|
Table-Tennis (ping-pong) is an indoor game based upon lawn tennis, played by either two players (singles) or four players (doubles) facing each other and hitting a small light ball with a small paddle so that it passes over a low net stretched midway across the surface of a table, striking its surface at each end alternately. The game was very in vogue in England around 1900.
 Research Table-Tennis
Tali and Tessera was a game played with dice by the Romans.
Research Tali and Tessera
Tambourin is a bat-and-ball game of the tennis type. It is played on a long narrow court with a 6 cm diameter ball and a racket with a prachment hitting- surface.
Research Tambourin
Tarocchi or taroc is a card game played with a deck of tarot cards (as opposed to ordinary playing cards).
Research Tarocchi
Tarok is a card game for three persons played with a tarot deck of 78 cards. It is a trick taking game, where the primary emphasis is on winning the last trick with one of five designated cards (known as winning Ultimo), and there is secondary emphasis on winning many tricks and winning counting cards in the tricks. To play well, players need to form alliances during the play, to keep track of the cards that have been played, and to be able to play according to a well chosen plan.
Research Tarok
Tarot cards (tarots, atouts, atutti or triomphes) are a deck of cards comprising 22 emblematic and 56 ordinary cards, divided into four suits of 14 cards each. Originally they were used for playing games like ordinary playing cards, however during the 1920s the notion that tarot cards were in fact used for divination and were the forerunner of ordinary playing cards (which they are not, they are a different type of deck) became popular.
Research Tarot Cards
A tatami is a 9 meter square mat of compressed straw with a tight canvas covering on which judo contests are held.
Research Tatami
Tavla is the national game of Turkey. It is called backgammon in Europe.
Research Tavla
Tennis (Lawn Tennis) is a game for two or four players played by striking a ball with a racket over a net stretched across a rectangular court of either grass or clay, or sometimes indoors on an artificial floor. Each playing surface has its own characteristics and affects the bounce of the ball, so that individual players may be more adept at playing on grass than clay or vice-versa.
Tennis may be played by two individual players of the same sex (singles) or by two teams each of two players of the same sex (doubles) or by two teams of two players comprised of one player of each sex (mixed doubles).
A tennis match consists of three or five sessions known as 'sets', each set being comprised of usualy six games. The winner of a set being the player or pair of players to first win six games or seven games if the opponent has also won five games, thus one can win 6-0, 6-1,6-2, 6-3, 6-4 or 7-5. The winner of the match being the player or team that wins two of the three or three of the five sets.
Scoring of a game of tennis is unique. The first point is scored as 'fifteen', the second 'thirty' and the fourth is known as 'fourty'. If a player wins a fifth point they win the game, unless both players have scored fourth points ('deuce') in which case one player must win the next two consecutive points, the first point being called 'advantage'. If a player wins a point from deuce and the opponent wins the nest point, the scores revert to deuce. A score of zero is known as 'love'. Thus one can realise a game in which the score follows 'fifteen-love', 'thirty-love', 'fourty-love' and 'game'.
Opponents take it in turns to serve for the duration of each game until that game is won or lost, and then the opponent serves for the following game.
Modern lawn tennis was developed in England during the mid-19th century and probably evolved from similar games already being played.
Tennis has a number of international competitions of which perhapsthe most famous is the annual tournament for mens-singles, womens-singles, mens-doubles, womens-doubles and mixed-doubles played during the summer on grass courts at the home of England's Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club, known simply as 'Wimbledon'.
Research Tennis
Tenpin Bowling is an indoor game for individuals or teams in which the players aim to knockdown with a ball ten pins placed in a triangle, the apex of which is 60 feet away at the end of a lane of smooth polished wood.
Research Tenpin Bowling
In falconry, a male hawk is called a tercel or tiercel.
Research Tercel
The name test match is given to an international game in cricket.
Research Test Match
Texas Forty-two is a trick taking game played with dominoes. It is especially popular in Texas, USA.
There are basically two forms of Texas Forty-two: it can be played for points or for marks. There are four players in fixed partnerships - players sit opposite their partner. A double-six set of dominoes is used - that is 28 dominoes, one for each possible pair of numbers from 0 (blank) to 6. A domino with the same number at each end is called a double. There are 7 suits: blanks, ones, twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes. The highest domino of each suit is the double. Normally one suit is trumps. Every domino containing that number is exclusively a trump, and apart from the double, they rank in order of the other number on the domino.
Research Texas Forty-two
The Texas Rangers are an American professional baseball team. They joined the American League in 1972.
Research Texas Rangers
The Curragh is a race-course near to Dublin in Ireland. Most of the important horse races in Ireland are run at The Curragh, including the Irish Sweeps Derby, Irish St Leger and Two Thousand Guineas.
Research The Curragh
The Longhorns is the nickname of the University of Texas American College football team.
Research The Longhorns
The Pumas are the Argentinean Rugby Union team.
Research The Pumas
The Thomas Cup is a silver-gilt trophy of the international badminton championship which was donated to the International Badminton Federation in 1939 by Sir George Thomas, then president of the federation. The first Thomas Cup matches were delayed by the Second World War and took place in 1948.
