Rink bandy is a variant of the larger sport of bandy. Unlike bandy which is played on a large bandy field, rink bandy is played on significantly smaller

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

-sized ice rinks. While a bandy field is about the same size as a

football pitch A football pitch or soccer field is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is ty ...

, rink bandy is played on ice hockey rinks.

History

Rink bandy originated in Sweden in the 1960s and was originally called ''hockeybockey''. With the arrival of indoor

arenas, it was a way for bandy players to practice on ice for a longer time through the year by making use of the new indoor facilities. Since bandy fields are much larger than ice hockey rinks, playing surfaces for bandy were still only made outdoors in the wintertime when artificial freezing was unnecessary. The game of rink bandy uses a bandy ball and bandy sticks. The goalkeeper has no stick. A rink bandy game lasts 60 minutes but is composed of either two 30 minute halves or three 20 minute periods. Similar rules to bandy are used, but they are simplified to increase the pace of the game. Checking is prohibited, making the sport relatively safer than its relatives. Because of the smaller playing area used in rink bandy compared to its larger parent sport, there are fewer players, normally six a side. In America, the USA Rink Bandy League, uses five players instead of the usual six because of the smaller ice hockey rinks in the USA. In

Henderson, Nevada Henderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It is the List of cities in Nevada, 2nd most populous city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with 317,610 residents. The city is part of the Las Vegas V ...

, an annual invitational tournament takes place.

Organization

Rink bandy is governed by the Federation of International Bandy. In its quest to have bandy accepted into the programme of the Winter Olympics, rink bandy is an important way for the Federation of International Bandy to gain more members, thus also spreading bandy, since many countries which lack a full-size field and where the game is still new, only play rink bandy at home but still participate in the Bandy World Championship. As artificially frozen and indoor bandy arenas have become more prevalent, the interest for rink bandy has dwindled in the main bandy-playing nations (Russia, Sweden, Finland, Norway). There are still several rink bandy tournaments in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, including the Patriarch Cup () for children at

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

's Red Square. A world cup for rink bandy clubs was held every year from 1984 to 1998 in Hofors, Sweden, and called Hofors World Cup. Rink bandy was included in the programme of the 2012 European Company Sports Games and a European championship existed, though there is currently no top-level international competition. However, in 2017 the Federation of International Bandy decided to hold an international tournament for developing bandy countries in Nymburk,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and an international rink bandy club competition called Dniprobandy has been organised by the Ukrainian Bandy and Rink bandy Federation. In Germany, the national bandy championship is played under rink bandy rules.

Short bandy

A new variant of bandy played at a small field has been developed in Czechia. It is called ’Czech bandy’ or ’short bandy’ and is intended to more closely resemble usual bandy with its larger goal cages and smaller borders. http://www.worldbandy.com/2022/07/01/short-bandy-a-new-successful-type-of-bandy/ accessed on 26th May 2024

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rink Bandy Bandy Ice skating sports Team sports Ice rinks Ball games Variations of hockey Sports originating in Sweden Variations of ice hockey

History

Organization

Short bandy

See also

References