History of Badminton

Question 1

Games employing shuttlecocks have been played for centuries across _________, but the modern game of badminton developed in the __________ among the ________as a variant of the earlier game of battledore and shuttlecock.

Answer 1

Eurasia; mid-19th century; British

Question 2

was an older term for “racquet”

Answer 2

Battledore

Question 3

Its exact origin remains unclear. The name derives from the Duke of Beaufort’s Badminton House in ________, but why or when remains unclear.

Answer 3

Gloucestershire

Question 4

As early as 1860, a London toy dealer named ____________ published a booklet entitled Badminton Battledore – A New Game, but no copy is known to have survived.

Answer 4

Isaac Spratt

Question 5

An 1863 article in ____________ describes badminton as “battledore and shuttlecock played with sides, across a string suspended some five feet from the ground”.

Answer 5

The Cornhill Magazine

Question 6

The game may have originally developed among expatriate officers in _________, where it was very popular by the 1870s.

Answer 6

British India

Question 7

Ball badminton, a form of the game played with a __________- instead of a shuttlecock, was being played in _________ as early as the 1850s and was at first played interchangeably with badminton by the British, the woollen ball being preferred in windy or wet weather.

Answer 7

wool ball; Thanjavur

Question 8

Early on, the game was also known as ___________ after the garrison town of Poona, where it was particularly popular and where the first rules for the game were drawn up in 1873.

Answer 8

Poona or Poonah

Question 9

By 1875, officers returning home had started a badminton club in __________.

Answer 9

Folkestone

Question 10

Initially, the sport was played with sides ranging from 1 to 4 players, but it was quickly established that games between __________ competitors worked the best.

Answer 10

two or four

Question 11

The shuttlecocks were coated with ___________ and, in outdoor play, sometimes weighted with lead. Although the depth of the net was of no consequence, it was preferred that it should reach the ground.

Answer 11

India rubber

Question 12

The sport was played under the __________ until 1887, when J. H. E. Hart of the Bath Badminton Club drew up revised regulations.

Answer 12

Pune rules

Question 13

In 1890, Hart and Bagnel Wild again revised the rules. The Badminton Association of England (BAE) published these rules in 1893 and officially launched the sport at a house called “_______” in Portsmouth on 13 September.

Answer 13

Dunbar

Question 14

The BAE started the first badminton competition, the All England Open Badminton Championships for _______________, in 1899.

Answer 14

gentlemen’s doubles, ladies’ doubles, and mixed doubles

Question 15

Singles competitions were added in ________ and an England–Ireland championship match appeared in 1904.

Answer 15

1900

Question 16

England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and New Zealand were the founding members of the International Badminton Federation in 1934, now known as the ___________.

Answer 16

Badminton World Federation

Question 17

India joined as an affiliate in 1934. The BWF now governs international badminton. Although initiated in England, competitive men’s badminton has traditionally been dominated in Europe by Denmark.

Question 18

Worldwide, Asian nations have become dominant in international competition. China, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, South Korea, Taiwan (as Chinese Taipei) and Japan are the nations which have consistently produced world-class players in the past few decades, with China being the greatest force in men’s and women’s competition recently.

Question 19

The game has also become a popular backyard sport in the ___________.

Answer 19

United States