Lacrosse
Lacrosse has been around for centuries, in one form or another, but still there are many people who have not even heard of this fantastic sport. It has its roots in north America but has since spread to many other countries, especially Britain, Australia, Japan and Germany. The most recent men's world championships in 2018 saw an incredible 46 countries taking part, with several teams competing for the first time. The next ones in 2022 are expected to reduce the number of teams to give a more manageable format.
For an overview of which countries play lacrosse, see the Federation of International Lacrosse.
The basics
So what is lacrosse? If you've never seen a game, you're in for a treat.
Firstly, some explanation may be necessary. Like field hockey, it involves two teams, two goals, one ball and one stick per player.
Unlike field hockey, the ball doesn't (usually) roll on the ground but can be picked up in the pocket of the stick, and thrown and caught.
Yes, you can run with the ball, yes there are goalkeepers, and no, it's not that dangerous. There are both men's and women's versions of the game, and the rules are different; there's also a mixed version. You can check out more in lacrosse basics.
Recent Championships
Upcoming Championships
The next big events are:
2021 2022: the next women's world championships will take place from June 29th in Towson, Maryland, USA -- postponed from 2021.
- 2022: the next men's Under-21s world championships will be in the middle of August 2022 in Limerick, Ireland.
2022 2023: the next men's world championships will take place according to wikipedia in Canada California (also postponed by one year).
Other Links
- History of Lacrosse - A brief look at the Native American origins of the game
- Lax Links - More links than you can shake a stick at.
- E-lacrosse - A magazine-type site with lots of
pictures, links etc.
- English lacrosse - The home of the ELA
has information mainly about the English Men's and Women's leagues. Good quality information but very
amateurishly maintained, it seems every year they move everything around to make it impossible to find, and never maintain old links.
- Purley Lacrosse, included for no other reason than
the site is just excellent. And the club is pretty successful too.
- NLL.com, the homepage of the professional league in the US & Canada.
- The ever-excellent Wikipedia has an entry on lacrosse, and
some interesting notes on the differences between box lacrosse
and indoor lacrosse.