1.
Rugby union
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Rugby union, known in some parts of the world simply as rugby, is a contact team sport which originated in England in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is between two teams of 15 players using a ball on a rectangular field with H-shaped goalposts on each try line. Historically an amateur sport, in 1995 restrictions on payments to players were removed, World Rugby, originally the International Rugby Football Board and from 1998 to 2014 the International Rugby Board, has been the governing body for rugby union since 1886. Rugby union spread from the Home Nations of Great Britain and Ireland, early exponents of the sport included Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and France. Countries that have adopted rugby union as their de facto national sport include Fiji, Georgia, Madagascar, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Rugby union is played in over 100 countries across six continents, there are 101 full members and 18 associate members of World Rugby. The Rugby World Cup, first held in 1987, takes place four years with the winner of the tournament receiving the Webb Ellis Cup. The Six Nations Championship in Europe and The Rugby Championship in the Southern Hemisphere are major annual competitions. The origin of football is reputed to be an incident during a game of English school football at Rugby School in 1823. Although the evidence for the story is doubtful, it was immortalised at the school with a plaque unveiled in 1895, despite the doubtful evidence, the Rugby World Cup trophy is named after Webb Ellis. Rugby football stems from the form of game played at Rugby School, Old Rugbeian Albert Pell, a student at Cambridge, is credited with having formed the first football team. During this early period different schools used different rules, with pupils from Rugby. Other important events include the Blackheath Clubs decision to leave the Football Association in 1863, despite the sports full name of rugby union, it is known simply as rugby throughout most of the world. The first rugby football international was played on 27 March 1871 between Scotland and England, by 1881 both Ireland and Wales had representative teams, and in 1883 the first international competition, the Home Nations Championship had begun. 1883 is also the year of the first rugby tournament, the Melrose Sevens. During the early history of union, a time before commercial air travel. The first two notable tours both took place in 1888—the British Isles team touring New Zealand and Australia, followed by the New Zealand team touring Europe, All three teams brought new styles of play, fitness levels and tactics, and were far more successful than critics had expected. After Morgan began singing, the crowd joined in, the first time a national anthem was sung at the start of a sporting event, in 1905 France played England in its first international match
2.
Australia national rugby union team
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The Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. Australia have competed in all eight Rugby World Cups, and have won the World Cup on two occasions, in 1991 beating England in the final, and in 1999 when their opponents in the final were France. Australia also lost in the final after extra time to England in the 2003 competition, Australia are governed by the Australian Rugby Union. Eleven former Australian players have been inducted into either the International Rugby Hall of Fame or the IRB Hall of Fame, three are members of the International Hall only, four are members of the IRB Hall only, and four are members of both Halls of Fame. In 1882 the Southern Rugby Football Union toured New Zealand, the New Zealand national team toured New South Wales in 1884 – defeating New South Wales in all three matches, and winning all nine matches on tour. The first tour by a British team took place in 1888, a British Isles team toured Australia and New Zealand, though no Test matches were played. Although they had representatives from all four nations, the players were drawn mainly from England. The tour was not sanctioned by the Rugby Football Union as it was organised by entrepreneurs, in 1899 the first officially sanctioned British Isles team toured Australia. Four Tests were played between Australia and the British Isles, the Australian team for the first Test match consisted of six players from Queensland and nine from New South Wales. The first Test was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground and won 13–3 by Australia, the first Test between Australia and New Zealand was played on 15 August 1903 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Despite Australia losing 22–3, this tour improved rugbys popularity in Australia and helped to increase attendances at matches in Sydney. In 1907 the New South Wales Rugby League was formed and star player Dally Messenger left the Rugby union for the rival code, the next year the first Australian team to tour the British Isles left Sydney. Newspapers in England initially gave the team the name Rabbits, the Australian players thought this nickname derogatory and replaced it with Wallabies. Australias last Test before First World War was against New Zealand in July 1914, the war had a very negative effect on rugby union in Australia. This resulted in all but closed down in New South Wales. In Queensland regular competitions did not commence again until 1928 and this caused many players to switch to rugby league – which did not cease playing during the war. War hero Sir Edward Weary Dunlop also played for Australia before World War II and he played on the side that was the first to win the Bledisloe Cup. The first Test to following World War Two was played at Carisbrook, Australia did not win on the three match tour, beaten 20–0 by New Zealand Maori, and then losing 14–10 to the All Blacks the following week
3.
Scotland national rugby union team
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The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union, the team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, which takes place every four years. As of 27 February 2017, Scotland are fifth in the World Rugby Rankings, the Scottish rugby team dates back to 1871, where they beat England in the first international rugby union match at Raeburn Place. Scotland competed in the Five Nations from the tournament in 1883. In 2000 the competition accepted a sixth competitor, Italy, thus forming the Six Nations, since this change, Scotland have yet to win the competition. Their best finish came in 1991, where they lost to the All Blacks in the third place play-off, Scotland have a strong rivalry with the English national team. They both annually compete for the Calcutta Cup, each year, this fixture is played out as part of the Six Nations, and Scotland last won it in 2008. In December 1870 a group of Scots players issued a letter of challenge in The Scotsman and in Bells Life in London, in front of around 4000 spectators, the Scots won the encounter by a try and a goal to a solitary try scored by England. England later got revenge by winning the match at the Kennington Oval. The Calcutta Cup was donated to the Rugby Football Union in 1878 by the members of the short-lived Calcutta Rugby Club, the members had decided to disband, the cup was crafted from melted-down silver rupees which became available when the Clubs funds were withdrawn from the bank. The Cup is unique in that it is competed for only by England and Scotland. The first Calcutta Cup match was played in 1879 and, since that time, in 1882 the Home Nations Championship, the fore-runner of the modern Six Nations Championship was founded with Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland taking part. Further Triple Crowns wins for Scotland followed in 1901,1903 and 1907, however, Scotlands triumph in 1907 would be the last for eighteen years as the First World War and Englands dominance afterwards would deny them glory. In 1897 land was purchased, by the SFU, at Inverleith, thus the SFU became the first of the Home Unions to own its own ground. The first visitors were Ireland, on 18 February 1899, international rugby was played at Inverleith until 1925. The SFU bought some land and built the first Murrayfield Stadium which was opened on 21 March 1925, in 1925 Scotland already had victories over France at Inverleith, Wales in Swansea and Ireland in Dublin. England, the Grand Slam champions of the two seasons were the first visitors to Murrayfield. 70,000 spectators saw the lead change three times before Scotland secured a 14–11 victory which gave them their first-ever Five Nations Grand Slam
4.
