TEA

As we all know, tea is the national drink of Britain. We just love drinking cups or mugs of tea!

On average, British people drink three and a half cups of tea per day, every single day of the year. That’s a lot of tea.



But did you know that we haven’t always drunk it? Before the 1600s, no one in Britain had ever seen or even heard of tea. It was first bought here by explorers who had sailed to exotic places like China and India, where tea plants grow. Since then, drinking tea has become a national hobby for the British, whether at home or abroad. Although Chinese and Indian people also drink tea, only the British drink it with milk and sugar.

Almost wherever you go in Britain, there are cafes that serve tea for many tastes - breakfast tea, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, cream teas and many more. You can drink in tea gardens and even visit tea museums. Most workers have a tea break at some point during the day, and putting the kettle on for a nice cup of tea is the first thing many of us do when we get home.

Coffee might be getting more and more popular, but there’s no doubt that tea is still Britain’s favourite drink!

SPORT

British people love sport, and with good reason. A great number of sports were invented in Britain, and just about all of them are still played somewhere today.

Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport in Britain, and has been played for hundreds of years. However, it hasn’t always been played in the same way as today. In the 1200s, it was a street game with teams of up to 500-a-side chasing a ball through the streets. The ‘goals’ were just wooden posts that the ball had to touch, and could be miles apart. Games could sometimes last all day, and often finished without any goals. There were no rules and the games could be violent, with a lot of pushing and shoving. If the ball went into a house or a river, all of the players would just follow! Street football was eventually banned because it was too violent, but the official version of the game is now the most popular sport in the world.

In the English Football League there are 92 professional clubs. Scotland has another 12 or so full-time professional clubs, while Wales and Northern Ireland also have their own domestic leagues. These are semi-professional, so most players have other full-time jobs. Hundreds of thousands of people also play football in parks and playgrounds just for fun.

Rugby was also invented in Britain – in a public school in an English town called Rugby! A schoolboy called William Webb Ellis got bored during a game of football, so he picked up the ball and ran with it. The idea caught on, and rugby had been invented.

For many years it was only played by the rich upper classes, but now it is popular all over the country. There are two different types of rugby - Rugby League, played mainly in the north of England, and Rugby Union, played in the rest of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, together with France and Italy, play in an annual tournament called the Six Nations.

British people also love to play golf: there are over 400 golf courses in Scotland alone. Tennis is also a favourite, and the Wimbledon tournament is one of the most famous in the world. Many people enjoy cricket too, especially in England, but only in the summer months.

Britons are also fond of horse racing, and love to gamble on who will finish first. The Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Derby are the biggest races each year.

And finally, one of Britain’s favourite sports involves no running, jumping, kicking or hitting at all. In fact, people who enjoy this sport just sit down and relax. All they need is some water. Have you guessed what it is yet? That’s right – it’s fishing!

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