Half Man Half Biscuit
Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical and sometimes surreal songs, the band comprises lead singer and guitarist Nigel Blackwell and singer Neil Crossley, drummer Carl Henry, guitarist Karl Benson. Half Man Half Biscuit were formed by two friends from Birkenhead, Neil Crossley and singer and songwriter Nigel Blackwell, at the time "still robbing cars and playing football like normal people do". In 1979, Blackwell was editing a football fanzine. In 1984, when Half Man Half Biscuit were formed, Crossley moved to bass and the two were joined by Nigel's brother Simon Blackwell and his friend Paul Wright, both with a group called Attempted Moustache; the quartet started to rehearse in the Liverpool-based Vulcan Studios, where they soon turned a five-piece, with David Lloyd now on keyboards. Their debut album, 1985's Back in the DHSS, topped the UK Indie Chart and reached number 60 in the UK Album Chart, its title was a play on The Beatles' "Back in the U.
S. S. R." and a reference to the DHSS, the government department that dealt with the unemployed, Nigel Blackwell having been on unemployment benefits since 1979. The band's first single, "The Trumpton Riots", topped the British independent chart in 1986, they went on to perform at Glastonbury Festival, they were similar to Josef K or The Fall. The second single, "Dickie Davies Eyes" topped the indie chart. In late 1986, the band split up, giving as reason "musical similarities"; the album Back Again in the DHSS, containing issued and live tracks, followed. The band reformed in 1990, with a performance at the Reading Festival following, a new single, "Let's Not" issued before the year was out, followed in 1991 by a collaboration with Margi Clarke on a version of Edith Piaf's "No Regrets"; the third album was McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt, released in October 1991. By the time This Leaden Pall was released in 1993, Wright and Lloyd had left the band, with Carl Alty joining on drums. Simon Blackwell left the following year, with Ian S Jackson joining.
Jackson and Alty departed in 1996, to be replaced by Carl Henry. Since reforming, the band have produced an album every three years. Half Man Half Biscuit were championed by DJ John Peel, for whom they recorded twelve sessions, it was on his programme in 1990 that the band announced their return; the band played live more infrequently. Half Man Half Biscuit turned down the chance to appear on The Tube, as Tranmere Rovers were playing that night though Channel Four offered to fly them by helicopter to the game. Blackwell has been a fan of the team since "sometime after the Coventry City cup win in 1968"; the band's styles parody popular genres, while their lyrics allude to UK popular culture and geography. Blackwell refers to Wirral and to North Wales in the context of hillwalking in Snowdonia. British or international football, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Hardy, the Bible are referenced in his lyrics; as the 1990s progressed, Blackwell's love of blues and folk became more apparent. Bassist Crossley's tastes include late 1970s and early 1980s new wave or post-punk bands, during live sets HMHB have performed covers of acts as diverse as Joy Division, Tim Buckley, The Beach Boys, Tommy James and the Shondells and Ike and Tina Turner.
In 2001, Blackwell provided the voiceover for a BP television advert. In April 2010, the band's song "Joy Division Oven Gloves" from their 2005 album Achtung Bono was the subject of a Facebook campaign to get it to No. 6 on the chart for 12 April 2010, in response to the rumoured closure of the indie-supporting radio station BBC 6 Music. The song reached No. 56 on 11 April 2010: this was their first UK Singles Chart appearance. It reached No. 3 in the Official Independent Singles chart the same week, was No. 1 in the HMV UK Digital Downloads Top 40 Tracks on 16 April, knocking Ultravox's song "Vienna" off the top spot – itself part of a separate Facebook campaign the previous week. Victoria Loop has played live several times with the band on tenor horn and bass guitar, she is affectionately known as'The 5th Biscuit'. Ken Hancock played his last gig with the band in summer 2017, was replaced at the end of the year by Karl Benson. Andy Kershaw has described Half Man Half Biscuit as "England's greatest folk band" and "the most authentic British folk band since The Clash".