John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun
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He is best known for his brief and controversial tenure as the first Governor-General of Australia. When he became Governor-General, he was 40 years old and he remains the youngest person to have held office, he is also the shortest-lived. In Australia he is remembered as Lord Hopetoun, Hope was born at South Queensferry, West Lothian in Scotland, the eldest son of the 6th Earl of Hopetoun and Ethelred Anne Hope. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he passed out in 1879 and he later explained the affairs of the family estate, to which I succeeded at 13, seemed to call for my personal attention. Subsequently, he devoted his attentions to managing the more than seventeen thousand hectares of family estate located around the Firth of Forth and he married, in London on 18 October 1886, girl-next-door Hersey Alice Eveleigh-de Moleyns, a Scots-born Irish aristocrat then aged 19. They would have two sons and a daughter, a daughter died in infancy. Their elder son Victor would become Viceroy and Governor-General of India, after having declined the governorship of Madras and the governor-generalship of Australia. In 1883, Hope became Conservative whip in the House of Lords and served as a Lord in Waiting to Queen Victoria from June 1885 to January 1886, from 1887 to 1889 he was also appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1889 he was appointed Governor of Victoria, where he served until 1895 and his appointment came amidst a general stylistic change in colonial governors. Reflecting Britains more flamboyant pride in Empire, Australian colonial governors began to display a new colour, increased interest in Empire had spurred the appearance of young and wealthy aristocrats in place of previous career administrators. Hopetouns time as Governor was in keeping with the emerging style. He rapidly developed a reputation for entertaining and spectacular vice-regal galas. Hopetouns term coincided with a number of serious difficulties being faced by the colonies, the economic boom in the colony was reversed by the Great Crash in 1891, leading to a decade of depression, bank failures, industrial action and political instability. In contrast to the troubles faced during this period by other colonial governors, however, the reality of the 1890s was that colonial governors had lost much of their administrative and political power, instead assuming more figurative and representative roles. Hopetouns term also coincided with the important years of the movement in Victoria. The economic crash and resultant political and social problems laid bare the inefficiencies of the colonial system, Hopetoun was an active supporter of the movement, appearing at numerous banquets and giving speeches in its favour. At one such banquet he even offered to return to Australia as their first governor-general should Federation be implemented, upon leaving the governorship and returning to the United Kingdom in 1895, Hopetoun was a widely popular figure in Victoria and New South Wales. After his return to the United Kingdom he was made a councillor, was appointed Paymaster-General in the Salisbury government from 1895 to 1898
5.
Governor-General of Australia
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The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is the representative in Australia of the Australian monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The Governor-General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia, when travelling abroad, the Governor-General is seen as the representative of Australia, and of the Queen of Australia, so is treated as a head of state. The Governor-General is supported by a staff headed by the Official Secretary to the Governor-General, a Governor-General is not appointed for a specific term, but is generally expected to serve for five years subject to a possible short extension. Since 28 March 2014, the Governor-General has been General Sir Peter Cosgrove, from Federation in 1901 until 1965,11 out of the 15 Governors-General were British aristocrats, they included four barons, three viscounts, three earls, and one prince. Since then, all but one of the Governors-General have been Australian-born, as of 2017, only one Governor-General, Dame Quentin Bryce, was a woman. The selection of a Governor-General is a responsibility for the Prime Minister of Australia, the candidate is approached privately to confirm whether they are willing to accept the appointment. The prime minister advises the monarch to appoint his nominee. This has been the procedure since November 1930, when James Scullins proposed appointment of Sir Isaac Isaacs was fiercely opposed by the British government, Scullin was equally insistent that the monarch must act on the relevant prime ministers direct advice. Both of these appointments had been agreed to despite British government objections, despite these precedents, George V remained reluctant to accept Scullins recommendation of Isaacs and asked him to consider Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood. However, Scullin stood firm, and, on 29 November, the King agreed to Isaacss appointment and this right to not only advise the monarch directly, but also to expect that advice to be accepted, was soon taken up by all the other Dominion prime ministers. This, among other things, led to the Statute of Westminster 1931, having agreed to the appointment, the monarch then permits it to be publicly announced in advance, usually several months before the end of the current Governor-Generals term. During these months, the person is referred to as the Governor-General-designate, the actual appointment is made by the monarch. Governors-General have during their tenure the style His/Her Excellency the Honourable, since May 2013, the style used by a former Governor-General is the Honourable, it was at the same time retrospectively granted for life to all previous holders of the office. From the creation of the Order of Australia in 1975, the Governor-General was, ex officio, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order, and therefore became entitled to the post-nominal AC. In 1986 the Letters Patent were amended again, and Governors-General appointed from that time were again, ex officio, until 1989, all Governors-General were members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus held the additional style the Right Honourable for life. The same individuals were also usually either peers, knights, or both, in 1989, Bill Hayden, a republican, declined appointment to the British Privy Council and any imperial honours. Dame Quentin Bryce was the first Governor-General to have had no title or pre-nominal style. Until 2015, the honour continued after the retirement from office of the Governor-General, formerly, the Governor-General automatically became a knight or dame upon being sworn in
6.
