stick." A couple of historic Bando sticks can be found in the Welsh folk Museum and they show similarity to modern Bandy sticks as do these early Camans (Shinty sticks). Hurling, Shinty and Bandy have all been played on both grass and ice, but as the climate in Great Britain and Ireland is relatively mild the grass version dominated.

There were games with sticks and balls were played in Europe and one game that looks similar to Bandy is the Dutch "Kolv" which is pictured in many Dutch 16th and 17th century paintings. Kolv was however not a team sport and seems to have been very much like "Golf on ice." In Northeastern Europe, a number of winter games involving balls and sticks were played, such as Russian "Julas," "Kotol" and "Kubar."

"Bandy" and "Hockey" were used in parallel for the same sport, but today Bandy is played on ice and (Field) Hockey on grass. "Bandy/Hockey" was converted into "Ice-hockey" by the North Americans in the 1800s by shrinking the pitch, goals and reducing the number of players. Bandy has been played with both ball and puck, apparently only depending on what was at hand, but is now played with a ball since the beginning of this century.

The modern form of Bandy started to take shape in the 18th century and its heartland was the Fen district (Camebridgeshire and Lincolnshire). Records dating back to 1813 reveal that the village of Bury-on-Fen in England had a bandy team that went unbeaten for a hundred years! It took another century until the clubs agreed on the rules and the National Bandy Association was formed in 1891. Bandy was introduced into Scandinavia, Switzerland and Germany in the early 1890s.

Jeff Turtinen defends against Mikhail Klimov of the Russian
National Team with help from Chris Middlebrook during the
1990 Glasnost Cup at Lewis Park in Edina, Minnesota.

More information about the countries that are or have been playing Bandy is found via this click-able map. Apart from the more than 20 countries on the map, bandy has also received a preliminary introduction to China, Korea, Tibet and Mongolia.

The Bandy World Championships have been held since 1957 with Russia and Sweden dominating. Another major international tournament is the World Cup in Ljusdal, Sweden. This annual tournament is held in October with the best club teams from each country competing.

A short description of the RULES of BANDY is found here.

Russian Hockey/Bandy article: story-id=1326249

 USA BANDY . COM

Amur Tigers
2006 North American Cup Bandy Champions
Back: Mark Gagnon and Jeff Arundel.
Middle: Jason Griak, Ian Petersen, Erick Kyllonen, Mikael Sandburg, Jeff Turtinen, Steele Arundel and Tom Howard.
Front: Nick Hauer, Johnny Drehling, Chris Halden, Shane Arundel and Chris Krolak.
Our championship is dedicated to Bill "Woody" Wood, our captain, who died suddenly during the season.