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Da Bai Fen (meaning 'contesting 100 points') is a trick taking card game for four players in fixed partnerships, with considerable depth and scope for skill. It is popular over a wide area of China. There is also an expanded version Zhao Pengyou (Looking for Friends) for six to twelve players with variable partnerships.
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Dakyu is an equestrian ball-and-goal team game which has been played in Japan for over a thousand years. It is like a mounted form of lacrosse, with the players carrying a metal pole with a net at the end with which they catch the ball and throw it into the opposing goal which is a circle 61 cm in diameter.
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The Dallas Cowboys are an American professional football team. They entered the NFL in 1960.
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Darts is a game played with small pointed missiles fitted with a feathered or plastic flight, which are thrown at a circular target divided into twenty numbered segments and inner circles called 'doubles', 'triples', twenty-five and the central circle called the bullseye - which scores fifty. The game of darts originated in England after Englishmen were required by royal decree to practice their archery everyday. Darts is traditionally a man's game associated with public houses though there are no rules governing the gender of participants.
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The Davis cup is a tennis tournament.
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In card games, the deal is the passing out of cards to the players. Usually cards are dealt one at a time to each player in succession, but there are variations.
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The Death Spiral is a movement in pairs figure skating where the man swings his partner round at very great speed, himself retaining virtually the same pose.
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The decathlon is a standard event on the programme of all major athletics championships. It entered the Olympics in 1912 and is a two day event testing sprinting, hurdling, middle-distance running and a range of field events.
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Decennalia were festivals instituted by Augustus in 17 BC, and celebrated by Roman emperors every ten years of their reign with sacrifices, games and largesses.
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Deer-stalking is an exciting but laborious mode of hunting the red-deer, in which, on account of the extreme shyness of the game, their far-sightedness and keen sense of smell, they have to be approached by cautious manoeuvring before a chance of obtaining a shot or photograph occurs. Great patience and tact and a thorough knowledge of the ground are essential to a good stalker, who has to undergo many discomforts in crouching, creeping, wading through bogs, etc. Advance from higher to lower ground is usually made since the deer are always apt to look to the low ground as the source of danger. 'Deer-driving' towards a point where the shooters are concealed was often practised, but is considered as poor sport by the true deer-stalker,
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The Derby Stakes is the most famous horse-race in the world. It is run over 2400 meters on Epsom Downs in England on the last Wednesday in May or the first Wednesday in June by colts and fillies three years old. It was founded in 1780 by and named after Edward Smith Stanley, the 12th Earl of Derby. The races were originally known as the Epsom Races, and were famous in Victorian England as the most popular of the English horse-races, being patronised by all classes of people together.
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The Detroit Lions are an American professional football team. They entered the NFL in 1930 as the Portsmouth Spartans, becoming the Detroit Lions in 1934.
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The Detroit Red Wings are an American ice hockey club based in Detroit.
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The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team. They were an initial member of the American League in 1901.
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The Deutsches Derby is the premier classic horse-race in Germany, run over 2400 meters at Hamburg- Horn at the end of June.
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The Devizes to Westminster Marathon is a 125 mile race for double crews of canoe or kayak from Devizes in Wiltshire to Westminster in London. It was started in 1949 and is held annually at Easter.
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Differenzler Jass is a popular Swiss Jass game in which the players must predict in advance how many points they will take in tricks. You get penalty points according to the difference between the number of points you take in the play and your predicted total. If you get it exactly right you can deduct 10 points from your penalty point total (except that there is no bonus for predicting and making zero). There is no score for Stock or Weis. Match (all the tricks) counts as 157 points taken.
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The discus is a standard field event for men and women on the programme of all major athletics championships. Throwing the discus was first contested in the ancient Greek Olympic Games in about 708 BC. The discus is circular, tapering from its thickest point at the centre to the rim and is constructed of wood with metal plates set flush into the sides.
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DKW are a German manufacturer of motor cycles. They were established in 1919 and became notable for highly developed and specialised racing machines with two-stroke engines.
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Dobbm is an extremely popular card game in the Stubai valley among card players of all generations. It is unknown in the immediately surrounding regions, for example in the Wipptal and Innsbruck, but it is clearly related to Brixental Bauerntarock, Zuger Tapp and other similar games. Dobbm is also related to the special version of Tarock played in the same valley.
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In wrestling, a dog-fall is when both wrestlers fall together.
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Dogget's Coat and Badge was a prize for a rowing-match on the River Thames, which took place every year on the 1st of August. The prize was an orange waterman's coat and a badge representing the white horse of Hanover. The match was open to six young watermen whose apprenticeship ended the same year. It was instituted by a popular actor, Thomas Dogget, a native of Dublin.
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Dominoes is a game played by two individuals or two pairs of players, with small flat rectangular pieces of ivory, later plastic, about twice as long as they are broad. They are marked with spots varying in number. When one player leads by laying down a domino, the next must follow by placing alongside of it another which has the same number of spots on one of its sides. Thus if the first player lays down 6-4, the second may reply with 4-3, or 6-5, etc; in the former case he must turn in the 4, placing it beside the 4 of the first domino, so that the numbers remaining out will be 6-3; in the latter case he must turn in the 6 to the 6 in like manner, leaving 4-5, to which his opponent must now respond. The player who cannot follow suit loses his turn, and the original object of the game was to get rid of all the dominoes in hand, or to hold fewer spots than your opponent when the game is exhausted by neither being able to play.