Cook Cup
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The Cook Cup is a rugby union trophy that is contested between Australia and England. The cup was established in 1997 when the Wallabies and England contracted to play each other bi-annually for a decade, playing matches on a home, since the first two years the format has only been adhered to once. Most years there is only one match and World Cup matches are not counted, the cup is named after Captain James Cook, representing a strong English-Australian connection. The cup, which was designed by Royal Doulton in London, is made from crystal, the first test between England and Australia was played on 9 January 1909 at Blackheaths Rectory Field in England The Wallabies won the match 9–3. The two nations met in 1928, at Twickenham, and England won 18–11. Twenty years passed and England and Australia met again at Twickenham in 1948 and it would then be another decade until the two nations played another test against one another. In 1958, they met again at Twickenham, and England won 9–6, England and Australia played each other twice during the 1960s, with the first match in Australia in 1963. The Wallabies defeated England 18–9 at Sydneys Sports Ground, and again in 1967 by 11–23 at Twickenham, the nations played each other another four times during the 1970s, with the home team always victorious. The two nations would meet six times during the 1980s, the first encounter being in 1982, two years later the Wallabies broke the trend when the magnificent Grand Slam team of 1984 won away from home at Twickenham by 19–3. They were drawn against each other in the 1987 World Cup at Sydneys Concord Oval, the nations played 3 times in 1988, with Australia winning at home 22–16 at Ballymore and 28–8 at Concord Oval, and England winning 28–19 at Twickenham. The sides met three times during the 1990s before the Cook Cup was introduced, the first match was in 1991 at the Sydney Cricket Ground, and Australia won 40–15. Later that year, Australia won the final of the 1991 Rugby World Cup 12–6 at Twickenham, the last pre-Cook Cup match was a quarter-final of the 1995 Rugby World Cup played at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa. England dramatically won 25–22 with the last kick of the match, the first Cook Cup match was played at Sydney Football Stadium on 25 June 1997. The series was decided through two tests, and with the match at Twickenham resulting in a 15–15 draw, Australia were crowned champions. In 1998, Australia ran out record 76–0 winners at Lang Park in Brisbane, the Wallabies were captained by John Eales and scored 11 tries. The subsequent meeting at Twickenham in December was a closer affair. In June 1999 Australia retained the trophy by beating England 22–15 at Stadium Australia, in 2000, England won the Cook Cup for the first time, beating Australia 22–19 at Twickenham with an injury-time try by Dan Luger. In each of the two years, the Cup was also decided in a single match at Twickenham, with England winning 21–15 in 2001
7.
Royal Doulton
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Royal Doulton was an English company producing tableware and collectables, dating from 1815. Operating originally in London, its reputation grew in The Potteries and its products include dinnerware, giftware, cookware, porcelain, glassware, collectables, jewellery, linens, curtains and lighting. Three of its brands were Royal Doulton, Royal Albert and Mintons and these brands are now owned by WWRD Holdings Ltd, based in Barlaston near Stoke-on-Trent. On 2 July 2015 the acquisition of WWRD by the Fiskars Corporation was completed. The Royal Doulton company began as a partnership between John Doulton, Martha Jones, and John Watts, with a factory at Vauxhall Walk, Lambeth, London trading as Jones, after Martha Jones left the partnership in 1820, the trade name was changed to Doulton & Watts. The business specialised in making stoneware articles, including decorative bottles, the company took the name Doulton & Co. in 1853 after the retirement of John Watts. By 1871, Henry Doulton, Johns son, launched a studio at the Lambeth pottery, the first to be engaged was George Tinworth followed by artists such as the Barlow family, Frank Butler, Mark Marshall and Eliza Simmance. In 1882, Doulton purchased the factory of Pinder, Bourne & Co, at Nile Street in Burslem, Staffordshire. They were executed in terra cotta with glazed details to the design of Tinworth, Doulton products came to the attention of the Royal family. In 1901 King Edward VII sold the Burslem factory the Royal Warrant, allowing the business to adopt new markings, the company added products during the first half of the 20th century while manufacturing fashionable and high-quality bone china. The headquarters building and factory of the Royal Doulton ceramics firm were in Lambeth and this Art Deco building was designed by T. P. Bennett. In 1939 Gilbert Bayes created the friezes that showed the history of pottery through the ages, the Lambeth factory closed in 1956 due to clean air regulations preventing urban production of salt glaze. Following closure, work was transferred to The Potteries, the factory building was demolished in 1978 and the friezes transferred to the Victoria & Albert Museum. The office building in Black Prince Road survives, complete with a frieze of potters and Sir Henry Doulton over the main entrance. In 1971, S. Pearson & Son Ltd, a subsidiary of the Pearson industrial conglomerate acquired Doulton & Co. Pearson & Son owned Allied English Potteries, all brands from Allied English Potteries and Doulton & Co. Ltd. Royal Doulton Tableware Ltd was a subsidiary of Doulton & Co, Ltd, itself a subsidiary of the Pearson Group Doulton & Co. became Royal Doulton plc in 1993. Waterford Wedgwood completed a takeover of Royal Doulton in 2005, acquiring all assets, on 30 September 2005, the Nile Street factory closed. Royal Doulton Ltd. along with other Waterford Wedgwood companies, went into administration on 5 January 2009, Royal Doulton is now part of WWRD Holdings Ltd
8.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
9.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
10.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
11.