James Dodd on Bido Lito! praised Blackwell's "uncanny way of chronicling two of his greatest passions in life: television and small-town England". Eliza Carthy praised the band for their "pathos disguised with wit and sarcasm", describing Blackwell as a "genius". Journalist Ben Myers has described Blackwell's lyrics as "the antithesis of most rock songs, iconoclastic in their total avoidance of cliche". Geoff Davies of Probe Plus recalled that after hearing a test pressing of Back in the D. H. S. S, John Peel said "Geoff, what's this, I've just played the first side of this, what is it, tell me, it's just fantastic and all". Other famous Peel quotes about the band include "I've said it before, a national treasure, there's no question about it; when I die, I want them to be buried with me." And "In a decently ordered society, members of Half Man Half Biscuit would be carried shoulder high through the streets of every city they visited". According to music writer Paul Du Noyer: "The genius of Half Man Half Biscuit is that th
1928 Summer Olympics
The 1928 Summer Olympics known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event, celebrated from 28 July to 12 August 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The city of Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but was obliged to give way to war-torn Antwerp in Belgium for the 1920 Games and Pierre de Coubertin's Paris for the 1924 Games; the only other candidate city for the 1928 Olympics was Los Angeles, which would be selected to host the Olympics four years later. In preparation for the 1932 Summer Olympics, the United States Olympic Committee reviewed the costs and revenue of the 1928 Games; the committee reported a total cost of US$1.183 million with receipts of US$1.165 million, giving a negligible loss of US$18,000, a considerable improvement over the 1924 Games. Dutch nobleman, Frederik van Tuyll van Serooskerken, first proposed Amsterdam as host city for the Summer Olympic Games in 1912 before the Netherlands Olympic Committee was established; the Olympic Games were cancelled in 1916 due to World War I.
In 1919, the Netherlands Olympic Committee abandoned the proposal of Amsterdam in favor of their support for the nomination of Antwerp as host city for the 1920 Summer Olympics. In 1921, Paris was selected for the 1924 Summer Olympics on the condition that the 1928 Summer Olympics would be organized in Amsterdam; this decision, supported by the Netherlands Olympic Committee, was announced by the International Olympic Committee on 2 June 1921. The IOC's decision was disputed by the Americans, but their request to allocate the 1928 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles was without success in 1922 and again in 1923. Los Angeles was selected as host city for the 1932 Summer Olympics; these were the first Olympics to be organized under the IOC presidency of Henri de Baillet-Latour. The Olympic Flame was lit for the first time for the duration of the Olympics, a tradition that continues to this day; the torch relay, would not take place until the 1936 Summer Olympics. For the first time, the parade of nations started with Greece, which holds the origins of the Olympics, ended with the host country, a tradition which has continued since.
The Games were opened by Prince Hendrik, consort of Queen Wilhelmina, who had authorized her husband to deputise for her. The Queen was unable to attend the opening ceremony as she was on holiday in Norway and did not want to disrupt her trip; this was the second time a head of state had not officiated at an Olympic opening ceremony. The Queen had refused to make an appearance at either the opening or closing ceremony. However, she returned from Norway before the conclusion of the Games, to be present at the closing ceremony, she presented the first prizes at the prize distribution, held beforehand. Athletics events were held on a 400-meter track becoming the standard for athletics tracks; these Games were the first to feature a fixed schedule of sixteen days, still followed. In previous Olympics, competition had been stretched out over several months. Johnny Weissmuller, who appeared in several Tarzan movies, won two gold medals in swimming: an individual gold in the men's 100 m freestyle, a team gold in the men's 4 x 200 m freestyle relay.