During the 20th century variations developed, among the most popular being fives and threes in which the players seek to make multiples of five and three from the end dominoes, thus 5-4 produces five plus four, or nine which is three multiples of three and scores three points. Double-six and three gives fifteen which is five multiples of three and three multiples of five and thus scores eight points. In the game of fives and threes the object is to score exactly 61 points, the score being recorded on a cribbage board, going once or twice round and exactly out. Scores which would exceed the target score are not counted, making the game very skilful indeed.
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Doppelkopf is an extremely popular card game in Germany, mainly in the North. It developed from a version of Schafkopf using a double pack of cards.
Doppelkopf is a four player game with variable partnerships; the objective is to capture valuable cards in tricks. It can be played with five people, with dealer sitting out. Although the Deustcher Doppelkopf-Verband has developed standard rules for tournaments, in informal games there are many variants and each group of players has their own house rules.
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In golf, a double bogey is two strokes above par.
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Double Deck Pinochle is a card game played with a deck of 80 cards, containing A 10 K Q J in each of the four suits, and with four identical copies of each card. This deck can be formed by mixing together two normal Pinochle decks, having thrown out the nines, or from four regular 52 card decks from which you throw out all the numerals 2 to 9. After the deal there is an auction in which players bid the number of points their team will try to win. Whoever bids highest has the privilege of choosing trumps and leading to the first trick. The object of the high bidder's team is to win at least as many points as the amount they bid. Points can be scored in two ways: by declaring and showing (melding) combinations of cards held in a players hand; by winning aces, tens and kings in tricks The game is won by the first partnership to achieve a score of 500 or more. If both sides reach 500 on the same hand, the bidding side wins.
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In golf, a double eagle (also known as an albatross) is three strokes less than par.
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Downhill racing is a skiing event consisting of skiing from the top to the bottom of a prescribed course of about 2.5 km 5 km long by the shortest and fastest route possible. Ruts, large bumps (called moguls), and steep pitches add to the hazards. Downhill racing is a test of skiing skill, stamina, and courage.
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Draughts is a game resembling chess played on a board divided into sixty-four checkered squares. Each of the two players is provided with twelve pieces or 'men' placed on every alternate square at each end of the board. The men are moved forward diagonally to the right or left one square at a time, the object of each player being to capture all his opponent's men, or to hem them in so that they cannot move. A piece can be captured only when the square on the diagonal line behind it is unoccupied. When a player succeeds in moving a piece to the further end of the board (the crown-head), that piece becomes a king, and has the power of moving or capturing diagonally backwards or forwards. When it so happens that neither of the players has sufficient advantage in force or position to enable him to win, the game is drawn. Checkers is the common American name of the game.
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Dressage is an equestrian event which tests a horse's development and state of training. The object of dressage is the harmonious development of the physique and ability of the horse.
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Droggn is a Tarock game for three players that comes from the Tyrol. Droggn is the local dialect form of the word Tarock. In recent times, as far as we know, it has only been played in the Stubai valley, south west of Innsbruck - mainly in Fulpmes and Telfes. It is unlike other Austrian Tarock games such as Konigrufen, Zwanzigerrufen, Point Tarock and Strohmandeln. Those games developed in the eastern parts of Austria, but have never been well known in the Tyrol.
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Ducks and drakes is the old name for the pastime of skimming stones across a patch of water.
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Dukla Prague was an Association Football club in Prague. The club was formed as the club of the army in 1947 and named A.T.K. in 1953 its name was changed to U.D.A. and in 1956 Dukla in honour of the village of Dukla where Czechs withstood the Germans during the Second World War. By the end of the 1990s the club had merged with Pribram Football Club and become rename Marila Pribram.
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The Duleep Trophy is an Indian cricket trophy named after the late Duleepsinhji who was chairman of the All- India Council of Sports. It is awarded to the winner of an inter-zone knockout competition first played in 1961.
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Dumb-bells are weights usually in the form of two iron balls connected by a straight piece for holding, used in gymnastic exercises for strengthening the muscles of the arms and chest.
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A dump was a round, flat, piece of lead used on board ship for playing quoits and chuck-penny.
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Durak is a popular card game in Russia. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that every Russian who plays cards knows this game. 'Durak' means fool, the fool in this game being the loser - the player who is left with cards after everyone else has run out. The game described on this page is properly called 'Podkidnoy Durak', which means 'fool with throwing in'. This name refers to the fact that after an attack is begun, it can be continued by 'throwing in' further cards whose ranks match those already played.
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Duren Piatkowy is a Polish card game for any number of players. An ordinary 52 card pack is used. If there are a lot of players, two or more identical packs can be shuffled together.
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Dynamo Moscow is an Association Football Club in Moscow, once sponsored by the N.K.V.D and then the K.G.B. it was founded in 1887 by the English Charnock brothers who were manufacturers at Orekhovo- Zuyevo, near Moscow. The club was known as Orekhovo Klub Sport, Morosovsti and then Dynamo Moscow when it was sponsored by the Electrical Trades Union.
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