Murrayfield Stadium
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Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity is 67,800 which makes it the largest stadium in Scotland, although mainly a rugby union stadium, Murrayfield has in the past hosted American football, rugby league and association football matches and music concerts. Murrayfield is located near to Murrayfield Ice Rink, Murrayfield Curling Rink and it is named after the area of Edinburgh it is located in, Murrayfield. Despite the line running adjacent to the stadium, the closest railway station to the stadium is Haymarket, interchange with the Edinburgh Trams is available at Haymarket and Edinburgh Park. Edinburgh Waverley station is a walk from the St Andrew Square tram stop. Murrayfield Stadium tram stop is located close to the turnstiles on Roseburn Street, access to the platform is by a flight stairs. As part of crowd-management measures, ticketing machines are situated at the bottom of the staircase, the stadium is served by Lothian Bus services 12,22,26,31 and the Airlink along Corstorphine Road, though post-match traffic congestion is common along this route. The SRU identified 19 acres of land at Murrayfield, purchasing this from Edinburgh Polo Club at Murrayfield, a stand and three embankments were constructed, which took two years. Previous internationals had been played at Inverleith, on 21 March 1925 England were the first team to visit Murrayfield, with 70,000 people watching Scotland beat them to win their first Five Nations Championship Grand Slam. During the Second World War the ground at Murrayfield was offered to the nation and was taken over by the Royal Army Service Corps, during the war years the armed forces sports authorities managed to arrange two Scotland v. England services internationals each year, on a home-and-away basis. Scotlands home matches were played at Inverleith for the first two years with a return to Murrayfield in 1944 after that grounds derequisition, murrayfields record attendance of 104,000 was set on 1 March 1975 when Scotland defeated Wales 12–10 during the 1975 Five Nations Championship. This attendance stood as a record until 1999. In October 1991 another debenture scheme was launched, to finance a more comprehensive redevelopment of the West Stand, in 1994, Murrayfield completed a £50-million renovation where floodlights were installed for the first time. In October 2012, SRU chief executive Mark Dodson told the BBC that it was seeking a name sponsor for Murrayfield. We would like to see if we can monetise that and it would be crazy for us not to look at using our single biggest piece of inventory to drive revenue. We want to get the price for it. In addition, Dodson indicated that the SRU was actively seeking a site for a new stadium with a capacity of 10,000 to 15,000 as a future home for Edinburgh Rugby. The pitch was damaged by nematodes in the lead up to the 2013 autumn internationals and this led the SRU to replace the grass with a Desso surface from the start of the 2014 season
12.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
13.
Sydney Football Stadium
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The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as the Allianz Stadium since February 2012, is a football stadium located in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988, the stadium is Sydneys premier rectangular field venue for rugby league, rugby union, the Kangaroos, the Wallabies and the Socceroos occasionally play at the stadium, while the Sydney Roosters, NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC are the grounds major tenants. It hosted all New South Wales Rugby League/Australian Rugby League rugby league finals, as well as the first grand final under the NRL banner. The stadium is located next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, prior to its construction, major events were usually held at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as it was the largest stadium in Sydney. But the SCG, being a field, was not considered ideal for sports requiring a rectangular field such as soccer, rugby league and rugby union. Sydney Football Stadium was built upon the former Sydney Sports Ground in Moore Park, both were owned by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. The Sydney Football Stadium has been the Sydney Roosters home ground since 1988, both grounds were demolished in 1986 to make way for the SFS. From 1988 to 1999 and from 2002 to 2005, it served as the ground for the South Sydney Rabbitohs. The Rabbitohs returned to the ground with a one off game against the Broncos in Round 25 of the 2015 NRL season, the SFS has hosted rugby league football test matches since its opening in 1988 starting with two matches in Australias 1988 Ashes series win against Great Britain. The first game of the saw the Wally Lewis captained. That game was also the 100th test match between Australia and either Great Britain or England, manly had won their previous 11 games against the Knights prior to that Grand Final. The last grand final played at the SFS was the 1998 NRL Grand Final between Canterbury and Brisbane, in front of 40,857 fans, the Broncos ran out easy 38-12 winners to win their 4th premiership from four grand Final appearances. Also of note was Queenslands backs to the win in Game 2 of the 1989. It was also out after the game that Queenslands lock forward Bob Lindner had played most of the second half with a fractured ankle. The Sydney Football Stadium has been the venue of some of Australian sports greatest matches, the final of the 1993 World Youth Cup between Brazil and Ghana was also held at the SFS, Brazil winning 2-1. It was used as the venue for the 2000 Summer Olympics Womens association football gold medal match between Norway and the United States, Norway defeated the USA 3-2 in front of 22,848 fans. In 2002, the rights were purchased by Aussie Home Loans in a 5-year + 5-year deal. Due to this, the stadium was renamed Aussie Stadium, on 7 July 2007 the stadium reverted to its original Sydney Football Stadium name after Aussie Home Loans and the SCG Trust mutually elected not to extend the naming rights deal
14.
Sydney
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Sydney /ˈsɪdni/ is the state capital of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Located on Australias east coast, the metropolis surrounds the worlds largest natural harbour, residents of Sydney are known as Sydneysiders. The Sydney area has been inhabited by indigenous Australians for at least 30,000 years, the first British settlers, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived in 1788 to found Sydney as a penal colony, the first European settlement in Australia. Since convict transportation ended in the century, the city has transformed from a colonial outpost into a major global cultural. As at June 2016 Sydneys estimated population was 5,005,358, in the 2011 census,34 percent of the population reported having been born overseas, representing many different nationalities and making Sydney one of the most multicultural cities in the world. There are more than 250 different languages spoken in Sydney and about one-third of residents speak a language other than English at home and it is classified as an Alpha+ World City by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world. Ranked eleventh in the world for economic opportunity, Sydney has a market economy with strengths in finance, manufacturing. Its gross regional product was $337 billion in 2013, the largest in Australia, there is a significant concentration of foreign banks and multinational corporations in Sydney and the city is promoted as one of Asia Pacifics leading financial hubs. Its natural features include Sydney Harbour, the Royal National Park, man-made attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower and the Sydney Harbour Bridge are also well known to international visitors. The first people to inhabit the now known as Sydney were indigenous Australians having migrated from northern Australia. Radiocarbon dating suggests human activity first started to occur in the Sydney area from around 30,735 years ago, the earliest British settlers called them Eora people. Eora is the term the indigenous used to explain their origins upon first contact with the British. Its literal meaning is from this place, prior to the arrival of the British there were 4,000 to 8,000 native people in Sydney from as many as 29 different clans. Sydney Cove from Port Jackson to Petersham was inhabited by the Cadigal clan, the principal language groups were Darug, Guringai, and Dharawal. The earliest Europeans to visit the area noted that the people were conducting activities such as camping and fishing, using trees for bark and food, collecting shells. Development has destroyed much of the citys history including that of the first inhabitants, there continues to be examples of rock art and engravings located in the protected Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The first meeting between the people and the British occurred on 29 April 1770 when Lieutenant James Cook landed at Botany Bay on the Kurnell Peninsula. He noted in his journal that they were confused and somewhat hostile towards the foreign visitors, Cook was on a mission of exploration and was not commissioned to start a settlement
15.
