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Yeah, Vancouver doesn't get much snow, but between the humidity and a lack of real extremes on the other end it's not the nicest climate I've been in. Although I must like something about it, since I could be living there in two or three months.

I'd rather live there than Edmonton, although I've never seen any of the cricket pitches (I have seen the lawn bowling greens)? I mostly lived in South Central Edmonton and the mid-North East along the LRT line, so maybe none are near those spots. No offense to Edmontonians on the board, but I like things like tall trees, lots of water, mountains (or hills!), and humidity. I even miss the bugs!

Soccer kind of suffers although it's a pretty popular sport for kids and so on. You don't see many indoor leagues. In fact, I think I've seen more volleyball tournaments indoors, because it's just easier to set that up. If it's something you need to be outdoors to do, it does suffer in Canada (barbecuing through washing a car), and a lot of things are impacted by weather here -- even simply walking can be a problem. You basically need a car in most parts of Calgary to get stuff, for example.

When people look at stuff like our resource consumption, they have to remember that a lot of people don't want to depend on public transportation when your nuts drop off after ten minutes in the cold and we like such things as warm water and heat in our homes. It's not just the cold which impacts our living a lot, but the fact we get such big variation that we can't really live or design things to work in a specific environment. We only get two or three serious months of good weather where most of us live, and entire regions go through six months of seemingly sunless winter (thank you, clouds in Ontario). Thankfully most cities are figuring out "hey plus 15s are good either way" and I was lucky enough to have five years in Calgary where that had caught on previously.

Hockey though, in some form, any form, is year round in Canada. I think it's kinda funny that the most international and accessible sport in the world, European football, can't be played in Canada because of our climate, but we can play hockey because the climate supported it more at one point.

Also, our cricket team sucks.

Just fyi.

Since DD likely already knows and is just being polite about it, that's an fyi for everyone else.

   

I wouldn't say it sucks. Just having a team and taking part in world cup event says lots.

And intresting FYI that USA has a cricket team also and has one for a very loooong time. Even became a member of the ICC ( International Cricket Council )in the 60's.

   

Having grown up here, I don't feel it's all that harsh (I didn't zip my jacket closed today and it's -36 with the windchill), but I have friends who moved here (Edmonton) recently (from other parts of Canada or abroad and they find the winters quite harsh.

It's more the snow than the cold that affects sports.

Say you want to play tennis. The City has built dozens of courts that people can use for free and they are open from May until maybe October. But outside of that, there are a handful of indoor courts available (Kinsmen and Saville Tennis centre), and to rent one costs around $20/hour. If tennis was a much more popular sport, the City would likely build more indoor tennis courts.

Unless a sport is very popular, there is little reason to build an indoor facility to play it. Baseball, while very popular in the US, is considered a summer/fall sport here and to my knowledge, there are no indoor facilities to practice play in Edmonton.

Soccer used to be the same, but in the past decade, it has grown in popularity, so the city now has four or five indoor soccer centres for players to play on throughout the year. The floors are concrete not grass, but they can play soccer all year long.

As for cricket pitches, Victoria Park downtown has one, and several park development plans (Castle Downs and Millwoods) have them included as a possibility.

   

Well, soccer is gaining in popularity in Edmonton, as evidenced by the City of Edmonton's construction of a number of indoor soccer centres. Back in the 90s, there were two indoor soccer centres with only four playing fields (total), now we have four or five centres with over 20 fields total.

I don't see soccer replacing hockey anytime soon, but given the affordability of it over hockey (a pair of running shoes and shin guards as opposed to hundreds of dollars for equipment for hockey), it has seen rapid growth in Edmonton.

   

That most certainly isn't true. The British play football, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, tennis, golf, snooker, darts, horseracing, Gaelic football, hurling, curling, Formula 1, badminton, rounders, most of which aren't that popular in North America. Almost every single one of those sports were invented by the British.




Quite a lot of nations play hockey considering it's an Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games sport.

In fact, it should be obvious that hockey is played in Britain considering that it was Britain which invented modern hockey (just like it invented a lot, if not most, of the world's most popular sports).

The word 'hockey' was recorded way back in 1363 when King Edward III of England issued the proclamation: "[M]oreover we ordain that you prohibit under penalty of imprisonment all and sundry from such stone, wood and iron throwing; handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games."

The modern game grew from English public schools in the early 19th century. The world's first club was in 1849 at Blackheath in south-east London, but the modern rules grew out of a version played by Middlesex cricket clubs for winter sport. Teddington Hockey Club formed the modern game by introducing the striking circle and changing the ball to a sphere from a rubber cube. The Hockey Association was founded in 1886. The world's first international took place in 1895 (Ireland 3, Wales 0) and the International Rules Board was founded in 1900. Hockey was played at the Summer Olympics in 1908 and 1920. It was dropped in 1924, leading to the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Hockey sur Gazon (FIH) as an international governing body by seven continental European nations, and hockey was reinstated in 1928. Men's hockey united under the FIH in 1970.

The two oldest trophies are the Irish Senior Cup, which 1st XI teams compete for, and the Irish Junior Cup.

The game had been taken to India by British servicemen and the first clubs formed in Calcutta in 1885. The Beighton Cup and the Aga Khan tournament commenced within ten years. Entering the Olympics in 1928, India won all five games without conceding a goal and won from 1932 until 1956 and then in 1964 and 1980. Pakistan won in 1960, 1968 and 1984.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_hockey

   

The world's first cricket international match took place between Canada and the United States back in about 1848.

   

Cricket is played more or less exclusively in the summer months in England. Personally I was never a big fan of having a wooden ball hurled at my head at 120 kph.

Once September comes around it's football, (as in not silly American rugby with helmets). We also played rugger which I thank for my still intact ability to disengage (run away quickly) when the odds are not good.

A few guys I knew played hockey (as in with a stick, ball and on grass) but I always thought that it was a bit of a puffs game.

   

Footie is intertwined in English blood

You still follow the preimere league and Uefa brock ?

   

Not really DD. I'm that rare Limey that's not into spectator sports. I do watch the internationals and never tire of being underwhelmed at England's shitty performances during a World Cup.

I think I was tainted by being on match duty at Maine Road and Old Trafford in the 1990's.

   

Yeah something about the world cup and England, they don't seem to like each other very much !

   

22 millionaires who care more about themselves than their country DD.

   

I was just going to say that saying that Hockey, basket ball and baseball is an American sport on this forum will get you flailed to within an inch of your life.

   

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