England – Bringing sports to the World

England Is Responsible For Inventing Some Of The Best Sports The World Has To Offer…

Before 1299 – Bowls or lawn bowls can be traced to 13th-century England. The world’s oldest surviving bowling green is Southampton Old Bowling Green, first used in 1299.

Late 15th century – Rounders developed from an older English game known as stoolball.

Early 16th century – Modern Boxing developed from bare-knuckle boxing or prizefighting, a resurfacing of Ancient Greek boxing in England. The first recorded boxing match took place on 6 January 1681 in England, arranged by Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle (1653–1688).

1519 – World’s oldest sporting competition still running, the Kiplingcotes Derby horse-race, established; it has run annually since without a break.

1530s – Origin of real Tennis played with rackets, popularised by Henry VIII.

1598 – The earliest definite reference to Cricket; the sport may arguably be traced further back to 1301 with written evidence of a game known as creag played by Prince Edward, son of Edward I (Longshanks).

After 1660 – Thoroughbred horseracing developed in 17th- and 18th-century England; royal support from Charles II, a keen racegoer and owner, made horse-racing popular with the public.

1673 – Oldest non-equine competition in England, the Scorton Arrow archery tournament, established in Scorton, Yorkshire.

1715 – Oldest rowing race in the world, Doggett’s Coat and Badge established; the race on the River Thames) has been held every year since 1715.

1744 – Earliest description of baseball in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book by John Newbery (1713–1767); the first recorded game of “Bass-Ball” took place in 1749 in Surrey. William Bray (1736–1832) recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday, 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; the game is considered to have been taken across the Atlantic by English emigrants.

Early 19th century – Modern field hockey developed in English public schools; the first club was established in 1849 in Blackheath, London.

1823 or 1824 – Invention of Rugby football credited to William Webb Ellis (1806–1872).

1848 – Association football’s Cambridge rules (largely the sport’s rules as we know them today) established at Cambridge University.

1850 – The format of the modern Olympic Games games inspired by William Penny Brookes (1809–1895); see also the Cotswold Olimpick Games.

1857 – Sheffield F.C. formed by former public school pupils, making it the world’s first and oldest Association football club, as acknowledged by The Football Association and FIFA.

1867 – Coconut shy in Kingston, Surrey.

1859–1865 – Lawn tennis invented by Harry Gem (1819–1881) and Augurio Perera, a Spanish-born merchant and sportsman based in England.

1880 onwards – Modern rock climbing developed by Walter Parry Haskett Smith (1859–1946), so-called “father of rock climbing”.

1880s – Table tennis or ping-pong originated in Victorian England as an indoor version of tennis; it was developed and played by the upper class as an after-dinner parlour game.

1888 – Tiddlywinks patent application by London shop-owner Joseph Assheton Fincher (dates not known); tiddlywinks originated as an adult parlour game in Victorian England.

1893–1897 – Netball developed from early versions of women’s basketball at Madame Österberg’s College in England.

1895 – Rugby league created with the establishment of the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU) as a breakaway faction of England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU).

1896 – The dartboard-layout used in the game and professional competitive sport of Darts was devised by Lancashire carpenter Brian Gamlin (c. 1852-1903); Gamlin died before he could patent his idea.

1899 – Mixed martial art (MMA) Bartitsu invented by Edward William Barton-Wright (1860–1951).

1948 – The first Paralympic games competition, originally the Stoke Mandeville Games, created in England by German-born (from 1945 naturalised) British neurologist Ludwig Guttmann (1899–1980).

1954 – Sir Roger Bannister (b. 1929) ran the first sub-four-minute mile on 6 May 1954.

1979 ­- First modern bungee jumps made from the 250-foot (76 m) Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol by members of the Oxford University Dangerous Sports Club.