Newcastle International Sports Centre
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Newcastle International Sports Centre, is a multi-purpose sports stadium located in Newcastle, Australia. The ground is home to the Newcastle Knights and Newcastle Jets FC and it is owned by the New South Wales government and administered by the Hunter Region Sporting Venues Authority. Due to past sponsorship deals, the ground has been known as Marathon Stadium, EnergyAustralia Stadium, Ausgrid Stadium. Newcastle International Sports Centre is also known as Newcastle Stadium when in use during AFC competitions due to conflicting sponsorship reasons, work began on the stadium on 1 December 1967, and was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 10 April 1970. It was originally known as the International Sports Centre, and is part of the ISC complex to this day. The playing surface back then was originally oval shaped to allow both codes of rugby, soccer and cricket to be able to use of it. The Knights secured a lease on the stadium in 1986, during the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour, the Newcastle Knights, in their first season, hosted a match at the ground. On that occasion the Lions, captained by Ellery Hanley, defeated the Knights 28–12, in 1992, local tyre outlet Marathon Tyres became the naming rights sponsor for the stadium, and it was renamed Marathon Stadium. That year the Knights played Great Britain for a time as part of the Lions Tour of Australasia. The Ellery Hanley captained Lions took the Knights apart winning 22–0, later in the 1992 NSWRL season, the Knights qualified for their first ever Finals series. Towards the end of 2001, energy supplier EnergyAustralia took over naming rights, in February 2011 it was announced that the stadium would be renamed to Ausgrid Stadium after EnergyAustralia was renamed Ausgrid. Before redevelopment, the stadium had a capacity of 28,000, the ground attendance record for a sporting event is 32,642, which was set when the Knights took on the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles in July 1995. Despite a lack of incidents, police asked for the allowed capacity to be lowered for reasons of safety. In October 2016, McDonald Jones Homes, a local Newcastle company, was named as the new naming sponsor of the stadium. This new deal left behind a 5 year gap between naming rights sponsors at the ground, the stadium underwent redevelopment during the years 2003–05, funded mostly by local and state government grants. The first stage of the redevelopment was completed in early 2004 and this consisted of, The construction of the lower level of the Eastern Stand. The relocation of corporate boxes and seating to the North and South stands, the second stage of construction began in 2004 and was completed in 2005. During the 2007 NSW Election campaign, the Premier Morris Iemma promised $30 million towards an upgrade of the stadium, on 1 April 2008 the federal government confirmed $10m towards the development of the Western Grandstand
16.
Newcastle, New South Wales
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Located 162 kilometres north-northeast of Sydney, at the mouth of the Hunter River, it is the predominant city within the Hunter Region. Famous for its coal, Newcastle is the largest coal exporting harbour in the world, beyond the city, the Hunter Region possesses large coal deposits. Geologically, the area is located in the part of the Sydney basin. Newcastle and the lower Hunter Region were traditionally occupied by the Awabakal and Worimi Aboriginal People, in September 1797 Lieutenant John Shortland became the first European settler to explore the area. His discovery of the area was largely accidental, as he had sent in search of a number of convicts who had seized HMS Cumberland as she was sailing from Sydney Cove. While returning, Lt. Shortland entered what he described as a very fine river. He returned with reports of the port and the areas abundant coal. Over the next two years, coal mined from the area was the New South Wales colonys first export, Newcastle gained a reputation as a hellhole as it was a place where the most dangerous convicts were sent to dig in the coal mines as harsh punishment for their crimes. By the start of the 19th century the mouth of the Hunter River was being visited by groups of men, including coal diggers, timber-cutters. Philip Gidley King, the Governor of New South Wales from 1800, in 1801, a convict camp called Kings Town was established to mine coal and cut timber. In the same year, the first shipment of coal was dispatched to Sydney and this settlement closed less than a year later. A settlement was attempted in 1804, as a place of secondary punishment for unruly convicts. The settlement was named Coal River, also Kingstown and then renamed Newcastle, the new settlement, comprising convicts and a military guard, arrived at the Hunter River on 27 March 1804 in three ships, HMS Lady Nelson, the Resource and the James. The convicts were rebels from the 1804 Castle Hill convict rebellion, Morpeth, New South Wales is a similar distance north of Newcastle as Morpeth, Northumberland is north of Newcastle upon Tyne. Under Captain James Wallis, commandant from 1815 to 1818, the conditions improved. The quality of these first buildings was poor, and only breakwater survives, during this period, in 1816, the oldest public school in Australia was built in East Newcastle. Newcastle remained a settlement until 1822, when the settlement was opened up to farming. As a penal colony, the rule was harsh, especially at Limeburners Bay
17.