Paavo Nurmi of Finland won his ninth, final, gold medal in the 10,000 m race. Canadian athlete Percy Williams exceeded expectations by winning both the 100 m and 200 m sprint events. South American football made a definite breakthrough, as Uruguay retained its title by defeating Argentina. India took its first gold medal in field hockey, beginning a streak of six consecutive gold medals in the sport. Mikio Oda of Japan won the triple jump event with a result of 15.21 meters, becoming the first gold medalist from an Asian country. Algerian-born marathon runner Boughera El Ouafi won a gold medal for France in the men's marathon. Among the participants was Crown Prince Olav, who would become King of Norway. Pat O'Callaghan won the first medal for a newly independent Ireland, taking gold in the hammer throw; the sponsor Coca-Cola made its first appearance at the Olympic Games. These Games were the first to bear the name "Summer Olympic Games", to distinguish them from the Winter Olympic Games. Germany returned to the Olympic Games for the first time since 1912, after being banned from the 1920 and 1924 Games.
The German team finished second in the 1928 medal count. Many cars were expected for the Games, but Amsterdam had no more than 2,000 single car parking spaces. A number of new parking sites were provided and a special parking symbol was launched to show foreign visitors where they could park; the white P on a blue background was to become the international traffic sign for parking, still used today. During the 1928 Summer Olympics, there were 14 sports, 20 disciplines and 109 events in the tournament. In parentheses is the number of events per discipline. Women's athletics and team gymnastics debuted in spite of criticism. Halina Konopacka of Poland became the first female Olympic field champion. Reports that the 800 meter run ended with several of the competitors being exhausted were circulated; as a result, the IOC decided that women were too frail for long distance running, women's Olympic running events were limited to 200 meters
Sweden
Sweden the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre; the highest concentration is in the southern half of the country. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats and Swedes and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is forested. Sweden is part of the geographical area of Fennoscandia; the climate is in general mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence, that in spite of this still retains warm continental summers.
Today, the sovereign state of Sweden is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state, like its neighbour Norway. The capital city is Stockholm, the most populous city in the country. Legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister. Sweden is a unitary state divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the Hanseatic League threatened Scandinavia's culture and languages; this led to the forming of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years War on the Reformist side, an expansion of its territories began and the Swedish Empire was formed; this became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, ending with the annexation of present-day Finland by Russia in 1809.
The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since Sweden has been at peace, maintaining an official policy of neutrality in foreign affairs; the union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905. Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars and the Cold War, albeit Sweden has since 2009 moved towards cooperation with NATO. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995, but declined NATO membership, as well as Eurozone membership following a referendum, it is a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens, it has the world's eleventh-highest per capita income and ranks in numerous metrics of national performance, including quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, equality and human development.
The name Sweden was loaned from Dutch in the 17th century to refer to Sweden as an emerging great power. Before Sweden's imperial expansion, Early Modern English used Swedeland. Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod, which meant "people of the Swedes"; this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige means "realm of the Swedes", excluding the Geats in Götaland. Variations of the name Sweden are used in most languages, with the exception of Danish and Norwegian using Sverige, Faroese Svøríki, Icelandic Svíþjóð, the more notable exception of some Finnic languages where Ruotsi and Rootsi are used, names considered as referring to the people from the coastal areas of Roslagen, who were known as the Rus', through them etymologically related to the English name for Russia; the etymology of Swedes, thus Sweden, is not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning "one's own", referring to one's own Germanic tribe. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania.
This period was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers using flint technology. Sweden is first described in a written source in Germania by Tacitus in 98 AD. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end. Which kings ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC; as for literacy in Sweden itself, the runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the 2nd century AD, but all that has come down to the present from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions on artefacts of male names, demonstrating th
Taiwan
Taiwan the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbouring states include the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the northeast, the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy, not a member of the United Nations; the island of Taiwan was inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the 17th century, when Dutch colonialists opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China, ceded to Japan in 1895. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, the Republic of China, which had overthrown and succeeded the Qing in 1911, took control of Taiwan; the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the loss of the mainland to the Communists and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. Although the ROC government continued to claim to be the legitimate representative of China, since 1950 its effective jurisdiction has been limited to Taiwan and several small islands.
