Editing History of the United Kingdom (section)

====Sports====
{{Main|Sport in the United Kingdom}}
The British showed a more profound interest in sports, and in greater variety, than any rival. They gave pride of place to such moral issues as sportsmanship and fair play.<ref name="Peter J. Beck 2008" /> Football proved highly attractive to the urban working classes, which introduced the rowdy spectator to the sports world. New games became popular almost overnight, including golf, lawn tennis, cycling and hockey. Women were much more likely to enter these sports than the old established ones. The aristocracy and landed gentry, with their ironclad control over land rights, dominated hunting, shooting, fishing and horse racing.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=Land of Sport and Glory: Sport and British society, 1887–1910 |date=1995 |author-link=Derek Birley}}; {{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=Playing the Game: Sport and British Society, 1914–1945 |date=1995 |author-link=Derek Birley}}</ref> Cricket reflected the Imperial spirit throughout the Empire (except Canada). Test matches began by the 1870s; the most famous are those between Australia and England for [[The Ashes]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Birley |first=Derek |title=A Social History of English Cricket |date=1999 |author-link=Derek Birley}}</ref>