Hampden Park
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Hampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 51, 866-capacity venue serves as the stadium of football in Scotland. It is also used for concerts and other sporting events. There were two 19th century stadia called Hampden Park, built on different sites, a stadium on the present site was first opened on 31 October 1903. Hampden was the biggest stadium in the world when it was opened and this was increased further between 1927 and 1937, reaching a peak of 150,000. The record attendance of 149,415, for a Scotland v England match in 1937, is the European record for a football match. Tighter safety regulations meant that the capacity was reduced to 81,000 in 1977, the stadium has been fully renovated since then, with the most recent work being completed in 1999. The stadium houses the offices of the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Professional Football League, Hampden has hosted prestigious sporting events, including three Champions League finals, two Cup Winners Cup finals and a UEFA Cup final. Hampden is a UEFA category four stadium and it is served by the nearby Mount Florida, Queens Park, the oldest club in Scottish football, have played at a venue called Hampden Park since October 1873. The first Hampden Park was overlooked by a terrace named after Englishman John Hampden. Queens Park played at the first Hampden Park for 10 years beginning with a Scottish Cup tie on 25 October 1873, the ground hosted the first Scottish Cup Final, in 1874, and a Scotland v England match in 1878. The club moved to the second Hampden Park,150 yards from the original, a lawn bowling club at the junction of Queens Drive and Cathcart Road marks the site of the first Hampden. The second Hampden Park opened in October 1884 and it became a regular home to the Scottish Cup Final, but Celtic Park shared some of the big matches including the Scotland v England fixture in 1894. In the late 1890s, Queens Park requested more land for development of the second Hampden Park and this was refused by the landlords, which led to the club seeking a new site. Henry Erskine Gordon agreed to sell 12 acres of land off Somerville Drive to Queens Park in November 1899, james Miller designed twin grandstands along the south side of the ground with a pavilion wedged in between. The natural slopes were shaped to form banks of terracing, designed by Archibald Leitch, construction of the new ground took over three years to complete, during construction, a disaster occurred at Ibrox in which part of the wooden terraces collapsed. In response, the terraces at Hampden were firmly set in the earthwork, Third Lanark A. C. took over the second Hampden Park in 1903 and renamed it Cathkin Park. The club rebuilt the ground from scratch due to a failure to agree a fee for the whole stadium, Third Lanark went out of business in 1967 and Cathkin Park is now a public park with much of the original terracing still evident
18.
Glasgow
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Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland, and third largest in the United Kingdom. Historically part of Lanarkshire, it is now one of the 32 council areas of Scotland and it is situated on the River Clyde in the countrys West Central Lowlands. Inhabitants of the city are referred to as Glaswegians, Glasgow grew from a small rural settlement on the River Clyde to become the largest seaport in Britain. From the 18th century the city grew as one of Great Britains main hubs of transatlantic trade with North America. Glasgow was the Second City of the British Empire for much of the Victorian era and Edwardian period, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries Glasgow grew in population, reaching a peak of 1,128,473 in 1939. The entire region surrounding the conurbation covers about 2.3 million people, at the 2011 census, Glasgow had a population density of 8, 790/sq mi, the highest of any Scottish city. Glasgow hosted the 2014 Commonwealth Games and is well known in the sporting world for the football rivalry of the Old Firm between Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow is also known for Glasgow patter, a dialect that is noted for being difficult to understand by those from outside the city. Glasgow is the form of the ancient Cumbric name Glas Cau. Possibly referring to the area of Molendinar Burn where Glasgow Cathedral now stands, the later Gaelic name Baile Glas Chu, town of the grey dog, is purely a folk-etymology. The present site of Glasgow has been settled since prehistoric times, it is for settlement, being the furthest downstream fording point of the River Clyde, the origins of Glasgow as an established city derive ultimately from its medieval position as Scotlands second largest bishopric. Glasgow increased in importance during the 10th and 11th centuries as the site of this bishopric, reorganised by King David I of Scotland and John, there had been an earlier religious site established by Saint Mungo in the 6th century. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth, sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives as the Glasgow Fair. Glasgow grew over the following centuries, the first bridge over the River Clyde at Glasgow was recorded from around 1285, giving its name to the Briggait area of the city, forming the main North-South route over the river via Glasgow Cross. The founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451 and elevation of the bishopric to become the Archdiocese of Glasgow in 1492 increased the towns religious and educational status and landed wealth. Its early trade was in agriculture, brewing and fishing, with cured salmon and herring being exported to Europe, Glasgow was subsequently raised to the status of Royal Burgh in 1611. The citys Tobacco Lords created a water port at Port Glasgow on the Firth of Clyde. By the late 18th century more than half of the British tobacco trade was concentrated on Glasgows River Clyde, at the time, Glasgow held a commercial importance as the city participated in the trade of sugar, tobacco and later cotton
19.
Stadium Australia
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Stadium Australia, commercially known as ANZ Stadium and formerly as Telstra Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park, in Sydney, Australia. Every year since the stadium was built, the New South Wales rugby league teams games in the State of Origin series have been played there. Also the stadium has hosted the annual National Rugby League grand final. The stadium also hosted the 2015 AFC Asian Cup final, in 2003 reconfiguration work was completed to shorten the north and south wings, and install movable seating. These changes reduced the capacity to 83,500 for a field and 82,500 for an oval field. Awnings were also added over the north and south stands, which allows most of the seating to be undercover, the stadium was also engineered along sustainable lines for example with the low use of steel in the roof structure in comparison to the Olympic stadiums of Athens and Beijing. The stadium lacked a naming sponsor in its formative years. In 2002, telecommunications company Telstra acquired the rights, resulting in the stadium being known as Telstra Stadium. This change took effect on 1 January 2008, in 2014, ANZ renewed the deal through to the end of 2017. In 1993, Stadium Australia was designed to host the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the attendance broke the old record of 102,569 set at the Odsal Stadium in Bradford, England for the Challenge Cup Final replay between Warrington and Halifax held on 5 May 1954. The first musical act held at the newly built stadium was the Bee Gees, consisting of Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb, on March 27,1999. The band had embarked on what would be their world tour as a group before the death of Maurice. The show was out with an attendance of 66,285. The stadium was not officially opened until June 1999 when the Australian National Soccer team played the FIFA All Stars, Australia won the match 3–2 in front of a crowd of 88,101. The event attracted a capacity crowd of 82,698. The 1999 Bledisloe Cup rugby union match between the Australian Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks attracted a record rugby union crowd of 107,042. In 2000 this was bettered when an almost capacity crowd of 109,874 witnessed the Greatest ever Rugby Match when a Jonah Lomu try sealed an All Blacks win over the Wallabies 39–35. The All Blacks had led 24-nil after 11 minutes only to see Australia draw level at 24-all by halftime, an exhibition soccer match between the Socceroos and Premier League team Manchester United was played on 18 July 1999
20.
