The Sport of Bandy

Imagine if you will hockey played with the same rules as soccer, or for that matter field hockey on ice...well, then you have the sport of bandy. 10 players and a goalie on a rink the size of a soccer field (even played indoors), an orange rubber ball slightly smaller than a tennis ball, and full on helicopter swings with a wooden stick like a hurling club...

Bandy, if you aren't familiar with it, is played across most of northern Europe (Sweden, Finland and Russia imparticuarily) but has roots stemming back hundreds (if not thousands) of years. (More history can be found here. And it is a very interesting read...)

Here in Stockholm we have one bandy rink in the center of town and one team in the top division. Tickets are about ten dollars per game and last about as long as a regular hockey game. This year the NHL will play their first official game in the US outdoors when the Penguins meet the Sabres in the Winter Classic (Ice Bowl). Ironically Stockholm is in danger of losing their one top division team (Hammarby) due to a ruling that teams must have indoor rinks by 2009. Considering what it's like to skate on snow covered ice, let alone compete at an international level at sport on it, one can understand the logic. However, the shear cost of building such a rink is another matter entirely....we shall see what happens.

The following is one of the few examples of the sport you will ever see with English commentary (it's been about a hundred years since it was played in England, and the Minnesota teams don't get on TV too much...unfortunately). Long live "bando".

(Watch the second goal they show scored by Finland, amazing stuff...)