Research Thomas Cup
Three in One is an American twentieth century version of the ancient European card game Poch; it is sometimes also known as Michigan Rummy. In the USA the equipment for the game is sold under the name TRIPOLEY. The game is in three stages: in the first stage, the holders of particular cards collect the relevant stakes; the second stage is similar to Poker, and the final stage is a Stops game similar to Michigan or Boodle.
Research Three in One
Three Thirteen is a variant of the card game rummy, for two or more players and is played with normal playing cards. One 52-card deck for two players, and two decks for three or four people.
Research Three Thirteen
The Three-Day Event is an equestrian competition designed to test the all- round ability of horse and rider. It is also known as horse trials, and originating as a test for officers' charges militaire. The event consists of three distinct parts which test the horse in dressage, then speed, endurance and cross-country, and finally show jumping, the parts take place on three separate days, hence the name Three-Day Event.
Research Three-Day Event
Tien Gow (meaning 'Sky Nine') is a trick taking game for four players using a single set of Chinese dominoes. The set consists of all pairs of numbers from 1-1 to 6-6, with the following eleven tiles duplicated: 6-6, 6-5, 6-4, 6-1, 5-5, 5-1, 4-4, 3-3, 3-1, 2-2, 1-1.
Research Tien Gow
Tieng Len is the national card game of Vietnam; the name of the game means something like 'Speak Up'.
Tieng Len has spread to some parts of the USA, where it is usually called Viet Cong or just VC or Thirteen. It is a climbing game (similar to Zheng Shangyou or President), in which the aim is to get rid of your cards as soon as possible by beating combinations of cards played by the other players.
The game is played by two, three or four players with a standard 52-card deck is used - there are no jokers used and no wild cards. It can also be played by more than four players, using two 52-card packs shuffled together.
The game is normally dealt and played clockwise, but can be played anticlockwise instead if the players agree in advance to do so. The ranking of the cards is: Two (highest), Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three (lowest). Within each rank there is also an order of suits: Hearts (highest), Diamonds, Clubs, Spades (lowest). So the 3 of Spades is the lowest card in the pack, and the 2 of Hearts is the highest. Rank is more important than suit, so for example the 8 of spades beats the 7 of hearts.
Research Tieng Len
In card games, tierce is a term referring to three cards of the same suit.
In fencing, tierce is the third position of the wrist.
Research Tierce
Tilting is a form of jousting which was introduced into the tournament about 1440, in which the lists (or course) along which the competing knights rode at each other was divided longitudinally by a barrier, called a tilt. Each knight was obliged to keep to his side of the tilt (barrier) during the whole course, and the lance of each would consequently be inclined at an angle when the contact occurred, so that no direct hit could be made. A course for tilting was known as a tiltyard, and there was such a tiltyard where the present Horse Guards parade now stands in Whitehall, London, much frequented by Queen Elizabeth I. Special armour was developed for the sport of tilting.
Research Tilting
Tip Cat is an outdoor game played with a piece of rounded wood, about 9 cm long, pointed at both ends, which is called the cat, and a staff similar to a rounders bat. A circle, usually about 15 cm in diameter, is drawn 2.5 or 3 meters from a point chosen as the pitcher's base or wicket. From this base the pitcher attempts to throw the cat into the circle, the striker being out when he succeeds. Should the cat lodge on the line of the circle, the striker is permitted to make one strike at it.
A variation of the game is double tip cat. This is played by four or more players, and is similar to cricket, two circles being used for wickets, at each of which a striker and a pitcher stand, the latter throwing the cat to the striker, who hits it away. Runs are scored by the two strikers running between the circles.
Research Tip Cat
Tobogganing is the sport of sliding down ice-covered tracks on small sleds. The term toboggan derives from the North American Indian odabaggan.
Research Tobogganing
The Toronto Argonauts are a Canadian professional football team. They have been a member of the Eastern 'Big Four' since its inception in 1907.
Research Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a Canadian ice hockey club of Toronto. Under its original name of the Toronto Arenas, the club was one of the original four members of the professional National Hockey League of North America in 1917.
Research Toronto Maple Leafs
Tossing the Weight is an event of the Highland Games. The weight is a metal sphere with an attached chain and ring, weighing overall 25 kg. This is thrown by competitors in two events, one for height and the other distance.
Research Tossing the Weight
Tottenham Hotspur FC (Spurs) are an English Association Football club in London. They were founded in 1882 by boys associated with a Presbyterian school as the football section of the Hotspur Cricket Club and played on Tottenham Marsh. In 1885 the club adopted its present name and in 1896 turned professional and were admitted to the Southern League which they won in 1900. In 1901 the won the FA Cup for the first time, beating Sheffield United 3-0 at Bolton in a rematch following a 1-1 draw played earlier at Crystal Palace. In 1921 they won the FA Cup for the second time beating Wolverhampton Wanderes 1-0 at Stamford Bridge, and more recently, in 1991 Tottenham Hotspur FC again won the FA Cup.