Docklands Stadium
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Docklands Stadium is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 under the name, Victoria Stadium. Also headquartered in the precinct is Seven Networks digital broadcast centre. The stadium was announced on 31 October 1996 as a replacement for the much larger Waverley Park as a headquarters for the Australian Football League. Under the terms of the agreement governing construction and operation of the venue, Docklands Stadium, like Waverley Park, was built primarily for Australian rules football, unlike most grounds of a similar size in Australia which were originally designed for cricket. The first match to be played at the ground was between Essendon and Port Adelaide, before a crowd of 43,012, in Round 1 of the 2000 AFL season, Essendon won the match by 94 points. The stadium was the first stadium in Australia to have movable seating, all four level-one tiers of the stadium can be moved up to 18 metres forward into a rectangular configuration. It was first used for a Melbourne Storm game in July 2001, despite the seating being a key feature of the stadium, it has rarely been used, citing damage to turf, time to deploy the seats and a reduced capacity. Docklands Stadium first featured rugby league football when it was used as the Melbourne Storms home ground for one season in 2001, the Storm continued to play home games at the ground sporadically in the following years. Docklands was also the venue for the third and deciding game of the 2006 State of Origin series, in 2015, LED electronic advertising was added around the perimeter of the ground on level 1 and 2. It was the first time Australia had hosted a round of the SGP event since the round of the 2002 season in Sydney. With stadium capacity capped at 42,000 for the event,26,609 fans saw 45 year old American rider Greg Hancock take out his 20th SGP Final, danish rider Niels-Kristian Iversen finished second with Polands Maciej Janowski finishing third. Reigning Australian Champion Jason Doyle qualified for the final but was outed in a crash in the first turn in which he suffered neck, a fully conscious Doyle was then transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for observation. The plan was rejected by the AFL, prior to the start of the 2016 AFL season the seats in the Medallion Club were replaced. The old seats in the Medallion Club section were relocated to areas in the ground. On 7 October 2016, the AFL Commission announced that the league had acquired ownership of the stadium. On 16 August 2000, the first indoor One Day International was held when the Australian cricket team played South Africa in the Super Challenge, the following table summarises the ODI centuries scored at Docklands. Events that have held at the Docklands Stadium include concerts by many famous artists
21.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
22.
Lang Park
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While now a multi-purpose stadium, it is better known locally as a rugby league venue. The current facility comprises a three tiered rectangular sporting stadium with a capacity of 52,500 people, the top tier is closed for events less than 30,000 enhancing the intimacy. Its playing field is 136 metres x 82 metres, Lang Park was established in 1914, on the site of the former North Brisbane Cemetery, and in its early days was home to a number of different sports, including cycling, athletics and soccer. The lease of the park was taken over by rugby league and it hosted the 2008 Rugby League World Cup Final. The site of Lang Park was originally the North Brisbane Cemetery, by 1911 the area was heavily populated, so the Paddington Cemeteries Act was introduced and the site was redeveloped as a recreational site. In 1914 it was fenced off and named Lang Park after John Dunmore Lang, the ground was leased by the Queensland Amateur Athletics Association in the 1920s. In 1935, the Queensland Soccer Council became a sub-tenant of the QAAA, the Latrobe Soccer Club, in turn, became a sub-tenant of the QSC, using the ground for its home games. However, by 1937, the QSC was considering sub-leasing Lang Park to another code of football as it was not satisfied with the financial returns, under the sub-lease to the Latrobe-Milton club. Latrobe in turn responded that If no action Is taken to introduce the Ipswich clubs into the Brisbane competition this season, the Latrobe-Milton Club cannot accept an increase in rental for Lang Park. Give us competition play with Ipswich and my club will hold the ground as headquarters for the code, on 11 February 1950, the official opening of the Lang Park Police Citizens Youth Club took place and youth activities commenced because of the concerns with the increase of juvenile delinquency. Activities such as boxing, wrestling, basketball and gymnastics all occur at these premises to this day, contemporaneous records are scant, but it appears the QSC did not renew the lease the ground after the intervening World War II. In 1953 the Brisbane Rugby League amalgamated with the Queensland Rugby League, QRL secretary Ron McAullife negotiated a 21-year lease of Lang Park from the Brisbane City Council in order to give the QRL a financially viable base of operations. The park had only the most basic facilities, and the QRL contributed £17,000 to its development, Lang Park hosted its first game of first grade rugby league during the 1930s, with regular BRL games commencing there in 1955. In 1958 it hosted its first Brisbane rugby league final in which Brothers defeated Valleys 22 points to 7. A record crowd of 19,824 saw Northern Suburbs defeat Fortitude Valley at Lang Park in the BRL grand final in September 1961, as the ground was used increasingly by the QRL, it became no longer viable for use as a public recreation facility. In 1962 the Lang Park Trust was created under an act of Parliament and this allowed for the construction of the Frank Burke Stand, Ron McAuliffe Stand and the Western Grandstand. From the 1960s Lang Park hosted interstate and international rugby league, up until 1972, it was the home ground of the Western Suburbs Panthers and from 1988 to 1992 it was also the home ground of the Brisbane Broncos. In 1994, the name was changed to Suncorp Stadium
23.
