25 Where can I find out about the origins of British football clubs?

The Football Association, 16 Lancaster Gate, London W2 3LW Tel +44 (0) 171 262 4542 Fax +44 (0) 171 402 0486

The Scottish Football Association, 6 Park Gardens, Glasgow G3 7YF Tel +44 (0) 141 332 6372 Fax +44 (0) 141 332 7559 The Football Association of Wales, 3 Westgate Street, Cardiff CF1 1DD Tel +44 (0) 1222 372325 Fax +44 (0) 1222 343961 Irish Football Association, 20 Windsor Avenue, Belfast BT9 6EE Tel +44 (0) 1232 669458 Fax +44 (0) 1232 667620

26 Why does Britain have four teams in international sporting tournaments?

In some international sporting tournaments, including hockey, football and athletics (Commonwealth Games) Britain sends four separate teams, representing the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In Football, each team is representative of a separate national sporting association, affiliated to FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) which controls world football. Since 1972
a British football team has not competed at the Olympics, as the four countries of the United Kingdom wish to maintain separate national teams, and under Olympic rules Britain is only allowed to send one team to the Olympics. Similarly, Scotland, England and Wales each have their own hockey team, and the countries compete separately at international events.
The rugby union touring team, the British Lions, represents England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
The side which toured Australia back in 1899 was the first to be totally representative. It is said the British Lions title was given to the team on its tour of South Africa in 1924 when local journalists coined the phrase because of the lion symbol the players wore on their ties.

27 What are the origins of the Wimbledon tennis championships?

The famous international tennis tournament at Wimbledon in south west London had humble beginnings as a small championship competition for
some 20 players (all men) who paid an entrance fee of one guinea each to enter. That first Lawn Tennis Championship was held at Worple Road, Wimbledon in 1877, home of the All England Croquet Club later to become the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (originally croquet was considered a more important sport than tennis!). Spencer Gore became the first men’s singles champion, winning 12 guineas and a silver cup. In 1884 Miss Maud Watson became the first women’s singles champion.
In 1922 the Club moved to its present ground at Church Road, Wimbledon, with its famous Centre Court building designed by Captain Stanley Peach. Centre Court currently has a capacity for over 13,000 spectators.

Today Wimbledon fortnight takes place in June each year, with most of the world’s top-class tennis players competing for honours. During Wimbledon fortnight over 12 tons of salmon, 23 tons of strawberries and 285,000 cups of tea are supplied by caterers, together with 12,500 bottles of champagne!

Tickets for Wimbledon are issued to the general public by ballot.
A Stamped Addressed Envelope (SAE) must be sent for an application form by the end of December. To enter the ballot, contact:

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Church Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 5AE

28 What are the Highland Games?

The popularity of the Highland Games dates back to Queen Victoria’s patronage of them, which began in the middle of the last century, although before that time many Highland clans had long held annual gatherings which included traditional sports and games.
One of the most famous gatherings is held each year at Braemar in Aberdeenshire during early September, opening with a spectacular march of kilted clansmen accompanied by pipers playing the bagpipes. The Games at Braemar and elsewhere
in Scotland usually feature displays of highland dancing and hard-fought contests for players of the bagpipes, as well as gruelling athletic events. These include ‘throwing the hammer’ - flinging an iron ball on a chain as far as possible, and ‘tossing the caber’ - tossing a long and unwieldy wooden pole, like a tree trunk, said to have originated as a way of heaving felled tree-trunks over ravines or streams!

29 How do the British spend their leisure time?

Britain’s most common leisure activities are home-based or social. Watching television and videos, and listening to the radio are by far the most popular leisure pastimes, with an average of 20 hours a week devoted to these. Britain’s regular weekly dramas or ‘soap operas’ such as ‘EastEnders’ and ‘Coronation Street’ have more viewers than any other programme.
Listening to music is also a popular pastime, with nearly 140 million compact discs (CDs) bought in 1995. Pop and rock albums are the most common type of music bought, and pop is by far the most popular form of musical expression in Britain.

The most common free-time activity outside the home amongst adults is a visit to the pub. Other popular leisure activities include visits to the theatre or cinema. There are over 1,500 cinemas in Britain, and in 1995 nearly one in five adults visited the cinema two or three times. Britain also has about 300 theatres, of which about 100 are in London. Britain’s most famous theatre company, The Royal Shakespeare Company, performs in Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare’s birthplace, and in London.

Of all sporting activities, walking is by far the most popular for men and women of all ages. Whilst men tend to dominate golf and cue sports such as snooker and billiards, women generally prefer swimming, keep-fit classes and yoga.