Research Tottenham Hotspur FC
Touch Ball is a ball-and-goal team game, in effect a no-contact form of rugby.
Research Touch Ball
Touch-Chasing is a street and playground game known under various names including: ticky touchwood, touch, tag, it, tip and dobby. It consists of one person chasing until he reaches and touches another, saying something like 'you're it' as he does so. The touched person then becomes the chaser, until he makes a touch. The game continues until the players get fed up. Traditionally there has always been one chance of escape from the chaser - to touch something that offers safety, such as a door, lamppost or whatever is designated through convenience.
Research Touch-Chasing
The Tour De France is a major professional cycling race founded in 1903 by Desgranges as a six-stage race of 2410 km.
Research Tour De France
The Tour of Britain is the principle British amateur cycling race. It was created in 1951 by the Daily Express and revived in 1958 by the Milk Marketing Board, hence the alternative name of the ' Milk Race'.
Research Tour of Britain
The Tourist Trophy (TT) are motor-cycling races held in the Isle of Man. The races are held over the public roads (closed at the time) making the races fast, and dangerous requiring excellent handling of the bikes at high speed.
Research Tourist Trophy
A tournament was an equestrian contest between military knights and others armed with lances which were common in the Middle Ages. They were introduced to England by the Normans.
Research Tournament
Toxophily is the practice of, or addiction to archery.
Research Toxophily
Trampolining is an individual acrobatic sport consisting of various manoeuvres in the air performed with the aid of an apparatus called a trampoline.
Research Trampolining
Trapball was a ball-and-stick team game played around the fourteenth century. A ball was placed in a swivelling trap which was spun, releasing the ball into the air which the batsman would then try to hit with the stick and score runs while the opposing team would try to catch the ball before it hit the ground or bowl it back at the trap before the batsman completed his run.
Research Trapball
The Travers Stakes is an old-established American horse race for three-year- olds run over 2000 meters at Saratoga Springs in August.
Research Travers Stakes
In card games a trick is the cards played by all players in a single round, each player having played one card into the trick.
Research Trick
The Triple Jump (hop step and jump) is a standard field event for men on the programme of all major athletics championships.
Research Triple Jump
The Trojans is the nickname of the University of Southern California American College Football team.
Research Trojans
Trotting (Harness-racing) is a form of horse racing in which the rider is towed along in a small, light, cart known as a sulky, having two bicycle wheels 28 inches in diameter with pneumatic tyres. Races are run in heats and a horse has generally to win three heats to be declared the winner of a race.
The ideal trotting-ground is a rectabgular-shaped track with rounded ends either half a mile or a mile in circumference. Mud tracks are most prevalent in America.
Research Trotting
Truc is a fairly simple card game played in Catalonia, the north-eastern part of Spain. It is closely related to the old English game of Put, which was described by Cotton in 'The Compleat Gamester' (1674). Truc is also played, with slight differences, in some places in the South of France, and it is the basis of the more elaborate game Truco which is popular in several South American countries. Truc is a game for four players in fixed partnerships; it can also be played by two, but the two player game is considerably less interesting. As usual you sit opposite your partner. It's played anticlockwise to a final score of twelve points and each hand is worth from one to three points, depending on the bets.
Research Truc
In card games, trumps are cards of a selected suit that outrank all cards in other suits during the game.
Research Trumps
Truth or Dare is a game in which players take it in turns to ask each other whether they would like to answer a question, or take a dare. If a question is chosen the answer given must be truthful. The game probably originated from an earlier Christmas game called Questions and Commands in which the commander bid his subjects to answer a question which is asked. If the subject refused to answer the question or failed to satisfy the questioner, he had to pay a forfeit (carry out a command) or have his faced smutted (smeared with soot or similar). The game of Questions and Commands is mentioned in the Spectator in 1712 and still appeared to be played at the outbreak of the Great War.
Research Truth or Dare
TSKA Moscow are a Russian basketball club.
Research TSKA Moscow
TSV Munich 1860 are a German Association Football club formed as a sports club in 1860. It started playing football in 1899, but it was not until the 1960s that the club achieved success in the national championships.
Research TSV Munich 1860
In stag hunting, a tufter was a pair of hounds used to force a resting stag out into the open and away from the rest of the herd so that it might be chased by the hunt. Usually between two and nine pairs of tufters were employed.
Research Tufter
Tug-of-War is a contest of strength and skill between two teams pulling against each other from opposite end of a long thick rope.
Research Tug-of-War
Tute is one of the most popular card games of Spain, and also in some Latin American countries. It is a point- trick game with trumps of the 'marriage' type played with a standard Spanish 40-card deck. There are several versions, all with the same basic structure of trick taking and card values, but adapted for different numbers of players, and in some cases with the extra complication of bidding. The game for four players in two fixed partnerships will be described first, then versions for other numbers of players.
Research Tute
The Two Thousand Guineas Stakes is the second classic horse race of the English season. It was founded in 1809 and competed for over the straight Rowley Mile course at Newmarket in the spring by three-year old colts and fillies.
Research Two Thousand Guineas Stakes
|
Abbreviations
Recreation
