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The British invented many sports，including cricket，football，golf，rugby，tennis，squash，badminton and snooker.In addition，they established the first formal rules for many other sports such as hockey，boxing and yachting.

Sports occupy a very important position in British life;people of all ages participate in a range of sports activities and form sports clubs of various types.Club members are devoted supporters of their club’s team regardless of its victory or loss.The famous Manchester United Football Club has a membership of over 80，000.Clubs of a particular sport often play matches among themselves in the form of a league.

The most famous league is the Premier League of football in England，which has 18 top level teams with players recruited from among the best football players in the country as well as from around the world.The matches are mostly played at weekends，and the league season runs from August to the beginning of May in the following year.

The 18 teams represent all of the major cities of England.Sometimes two teams represent the same city，and when they play against each other，it is called a“Derby”match，possibly because Derby was the first city to have two teams at the same level playing against each other.

Although football is popular in Great Britain，the true national sport is considered to be cricket，which was played as far back as 250 years ago.Cricket is played on a field with 11 players in each team.The rules are very complicated，but aim of the game is essentially to score as many“runs”（points）as possible by hitting a hard leather⁃covered ball with a wooden bat and then running between two sets of upright wooden sticks that are called“stumps”.At the same time the other team tries to prevent the other players from scoring in a variety of ways，such as by“catching them out”（i.e.，catching a ball hit in the air by an opposing player before it touches the ground）.

Golf was invented in Scotland’s and is considered the Scottish national sport，while Wales’national sport is rugby.Golf is regarded as a middle class sport，while football，boxing，wrestling，snooker，darts and dog racing are working class activities.

British people take a special fancy to racing.Horse races，motor car races，boat races，dog races and sometimes even donkey races are held throughout the country.The most famous boat race is the rowing contest between Cambridge University and Oxford University，which started in 1820.Other sporting activities that are popular among British people include tennis，table tennis，badminton and swimming.

Cambridge University

Oxford’s All Souls College

Several sporting sites in Great Britain are especially renowned.Wimbledon，for instance，is the site of the Wimbledon Open tennis tournament，held in July each year since 1877.And Wembley Stadium in London is where most international football matches have been played since 1923.