Hey guys, have you ever heard of Bandy?
Bandy is a winter sport, where a ball is hit with a stick. It is the ancestor of ice hockey. It likely descended from shinty (Scotland) or hurling (Ireland) and in turn field hockey. Bandy is played outdoors on a sheet of ice, and has rules that are similar to association football.
A synonym to bandy used to be the term hockey on the ice, due to the sport being "field hockey played on ice", but since this term can be confused with ice hockey, most people prefer the term bandy nowadays.
World Championships for men were first held in 1957 and then semiannually starting in 1961, and every year since 2003. There were 12 countries participating in the 2006 championships: Belarus, Finland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Russia, Sweden (group A) and Canada, Estonia, Hungary, Mongolia, The Netherlands, United States (group B). Finland won the 2004 world championship. All the previous championships were won by the Soviet Union, Russia, or Sweden.
In February 2004, Finland hosted the first World Championship for women. Sweden won the tournament. The second women's World Championships were held in Roseville, Minnesota in the USA in 2006. The outcome was, Sweden defeated Russia in the final (3-1).
http://www.canadabandy.ca/pages/home.php