30 Why do the British like going to the pub?

One of the main attractions of the pub for all regular pubgoers is that it offers good company in friendly surroundings. Where else can you appear as a complete stranger and at once be able to join in a conversation with a diverse group of people? Often the style of the pub and its locality will dictate the kind of clientele you can expect to find there. Village pubs with their country furnishings and real ales attract not only local folk but citydwellers out for a drive, hikers fresh from a long day’s walk and pensioners enjoying a pub lunch. City pubs tend to have a more mixed clientele - businessmen and women discussing the latest deal, theatregoers or groups of friends enjoying a drink together before going off to a restaurant or nightclub.

Good conversation and good beer are two essential items provided by the pub. The drinking of beer in a public house is not compulsory, but as any publican will tell you, beer remains the mainstay of the trade. It is said that beer is the perfect drink for the pub - it comes in large measures (one pint glasses) so that just one drink provides plenty of conversation time! Many pubs also serve food, from snacks to full meals.
Other attractions offered by city and country pubs alike include a game of darts (short, weighted steel darts are thrown at a circular dartboard numbered in sections) and snooker, a game similar to billiards.
The lure of the pub can lie in the variety of pub names; each pub has its own name, depicted on a painted inn sign hung outside the premises. A pub name can refer to historical events, landmarks, sundry beasts or its meaning can be a complete puzzle. Some include references to animals, many with their origins in heraldry - The White Hart, the Nag’s Head, the Black Bull, and the Bear to name but a few!

31 What and when are the Proms?

The Proms or Promenade Concerts are an annual series of music concerts sponsored by the BBC and held at the Royal Albert Hall and other venues in London. They are called ‘Promenade Concerts’ because originally the audience ‘promenaded’ or walked about during the concerts, although now they stand or sit.The Proms originated in 1895, and since that time have become a hugely popular event. The programmes are usually of classical music, and reflect popular taste as well as more original and adventurous pieces. These days jazz, world music and other musical styles also feature on the concert programme.

The Proms take place each year, from mid-July to mid-September, although the most popular evening is the Last Night of the Proms, when concert goers fill the Hall and stand tightly packed in the arena in front of the orchestra for an evening of stirring music. A proms guide for the current year’s concerts is available from May in large bookshops, or it can be ordered from:

The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AP Tel +44 (0) 171 589 8212 Fax +44 (0) 171 584 1406

Seasons of orchestral and choral concerts are also promoted every year in many large towns and cities, while in central London the principal concert halls (including the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican Hall) draw packed audiences.
In addition to possessing a thriving interest in classical music, British music lovers have a passion for all other areas of music, from opera to folk and jazz, from rock to the latest chart topping pop group.

TOP

32 What is British ‘humour’?

The British sense of humour is often a source of mystification for other nations, and visitors to Britain may claim that our humour is incomprehensible; however, possessing ‘a sense of humour’ is usually regarded as a favourite virtue of the British.
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact components of our ‘sense of humour’, but it may be loosely defined as an attitude of mind which is readily responsive to the incongruous and ridiculous.
Thus the humorous qualities of Dickens’ novels lie in the fact that many of his characters are ‘larger than life’ - their appearance and personal qualities are highly exaggerated. This is also true today of many of our favourite television comedies, where the lead characters are often wonderfully eccentric and ‘over the top’ - for example, Patsy and Edina in ‘Absolutely Fabulous’, played by Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders.

Bawdy or slapstick comedy can trace its roots back to Chaucer and Shakespeare, and continued through the early films of Charlie Chaplin, the ‘Carry On’ film series of the 1960s and 1970s and is found today in characters such as Rick and Eddie in the television comedy ‘Bottom’, played by Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson, or the long-running ‘Benny Hill Show’.
More subtle humour can be found in the satire of Thackeray, Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, which highlights the faults and weaknesses of the society of the period, and is found today in the novels of Kingsley Amis or the popular television comedy series ‘Yes, Minister’ and ‘Yes, Prime Minister’, and currently in the quiz show ‘Have I Got News For You’.

Finally, British humour has an everpresent but hard to define appreciation of the absurd, originating in programmes like ‘The Goon Show’, a radio comedy of the 1950s starring comedians Michael Bentine (1922-1996), Peter Sellers (1925-1980), Spike Milligan (b. 1918) and Harry Secombe (b. 1921) and continuing in television’s legendary ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ and ‘Fawlty Towers’.

33 What is the Edinburgh Festival?

The Edinburgh Festival is an annual arts festival held in Edinburgh during August and September. The Festival, first held in 1947, has gained an international reputation, and is widely recognised for providing opportunities for avant-garde theatre groups and emerging new talents to showcase their work as part of the Edinburgh Fringe - performances staged at smaller venues and theatres outside the main programme of events, often of a more experimental, ‘offbeat’ nature.The quality of the Festival’s professional productions of music and theatre attract an international audience, and it is widely acknowledged that every hotel and guest house in the city is full to capacity during the festival months.
For further information contact tourist information in Edinburgh
Tel +44 (0) 131 5571700