Editing Bandy (section)

===Early days===
Bandy as an ice skating sport first developed in Britain. It developed as a winter sport in [[the Fens]] of [[East Anglia]]. Large expanses of ice would form on the flooded meadows or shallow washes in cold winters where [[fen skating]], which has been a tradition dating back to at least medieval times, took place.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art561911-delivering-past-archaeology-london-museum-skull|title=Bone skate|website=www.culture24.org.uk|access-date=9 September 2019|archive-date=11 September 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180911015808/http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art561911-delivering-past-archaeology-london-museum-skull|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.le.ac.uk/ebulletin-archive/ebulletin/features/2000-2009/2005/06/nparticle-bvm-yj8-89c.html|title=University of Leicester - Thorney Abbey, Cambridgeshire – a Rare View of Medieval Life in the Fens|date=18 March 2024 }}</ref> Bandy's early recorded modernization period can be traced back to 1813.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cambridgeshire/content/articles/2006/02/15/bandy_sport_feature.shtml |title=A handy Bandy guide... |author=Helen Burchell|date=21 February 2006|website=BBC |access-date=12 January 2022 |publisher=[[BBC]] |language=en}}</ref>

[[Image:Bandybollar.jpg|thumb|right|Making of a historic bandy ball in stages, from the original cork on the left to the final ball painted red, with a modern [[bandy ball]] to far right]]
Members of the [[Bury Fen Bandy Club]]<ref>{{cite web|url= http://geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/2049/English/Buryfen.gif |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091028160235/http://geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/2049/English/Buryfen.gif |archive-date= 28 October 2009 |title=Photo of Bury Fen Bandy Club |date=28 October 2009 |access-date=3 March 2012}}</ref> published rules of the game in 1882, and introduced it into other European countries. A variety of stick and ball games involving ice skating were introduced to North America by the 1800s but failed to organize and develop popular rules codes. However, these stick and ball games became one of the eventual antecedents of the modern sport of [[ice hockey]], whose first rules were codified in Canada in 1875, almost a decade before the rules of modern bandy were established in Britain.

The first international bandy match took place in 1891 between Bury Fen and the Haarlemsche Hockey & Bandy Club from the Netherlands (a club which after a couple of club fusions now is named [[HC Bloemendaal]]). The same year, the [[National Bandy Association]] was established as a governing body for the sport in England.<ref name=SBF/> National governing federations for bandy were also founded in the 1890s in the Netherlands and Russia and in the following decade in Finland (then part of the Russian Empire), Sweden, and Norway.

The match later dubbed "the original bandy match", was actually held in 1875 at [[The Crystal Palace]] in London. However, at the time, the game was called "hockey on the ice",<ref name=SBF>{{cite web|url=http://iof1.idrottonline.se/SvenskaBandyforbundet/Bandy-Sverige/SvenskaBandyforbundet/Historikochstatistik/Historiskamilstolpar/Bandyhistoria1875-1919/ |title=Svenska Bandyförbundet, bandyhistoria 1875–1919 |publisher=Iof1.idrottonline.se |date=1 February 2013 |access-date=9 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019151140/http://iof1.idrottonline.se/SvenskaBandyforbundet/Bandy-Sverige/SvenskaBandyforbundet/Historikochstatistik/Historiskamilstolpar/Bandyhistoria1875-1919/ |archive-date=19 October 2013}}</ref> probably as it was considered an ice variant of [[field hockey]].

An early maker of bandy sticks was the firm of Gray's, Cambridge. One such stick, now in the collections of the [[Museum of Cambridge]], has a length of rope twisted round the handle to rescue any player who might fall through the ice, as the game was played on frozen lakes back then. An 1899 photo of two players demonstrating the game shows the sticks being held single-handed.<ref>{{cite book|title= Cambridge Customs & Folklore|author= Enid Porter|publisher= Routledge & Kegan Paul|year= 1969}}</ref>

Historically, bandy was a popular sport in some central and western European countries until the [[First World War]], and from 1901 to 1926 it was played in the Scandinavian [[Nordic Games]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geocities.com/bandytips/Kalenderbiteri/Svetab/NS.html |title=Nordiska Spelen. |website= |access-date=22 April 2022 |publisher= |language=sv |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028095528/http://www.geocities.com/bandytips/Kalenderbiteri/Svetab/NS.html |archive-date=28 October 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> the first international [[multi-sport event]] focused on [[winter sports]].