In the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of industrialisation. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship to a multi-party democracy with a semi-presidential system; as a founding member, the ROC represented China in the UN until it was replaced by the PRC in 1971. The PRC has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognises the ROC; as of 2019, Taiwan maintains official ties with 16 out of 193 UN member states. Most international organisations in which the PRC participates either refuse to grant membership to Taiwan or allow it to participate only as a non-state actor. Most major powers maintain unofficial ties with Taiwan through representative offices and institutions that function as de facto embassies and consulates. In Taiwan, the major political division is between parties favouring eventual Chinese unification and promoting a Chinese identity contrasted with those aspiring to independence and promoting a Taiwanese identity, though both sides have moderated their positions to broaden their appeal.
Taiwan is a high-income advanced economy, with a skilled and educated workforce. It has the 22nd-largest economy in the world, its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy, it is urbanised, is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, with most of the population concentrated on the western coast. The state is ranked in terms of civil and political liberties, health care and human development. Various names for the island of Taiwan remain in use today, each derived from explorers or rulers during a particular historical period; the name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted an uncharted island and noted it on their maps as Ilha Formosa. The name Formosa "replaced all others in European literature" and remained in common use among English speakers into the 20th century. In the early 17th century, the Dutch East India Company established a commercial post at Fort Zeelandia on a coastal sandbar called "Tayouan", after their ethnonym for a nearby Taiwanese aboriginal tribe Taivoan people, written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as Taiouwang, Teijoan, etc.
This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar and nearby area. The modern word "Taiwan" is derived from this usage, seen in various forms in Chinese historical records; the area occupied by modern-day Tainan represented the first permanent settlement by both European colonists and Chinese immigrants. The settlement grew to be the island's most important trading centre and served as its capital until 1887. Use of the current Chinese name became official as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture. Through its rapid development the entire Formosan mainland became known as "Taiwan". In his Daoyi Zhilüe, Wang Dayuan used "Liuqiu" as a name for the island of Taiwan, or the part of it closest to Penghu. Elsewhere, the name was used for the Ryukyu Islands in general or Okinawa, the largest of them; the name appears in the Book of Sui and other early works, but scholars cannot agree on whether these references are to the Ryukyus, Taiwan or Luzon. The official name of the state is the "Republic of China".
Shortly after the ROC's establishment in 1912, while it was still located on the Chinese mainland, the government used the short form "China" to refer to itself, which derives from zhōng and guó, a term which developed under the Zhou dynasty in reference to its royal demesne, the name was applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and to China's Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state during the Qing era. During the 1950s and 1960s, after the government had withdrawn to Taiwan upon losing the Chinese Civil War, it was referred to as "Nationalist China" to differentiate it from "Communist China", it was a member of the United Nations representing "China" until 1971, when it lost its seat to the People's Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as "Taiwan", after the island that comprises 99% of the territory under its control. In some contexts ROC government publications, the name is written as "
Leeuwarden
Leeuwarden, Stadsfries: Liwwadden) is a city and municipality in Friesland in the Netherlands. It is the provincial seat of the States of Friesland; the municipality has a population of 122,293. The region has been continuously inhabited since the 10th century, it came to be known as Leeuwarden in the early 9th century AD and was granted city privileges in 1435. It is the main economic hub of Friesland, situated in a water-rich environment. Leeuwarden is a former royal residence and has a historic city center, many relevant buildings, a large shopping center with squares and restaurants. Leeuwarden was awarded the title European Capital of Culture for 2018; the Elfstedentocht, an ice skating tour passing the eleven cities of Friesland and finished in Leeuwarden. The following towns and villages within the municipality have populations in excess of 1,000 people: Leeuwarden, Grou, Wergea, Jirnsum and Wirdum; the municipality is governed by the mayor Ferd Crone and a coalition of the Labour Party, Christian Democratic Appeal, GreenLeft.
