Bando (sport)
Encyclopedia
Bando is a team sport – related to hockey
, hurling
, shinty
, and bandy
– which was first recorded in Wales
in the eighteenth century. The game is played on a large level field between teams of up to thirty players each of them equipped with a bando: a curve-ended stick resembling that used in field hockey
. Although no formal rules are known, the objective of the game was to strike a ball between two marks which served as goals
at either end of the pitch. Popular in Glamorgan
in the nineteenth century, the sport all but vanished by the end of the century. Now a minority sport, the game is still played in parts of Wales where it has become an Easter tradition.
to Pyle
noted 'the extraordinary barrenness' of the locality in ash and elm
trees, hard woods ideal for bando bats, and came across hordes of people hastening to the sea shore to watch a game of bando. Where as the sticks were made of hard wood, the ball was normally of yew
, box
or crabapple
. The sport was often played between local villages, with fierce rivalries in the west of Glamorgan between Baglan, Aberavon
and Margam
and in mid Glamorgan between Pyle
, Kenfig
and Llangynwyd
. Edward Matthews of Ewenni records that no-one above the age of twelve-month would be seen without a bando stick.
Although many pre-industrial games are recorded to be lawless affairs with haphazard rules, the contrary appears true with bando. Once a challenge of a game was made between villages, wagers were normally set which demanded an agreed set of rules, including the number of players, normally between 20 and 30 and the size of the playing area. Matthews records a playing area of 200 yard
s, with the goal markers at each end set ten yards apart. Despite a set of rules, the game was still open to violent play with players often using their bando sticks to strike their opponents.
One of the more notable teams of the time were the' Margam Bando Boys', a team who played on Aberavon Beach. The team are celebrated in a macaronic ballad called the Margam Bando Boys written in the earlier part of the nineteenth century.
Margarm Bando Boys, (first three verses)
Bando is believed to be the first mass spectator sport of Glamorgan and Wales, and in 1817 a match between Margarm and Newton Nottage attracted over 3,000 spectators. The sport remained popular throughout the century with notable personalities known to play the sport including preacher John Elias
and future prime minister
, David Lloyd George
. The sport continued to be played until the second half of the nineteenth century, but was beginning to be replaced by other sports. The game survived in the Aberavon area until the death of Theodore Talbot, the captain of the Margam Bando Boys in 1876. Talbot, the son of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
and heir to the Margam Estate
was a supporter of the sport, and his death coincided with the coming of the Mansel, Avon Vale and Taibach tinworks. The employees turned to a new sport spreading through south Wales, rugby union
, with Aberavon Rugby Football Club
forming in 1876.
Now a minority sport the game survives as an amateur game in parts of Wales, and some small-scale attempts have been made to revive the game in the country. Despite having no religious links with Easter, the sport become a tradition on the date as part of some parish festivals.
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
, hurling
Hurling
Hurling is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. Hurling is the national game of Ireland. The game has prehistoric origins, has been played for at least 3,000 years, and...
, shinty
Shinty
Shinty is a team game played with sticks and a ball. Shinty is now played mainly in the Scottish Highlands, and amongst Highland migrants to the big cities of Scotland, but it was formerly more widespread, being once competitively played on a widespread basis in England and other areas in the...
, and bandy
Bandy
Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...
– which was first recorded in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
in the eighteenth century. The game is played on a large level field between teams of up to thirty players each of them equipped with a bando: a curve-ended stick resembling that used in field hockey
Hockey stick
A hockey stick is a piece of equipment used in field hockey, ice hockey or roller hockey to move the ball or puck.- Field hockey :Field hockey sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position...
. Although no formal rules are known, the objective of the game was to strike a ball between two marks which served as goals
Goal (sport)
Goal refers to a method of scoring in many sports. It can also refer to the physical structure or area of the playing surface where scoring occurs....
at either end of the pitch. Popular in Glamorgan
Glamorgan
Glamorgan or Glamorganshire is one of the thirteen historic counties and a former administrative county of Wales. It was originally an early medieval kingdom of varying boundaries known as Glywysing until taken over by the Normans as a lordship. Glamorgan is latterly represented by the three...
in the nineteenth century, the sport all but vanished by the end of the century. Now a minority sport, the game is still played in parts of Wales where it has become an Easter tradition.
History
Bando is believed to have common origins with the Russian sport of bandy. The game was first recorded in the late eighteenth century, and in 1797 a traveller en route from CowbridgeCowbridge
Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
to Pyle
Pyle
Pyle is a village and community in Bridgend county borough, Wales. Pyle railway station is on the Cardiff - Swansea section of the London - South Wales main line....
noted 'the extraordinary barrenness' of the locality in ash and elm
Elm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
trees, hard woods ideal for bando bats, and came across hordes of people hastening to the sea shore to watch a game of bando. Where as the sticks were made of hard wood, the ball was normally of yew
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is a conifer native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa, northern Iran and southwest Asia. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it may be now known as the English yew, or European yew.-Description:It is a small-...
