B is for Badminton, Ball and Board Games

For my A-Z challenge this year I'm taking a look at sports. Olympic ones, ancient ones, weird ones and some just non sporting sports.  I'm not athletic or even particularly fit but there are some sports I enjoy watching and in composing my posts I've come across many that I'd never heard of.  Join me in a sporting journey from the comfort of your couch (or wherever else you're reading this) and thanks for stopping by.

Badminton is actually a sport that I have participated in from time to time.  Courts are widely available in sports centres in the UK so it’s an all-weather sport which helps, given our rainy climate.  It also doesn’t require the same strength as something like tennis but it does need quick reactions so it’s not something I still do.

Surprisingly, although it can be traced back to 1873 it didn’t become an Olympic sport until 1992.  The Duke of Bedford returned from India in 1873 and introduced his guests to a form of Poona.  The sport was renamed Badminton after his Gloucestershire home and became popular in a short period of time with the first All England Championships being held in 1899.

Although still a popular sport here it’s now dominated by Asian countries including China, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea.  It’s not a great spectator sport unless it’s a major event that’s held in a venue with seating for spectators and having glanced at the rules for doubles matches following the scoring looked a bit complicated.  Still, when you struggle to connect your racquet to the shuttlecock let alone get it back over the net, scoring’s not something you worry too much about!

Here are some of the other B sports I’ve found:

Ball sports – well that covers a lot of ground, especially when I’m playing any ball sport and spend most of my time recovering the balls!  I’ve never actually tried golf, apart from the crazy kind but I think it would be exhausting.  Although it would ensure I met the recommended target of 10,000 steps in a day.

Bicycling – including, wait for it, Underwater Bicycling.  Yes it happens but, according to Wikipedia “The rules of underwater bicycling include not being allowed to get off the bicycle, which leads to disqualification. Pushing or hitting other people off their bikes is also forbidden.”  Which suggests that some people have resorted to doing that otherwise why would you feel the need to put it in the rules?   Apparently very dense bicycles are used.  In my opinion they’re not the only dense things under the water.

There are also plenty of Board sports: Snowboarding comes to mind after the recent Winter Olympics but you can also board on skates, mountains, water, and various parts of your anatomy – yes Knee Boarding is a thing, but not for my knees.  Definitely not!

Board sports are sports played with some form of board as the primary equipment.

Which of course leads me on to something I can excel at – Board Games.  Although I’m not sure it constitutes as sport given that the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of sport is “An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.”  Board Games often require a degree of skill, although frequently luck plays a part too, but physical exertion?  Although staying up late into the night trying to hang on to your last Monopoly property just to spite your other half can be exhausting!

 
My favourite board would be my headboard, some nice comfy pillows and a good book. What about you?