I saw my first rugby game ever (!) on tv yesterday, which got me thinking. Northampton Saints-London Irish if somebody wonders..... Which is the best town in the UK when it comes to different types of sports? Cause Northampton are pretty damn crap at football. I do know that Hull are pretty damn good at rugby as well (I just found out that there are two different kinds, so not sure which), and the football team is obviously pure quality Are Hull good at any more sports? Which cities are better? Give examples! And don't mention London etc, cause they got equally as many crap teams as good.
i suppose you have to look at the main team sports Football Cricket Rugby Union Rugby league Basketball Icehockey Baseball i dont think we do too bad , certainly above Sheffield and Leeds , if all sports are rated equal then we would be above cities like Liverpool and Bristol . London first - tho it should be excluded as its a bunch of towns lumped together , then Cardiff,manchester ,Nottingham ,Birmingham then possibly Hull
Hull used to be very good at speedway(Hull Vikings), but the club got into trouble and went bust a couple of times and they now haven't raced since 2005(over the years they have ground shared with both our rugby clubs). There's also the ice hockey team(Hull Stingrays), who also got into money trouble, but were bought out ahead of this season and inducted into the Elite Ice Hockey League(which is the top league in the UK), so far they've played two and lost two, so that's going well! Hull folk are traditionally good at darts, dominoes, pool and anything else you can do in a pub.
1: Do you really count ice hockey and baseball as two of the main sports? 2: What the F is dominoes? NO, I wont google it. 3: What's the difference between Rugby Union and Rugby League?
Okey, I just googled dominoes anyway, and jesus christ, do u play that in pubs? That's why my grandparents used to make me play (they bragged me with money). That's how boring it is! And I should probably have known what it was since we call it "Domino", but I thought it would be something way more cool!
Union was originally 'amateur' - played by toffs; no money payments. League was working-class - played by paid players. Union has 15 players; League has 13. Union has a line-out when the ball goes into touch; League has a scrum. Union is played at most schools, universities, the Armed Forces; League was originally a 'Northern' sport (Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumberland)
Ice hockey has two leagues here, each with ten teams(I think), though most of the skaters seem to be Canadian or Scandinavian, it's a minority sport, I don't they get much in the way of crowds. Baseball in the UK has forty registered teams, though personally, I've never seen or heard of a baseball game taking place in the UK. This is a surprise, as I've just checked and a team from Hull were crowned champions in 1935, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1985 and were runners up on seventeen other occasions, along with a team called Humberside Mets winning in 1993 and 1994. Basketball in the UK apparently has 42 registered teams, but again I've never known of a game being on anywhere. One sport that is big here, that hasn't yet been mentioned, is Boxing, though almost all the big fights are in London or Manchester. Dominoes is a numbers game with rectangular pieces, numbered at either end. I don't know anything about egg-chasing I'm afraid.
Difference between League and Union. League was started in Huddersfield as a break away from Union. Predominantly in the UK, it's seen as northern version of the game, well Cumbria, Yorkshire and Lancashire (often though, popular in Wales as well). And it's the working class version as the players used to play it professionally & got paid to do it, as well as a normal working week. Union was for the toffs to lark for fun. It was amature up until recently and there was no money involved. In the game itself, there's less men on the field- 13 men in league 15 in union. There's no contested scrums or line outs (where they throw it into play from the touch line). There are scrums in both but only in Union is there any physical force put into forming the scrum. League has the 5 tackle rule where the ball is turned over if you don't succeed in scoring within the permitted 5 tackles. Union seems to be more hit and hope, ie they kick it down the throats of the full back every time or out into touch, whereas in League they generally pass it until the 5th tackle and look for field placement. Now Union has gone professional. Union get better wages.
Here you go, UK league sports, by annual attendances: Premier League(Football) 13,527,703 Championship(Football) 9,875,832 League One(Football) 4,594,848 League Two(Football) 2,631,936 Superleague(Rugby League) 2,153,118 Premiership(Rugby Union) 1,860,652 Conference(Football) 913,898 Elite League(Ice Hockey) 743,040 20Twenty League(Cricket) 544,820 County Championship(Cricket) 462,919 RFU Championship(Rugby Union) 287,262 Co-op Championship(Rugby League) 217,165 There's no mention of Baseball or Basketball on the lists I looked at, which means their leagues attract less than 100,000 people in total during a year. The list is slightly deceptive, as some of the leagues have far fewer teams than others, so have far less games, if you look at averages per game, the list is quite different.
So where in hull is there a baseball field???? Cant think if iv ever seen one and i used to work for ringtons tea and traveled everwhere round hull!!
the crucial reason that league took off is as said above , Rugby players were amateur and worked a normal week alongside their sport . With increasing injuries the poorer paid , and often clubs in the north has to address this by reducing the players on the pitch , removing the linouts and the maul and making the sport more organised causing far fewer messy injuries. League is about possession , Union is about position Febbos , as for including Icehockey n Baseball i tried to list the most common team sports out there - Found it hard to include Athletics and certain other sports as tho they may be team based they are usually conducted as individuals.
I can't say I've ever seen one either, but a little googling tells me that Hull Ball Baseball Club are based at Eastmount Recreation Centre at Longhill.
If anywhere id have thought it was at the athletics place think its called costello not sure but may have to check it out next time im up hull
Hull Aces Baseball team, who were champions several times, used to play at Craven Park. http://www.projectcobb.org.uk/artefacts/1964 Hull Aces vs various.pdf
The Humberside Mets played on the fields off Dane Park Road (Orchard Park) in the ninetys I seem to recall
Well done that man, just looked on google maps and off Dane Park Road there seems to the outline of five football pitches and a baseball ground.