Brisbane
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Brisbane is the capital of and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland, and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbanes metropolitan area has a population of 2.35 million, the Brisbane central business district stands on the original European settlement and is situated inside a bend of the Brisbane River, about 15 kilometres from its mouth at Moreton Bay. The demonym of Brisbane is Brisbanite, one of the oldest cities in Australia, Brisbane was founded upon the ancient homelands of the indigenous Turrbal and Jagera peoples. A penal settlement was founded in 1824 at Redcliffe,28 kilometres north of the business district. The city was marred by the Australian frontier wars between 1843 and 1855, and development was set back by the Great Fire of Brisbane. Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a colony from New South Wales in 1859. During World War II, Brisbane played a role in the Allied campaign. Today, Brisbane is well known for its distinct Queenslander architecture which forms much of the built heritage. It also receives attention for its damaging flood events, most notably in 1974 and 2011. Several large cultural, international and sporting events have held at Brisbane, including the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo 88, the final Goodwill Games in 2001. Prior to white settlement, the Brisbane area was inhabited by the Turrbal and they knew the area that is now the central business district as Mian-jin, meaning place shaped as a spike. The Moreton Bay area was explored by Matthew Flinders. On 17 July 1799, Flinders landed at what is now known as Woody Point, in 1823 Governor of New South Wales Sir Thomas Brisbane instructed that a new northern penal settlement be developed, and an exploration party led by John Oxley further explored Moreton Bay. Oxley discovered, named, and explored the Brisbane River as far as Goodna,20 kilometres upstream from the Brisbane central business district, Oxley recommended Red Cliff Point for the new colony, reporting that ships could land at any tide and easily get close to the shore. The party settled in Redcliffe on 13 September 1824, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Miller with 14 soldiers and 29 convicts. However, this settlement was abandoned after a year and the colony was moved to a site on the Brisbane River now known as North Quay,28 km south, chief Justice Forbes gave the new settlement the name of Edenglassie before it was named Brisbane. Non-convict European settlement of the Brisbane region commenced in 1838, German missionaries settled at Zions Hill, Nundah as early as 1837, five years before Brisbane was officially declared a free settlement. The band consisted of ministers Christopher Eipper and Carl Wilhelm Schmidt and lay missionaries Haussmann, Johann Gottried Wagner, Niquet, Hartenstein, Zillman, Franz, Rode, Doege and they were allocated 260 hectares and set about establishing the mission, which became known as the German Station
24.
Six Nations Championship
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The Six Nations Championship is an annual international rugby union competition involving six European sides, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions are England, having won the 2017 tournament, the Six Nations is the successor to the Home Nations Championship, played between teams from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which was the first international rugby union tournament. With the addition of France, this became the Five Nations Championship, the winners of the Six Nations Championship are sometimes unofficially referred to in the media as the European Champions or Northern Hemisphere Champions. Since the Six Nations era started in 2000, only Italy and Scotland have failed to win the Six Nations title, although Scotland were the last outright winners of the Five Nations. Played annually, the format of the Championship is simple, each team every other team once. Prior to the 2017 tournament, two points were awarded for a win, one for a draw and none for a loss, unlike many other rugby union competitions the bonus point system has not previously been used. On 30 November 2016, the 6 Nations Committee announced that the point system will be trialled for the 2017 Championship. The system will be similar to the one used in most rugby championships, a review on how well the system worked will take place following the tournament. If a team wins all its games, they are said to have won a Grand Slam, victory by any Home Nation over the other three Home Nations is a Triple Crown. Although this achievement has long been a feature of the tournament, also, the team that finishes at the bottom of the league table is said to have won the Wooden Spoon, although no actual trophy is given to the team. A team which has lost all five matches is said to have been whitewashed, since the inaugural Six Nations tournament in 2000, only England and Ireland have avoided the Wooden Spoon award. Italy are the holders of the most Wooden Spoon awards in the Six Nations era with eleven, however, each of the other five nations has accumulated more than that through competing in previous eras. Several individual competitions take place under the umbrella of the tournament, the oldest such regular competition is for the Calcutta Cup, contested annually between England and Scotland since 1879. It is named the Calcutta Cup as it is made from melted-down Indian Rupees donated by the Calcutta Club, prior to 1994, teams equal on match points shared the championship. Since then, ties have been broken by considering the difference of the teams. The rules of the championship further provide that if teams tie on both points and points difference, the team which scored the most tries wins the championship. Were this decider to be a tie, the teams would share the championship. To date, however, match points and points difference have been sufficient to decide the championship, the winners of the Six Nations are presented with the Championship Trophy
25.
France national rugby union team
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The France national rugby union team represents France in rugby union. They compete annually against England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and they have won the championship outright sixteen times, shared it a further eight times, and have completed nine grand slams. Eight former French players have been inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, Rugby was introduced to France in 1872 by the British, and on New Years Day 1906 the national side played its first Test match – against New Zealand in Paris. France played sporadically against the Home Nations until they joined them to form a Five Nations tournament in 1910, France also competed in the rugby competitions at early Summer Olympics, winning the gold medal in 1900 and two silver medals in the 1920s. The national team came of age during the 1950s and 1960s and they won their first Grand Slam in 1968. Since the inaugural World Cup in 1987, France have qualified for the stage of every tournament. They have reached the three times, losing to the All Blacks in 1987 and 2011 and to Australia in 1999. France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup, where, as in 2003, France traditionally play in blue shirts with white shorts and red socks, and are commonly referred to as les tricolores or les bleus. The French emblem is a golden rooster imposed upon a red shield and their alternative strip is composed of a white shirt and navy blue shorts and socks. Rugby was introduced to France in 1872 by English merchants and students, on 26 February 1890, a French rugby team recruited from the Janson Desailly Lyceum defeated an international team at the Bois de Boulogne. Although France were represented at the 1900 Summer Olympics, their first official test match did not take place till New Years Day,1906 against the New Zealand All Blacks in Paris. France then played intermittently against the Home Nations until they joined them to form the Five Nations tournament in 1910, in 1913 France faced South Africas Springboks for the first time, losing 38–5. France also competed at the 1920 and 1924 Summer Olympics, France were ejected from the Five Nations in 1932 after being accused of professionalism in the French leagues at a time when rugby union was strictly amateur. Forced to play against weaker opposition, France went on a winning streak, France was invited to rejoin the Five Nations in 1939 but did not compete until 1947 as international rugby was suspended during World War II. French rugby came of age during the 1950s and 1960s, they won their first Five Nations championship and their first championship was won in 1954 when they shared the title with England and Wales. France won their first outright Five Nations championship in 1959, they won with two wins, a draw and a defeat, France first toured South Africa winning the test series in 1958. The Springboks also visited Paris in 1961, the test was not completed due to fighting amongst the players. France also toured New Zealand and Australia in 1961 losing both tests against the All Blacks but defeating Australias Wallabies and they won their first Five Nations Grand Slam in 1968 by beating all four other competing teams, and won numerous titles in the following years
Australia
Scotland