, box
Buxus sempervirens
Buxus sempervirens is a flowering plant in the genus Buxus, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey. Buxus colchica of western Caucasus and B...
or crabapple
Malus
Malus , the apples, are a genus of about 30–35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Other studies go as far as 55 species including the domesticated Orchard Apple, or Table apple as it was formerly called...
. The sport was often played between local villages, with fierce rivalries in the west of Glamorgan between Baglan, Aberavon
Aberavon
Aberavon is a settlement in Neath Port Talbot county borough, Wales. The town derived its name from being near the mouth of the river Afan, which also gave its name to a medieval lordship. Today it is essentially a district of Port Talbot, covering the central and south western part of the town...
and Margam
Margam
Margam is a suburb of Port Talbot in the Welsh county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, close to junction 39 of the M4 motorway.- History :...
and in mid Glamorgan between Pyle
Pyle
Pyle is a village and community in Bridgend county borough, Wales. Pyle railway station is on the Cardiff - Swansea section of the London - South Wales main line....
, Kenfig
Kenfig
Kenfig is a village and former borough in Bridgend, Wales.The borough contributed with other Glamorgan towns to sending a member of parliament to Westminster until the Reform Act of 1832...
and Llangynwyd
Llangynwyd
Llangynwyd is a village 2 miles to the south of Maesteg, in the county borough of Bridgend, Wales. It was part of the medieval cwmwd of Tir Iarll.- History and amenities :The 2001 census gave the population as 2,843...
. Edward Matthews of Ewenni records that no-one above the age of twelve-month would be seen without a bando stick.
Although many pre-industrial games are recorded to be lawless affairs with haphazard rules, the contrary appears true with bando. Once a challenge of a game was made between villages, wagers were normally set which demanded an agreed set of rules, including the number of players, normally between 20 and 30 and the size of the playing area. Matthews records a playing area of 200 yard
Yard
A yard is a unit of length in several different systems including English units, Imperial units and United States customary units. It is equal to 3 feet or 36 inches...
s, with the goal markers at each end set ten yards apart. Despite a set of rules, the game was still open to violent play with players often using their bando sticks to strike their opponents.
One of the more notable teams of the time were the' Margam Bando Boys', a team who played on Aberavon Beach. The team are celebrated in a macaronic ballad called the Margam Bando Boys written in the earlier part of the nineteenth century.
Margarm Bando Boys, (first three verses)
Due praises I'll bestow
And all the world shall know
That Margam valour shall keep its colour
When Kenfig's waters flow
Our master, straight and tall
Is foremost with the ball;
He is, we know it, and must allow it,
The fastest man of all
Let cricket players blame,
And seek to slight our fame,
Their bat and wicket can never lick it,
This ancient manly game
Bando is believed to be the first mass spectator sport of Glamorgan and Wales, and in 1817 a match between Margarm and Newton Nottage attracted over 3,000 spectators. The sport remained popular throughout the century with notable personalities known to play the sport including preacher John Elias
John Elias
John Elias was a Christian preacher in Wales in the first half of the 19th century, as part of the Welsh Methodist revival. His preaching was noted as being exceptionally powerful, "as if talking fire down from heaven". On one occasion it is said he preached to a crowd of 10,000 people. He was a...
and future prime minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
, David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British Liberal politician and statesman...
. The sport continued to be played until the second half of the nineteenth century, but was beginning to be replaced by other sports. The game survived in the Aberavon area until the death of Theodore Talbot, the captain of the Margam Bando Boys in 1876. Talbot, the son of Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot
Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot FRS was a landowner, industrialist and Liberal politician. He developed his estate at Margam near Swansea as an extensive ironworks, served by railways and a port, which was re-named Port Talbot.-Early life:Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot was born at Penrice, Swansea,...
and heir to the Margam Estate
Margam Castle
Margam Castle is a large mansion house built in Margam, Port Talbot, Wales, for the Talbot family. It was built on a site which had been occupied for some 4000 years and from the 11th century was an abbey. The "castle" is actually a comfortable Victorian era country house, one of many "mock" or...
was a supporter of the sport, and his death coincided with the coming of the Mansel, Avon Vale and Taibach tinworks. The employees turned to a new sport spreading through south Wales, rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, with Aberavon Rugby Football Club
Aberavon RFC
Aberavon RFC is a rugby union club located in the Welsh town of Port Talbot, although the club's name refers to the older settlement of Aberavon which lies on the western side of the town...
forming in 1876.
Now a minority sport the game survives as an amateur game in parts of Wales, and some small-scale attempts have been made to revive the game in the country. Despite having no religious links with Easter, the sport become a tradition on the date as part of some parish festivals.
External links
- Bando - An ancient manly game Peoples Collection of Wales, brief history of the sport with an image of a bando stick.