The name "Leeuwarden" first came into use for Nijehove, the most important of the three villages which in the early 9th century merged into Leeuwarden. There is much uncertainty about the origin of the city's name. Historian and archivist Wopke Eekhoff summed up a total of over 200 different spelling variants, of which Leeuwarden and Ljouwert are still in use; the second part of the name is explained: Warden, West Frisian/Dutch/Low German for an artificial dwelling-hill, is a designation of terps, reflecting the historical situation. The first part of the name, means lion in modern standard Dutch; this interpretation corresponds with the coat of arms adopted by the city, which features a heraldic lion. However, modern standard Dutch was not used in this region in the Middle Ages, when the city was called Lintarwrde; some scholars argue that the name of the city is derived from leeu-, a corruption of luw- or from lee-. Sheltered landing place or harbour could be the original meaning; this suits the watery province of Friesland and the position of the original three villages at the end of an important estuary called Middelzee.
The name is similar to that of the French commune Lewarde, located in the Nord Department, an Flemish-speaking area annexed to France in the 17th century. Western Flemish was related to Frisian and to Saxon up to the 11th century; the oldest remains of houses date back to the 2nd century AD in the Roman era and were discovered during an excavation near the Oldehove. Inhabited continuously since the 10th century, the city's first reference as a population center is in German sources from 1285, records exist of city privileges granted in 1435. Situated along the Middelzee, it was an active center of maritime trade; the waterway silted-up in the 13th century. The Grote of Jacobijnerkerk is the oldest building in the city; the 15th century was the period of the two opposing Frisian factional parties Vetkopers and Schieringers. The bastions and a moat were built in the period 1481-1494. In 1747 William IV, Prince of Orange was the last stadtholder residing in the Stadhouderlijk Hof. In the first half of the 19th century the fortifications were demolished.
The Jewish community of Leeuwarden was one of the earliest in Holland aside from Amsterdam, was first mentioned in 1645. By 1670, the city council granted a man referred to as "Jacob the Jew" permission to build a Jewish cemetery, meaning that there were enough Jews living there to require a cemetery and other communal institutions. Land for ` The Jodenkerkhof' was purchased near the Oldehoof tower; the first synagogue in the city was built in the 17th century as well, was used by the city's Catholics who were not allowed to build a house of worship of their own because of the Protestant city authorities. The Jewish community enjoyed good relations with authorities in the 18th century and continued to expand throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, reaching a peak population of 1,236 in 1860. In 1901 the city's population was 32,203. After occupation by German forces, the Royal Canadian Dragoons disobeyed direct orders on 15 April 1945 and charged into the defended city, driving out German forces by the end of the next day.
The anniversary of the liberation is celebrated by the Dragoons and the city, who fly each other's flags on the day. Kneppelfreed was an incident on 16 November 1951 in front of the courthouse at Wilhelminaplein, when the police used batons against Frisian language activists during a protest against the exclusive use of Dutch in the courts. A committee of inquiry recommended that the Frisian language should receive legal status as a minority language. On 19 October 2013, a fire broke out in a clothes shop on a busy pedestrian street; the fire started late in the afternoon and burned through the night, destroying five shops and eleven flats. The only casualty was a 24-year-old man, living in one of the flats; the birthplace of Mata Hari was at first thought to be destroyed, but survived, albeit with considerable smoke and water damage. The coat of arms of Leeuwarden is the official symbol of the municipality, it consists of a blue escutcheon, a golden lion, a crown. The fact that Leeuwarden carries a lion in its seal seems logical, considering that "Leeuw
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a country located in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; the official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian. The six largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Tilburg. Amsterdam is the country's capital, while The Hague holds the seat of the States General and Supreme Court; the Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, the largest in any country outside Asia. The country is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union.
It hosts several intergovernmental organisations and international courts, many of which are centered in The Hague, dubbed'the world's legal capital'. Netherlands means'lower countries' in reference to its low elevation and flat topography, with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 metre above sea level, nearly 17% falling below sea level. Most of the areas below sea level, known as polders, are the result of land reclamation that began in the 16th century. With a population of 17.30 million people, all living within a total area of 41,500 square kilometres —of which the land area is 33,700 square kilometres —the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is the world's second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products, owing to its fertile soil, mild climate, intensive agriculture; the Netherlands was the third country in the world to have representative government, it has been a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a unitary structure since 1848.
