大象传媒

Have you ever thought you鈥檇 like to play sport for your county? Your region? Your country?听 Here鈥檚 a tip 鈥� play lacrosse!听

There are so few people playing this historic game at the elite levels, so it鈥檚 pretty easy to get good very quickly.听 And, Staffordshire are looking to develop a men鈥檚 team in the sport.

But how do you get into it?听听 Especially if you鈥檙e living here in Staffordshire?

• Number One.听听 Enrol as a student at one of North Staffordshire鈥檚 two universities.
• Number two.听听 Learn the rules.听 Imagine hockey only with no limits to how high you can swing your stick.听 Oh, and the stick has a net on the end.听
• Number three. Listen to my interview with Staffordshire Universities club captain Anthony Barraclough.听
• Number four.听 Buy some deep heat, this game could get physical.

History

Lacrosse was invented by Native North Americans and it can be translated as meaning 鈥渓ittle war鈥� in East Cherokee language.听

In 1856, a Canadian dentist revised the sport to make it more manageable, limiting the number of players to 10 on a team and the pitch to 110 yards and can be played inside or outside.

Until about 20 years ago, this 鈥榤odern鈥� game of lacrosse was only played across the pond, but since then, lacrosse has flourished at international level with many countries picking up the sport.听

Lacrosse is not an Olympic sport, but that doesn鈥檛 stop players of both sexes from competing at international level in World Championship and World Cups.听 The next world cup will be in 2010.

With all this success you鈥檇 expect there to be no problem in reintroducing the sport to the Olympics after its鈥� exit in 1908.听 However, because the men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 games have separate international governing bodies, it is harder to include the sport at Olympic level.

Battling for the ball

In Staffs

Closer to home, the sport is very popular in universities, and Staffordshire University has a mixed sex team and a women鈥檚 team, and Keele University have a mixed team.

Staffordshire University鈥檚 very friendly mixed club captain, Anthony Barraclough gave me a run down of the basics of the game, from A to Z and even I didn鈥檛 get confused once!

And, although the game is extremely physical, Anthony has never seen any disastrous injuries; well, that鈥檚 if you don鈥檛 include a stick in the eye!