Culture Watch – Sport

[Music]

the British spend a lot of their free

time watching and playing sport one of

the most popular sports is of course

football or soccer fans always enjoy

watching a big game wherever they are

the biggest stadiums hold about 90,000

spectators and a ticket for a game will

cost you anywhere between 15 and a

hundred pounds David Beckham is perhaps

the most famous British football star of

recent years he made his name at

Manchester United one of the

internationally famous teams which

dominates the top Premier League these

teams such as Arsenal Liverpool and

Chelsea compete every year to be the FA

Cup champions

every four years lots of different

countries play in the World Cup which

England won in 1966 when TV was still in

black and white

what a goal

the game was played at Wembley Stadium

in London and the Queen was there to

present the trophy apart from watching

that big matches played by professionals

many people enjoy playing soccer with

their friends in local parks coaches are

always looking for possible future stars

for both men and women's teams

cricket is another sport but is very

popular in the UK it is also played

widely across the world mainly in former

British colonies like India Australia

and the West Indies

because cricket can only be played in

good weather the cricket season in

England is in the summer from April to

September as well as the national and

county teams even very small villages

sometimes have teams the bowler tries to

hit the three sticks call up stumps

behind the batsman and the batsman

defends them using his bat when he hits

the ball he tries to hit it as far as

possible so that he can score lots of

runs national cricket teams go on tour

every year and one of the major

international tournaments is called the

ashes which is played every two years

between England and Australia in cricket

players need to wear protection from the

ball

but in rugby they need protection from

other players it can be a very physical

game the game is very popular all over

Britain and the Six Nations tournament

is played between England Ireland

Scotland Wales France and Italy

there's real excitement when a player

carries the ball beats all opposition

and scores great try

rugby is played in many schools today

and it is also played by girls as well

as boys everyone knows about Wimbledon

the home of tennis the Wimbledon

championship takes place for two weeks

in June and July this is the oldest

tennis tournament in the world and the

only major competition on grass courts

here crowds in the 1930s are watching

the ladies final while the game itself

has not changed much the sports clothes

which players wear certainly have the

1953 ladies final the 2011 winner of the

ladies final was petra kvitová another

event in the sporting calendar is the

annual Oxford and Cambridge University

Boat Race on the River Thames but things

don't always go to plan in 1978 the

Cambridge Boat began to let in water and

as the boat sank rescuers had to take

the sportsman to safety

there is a long tradition of horse

racing in Britain the biggest race of

the year is the Grand National it is

extremely dangerous with 30 jumps many

over 1.5 meters high race horses are

worth hundreds of thousands of pounds

jockeys have to be fit strong and very

light

a typical jockey weighs just 60 kilos in

the countryside and even in parks in

London many people enjoy horse riding in

their spare time but it is running which

is becoming really popular in the summer

of 2012 the Olympics were held in London

and the world's top athletes made

careful preparations to be at their best

in time for the games after months of

training many of the races are over in

seconds and athletes often set new world

records a British medical student Roger

Bannister earned sports immortality in

1954 a famous New World Record was set

the first man to break the legendary

four-minute barrier running a mile in

three minutes 59 and for 10 seconds the

London Marathon attracts over 40,000

runners every year but there are a lot

of other races in the UK sponsored runs

raised millions of pounds for charities

every year and also helped thousands of

people run for fun

[Music]

you

[Music]