The country has a tradition of pillarisation and a long record of social tolerance, having legalised abortion and human euthanasia, along with maintaining a progressive drug policy. The Netherlands abolished the death penalty in 1870, allowed women's suffrage in 1917, became the world's first country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2001, its mixed-market advanced economy had the thirteenth-highest per capita income globally. The Netherlands ranks among the highest in international indexes of press freedom, economic freedom, human development, quality of life, as well as happiness; the Netherlands' turbulent history and shifts of power resulted in exceptionally many and varying names in different languages. There is diversity within languages; this holds for English, where Dutch is the adjective form and the misnomer Holland a synonym for the country "Netherlands". Dutch comes from Theodiscus and in the past centuries, the hub of Dutch culture is found in its most populous region, home to the capital city of Amsterdam.
Referring to the Netherlands as Holland in the English language is similar to calling the United Kingdom "Britain" by people outside the UK. The term is so pervasive among potential investors and tourists, that the Dutch government's international websites for tourism and trade are "holland.com" and "hollandtradeandinvest.com". The region of Holland consists of North and South Holland, two of the nation's twelve provinces a single province, earlier still, the County of Holland, a remnant of the dissolved Frisian Kingdom. Following the decline of the Duchy of Brabant and the County of Flanders, Holland became the most economically and politically important county in the Low Countries region; the emphasis on Holland during the formation of the Dutch Republic, the Eighty Years' War and the Anglo-Dutch Wars in the 16th, 17th and 18th century, made Holland serve as a pars pro toto for the entire country, now considered either incorrect, informal, or, depending on context, opprobrious. Nonetheless, Holland is used in reference to the Netherlands national football team.
The region called the Low Countries and the Country of the Netherlands. Place names with Neder, Nieder and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in places all over Europe, they are sometimes used in a deictic relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Oben, Superior or Haut. In the case of the Low Countries / Netherlands the geographical location of the lower region has been more or less downstream and near the sea; the geographical location of the upper region, changed tremendously over time, depending on the location of the economic and military power governing the Low Countries area. The Romans made a distinction between the Roman provinces of downstream Germania Inferior and upstream Germania Superior; the designation'Low' to refer to the region returns again in the 10th century Duchy of Lower Lorraine, that covered much of the Low Countries. But this time the corresponding Upper region is Upper Lorraine, in nowadays Northern France; the Dukes of Burgundy, who ruled the Low Countries in the 15th century, used the term les pays de par deçà for the Low Countries as opposed to les pays de par delà for their original
Netball
Netball is a ball sport played by two teams of seven players. Its development, derived from early versions of basketball, began in England in the 1890s. By 1960, international playing rules had been standardised for the game, the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball was formed; as of 2011, the INF comprises more than 60 national teams organized into five global regions. Games are played on a rectangular court with raised goal rings at each end; each team attempts to score goals by passing a ball down the court and shooting it through its goal ring. Players are assigned specific positions, which define their roles within the team and restrict their movement to certain areas of the court. During general play, a player with the ball can hold on to it for only three seconds before shooting for a goal or passing to another player; the winning team is the one. Netball games are 60 minutes long. Variations have been developed to increase the game's appeal to a wider audience. Netball is most popular in Commonwealth nations in schools, is predominantly played by women.
According to the INF, netball is played by more than 20 million people in more than 80 countries. Major domestic leagues in the sport include the Netball Superleague in Great Britain, Suncorp Super Netball in Australia and the ANZ Premiership in New Zealand. Four major competitions take place internationally: the quadrennial World Netball Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the yearly Quad Series and Fast5 Series. In 1995, netball became an International Olympic Committee recognised sport, but it has not been played at the Olympics. Netball emerged from early versions of basketball and evolved into its own sport as the number of women participating in sports increased. Basketball was invented in 1891 by James Naismith in the United States; the game was played indoors between two teams of nine players, using an association football, thrown into closed-end peach baskets. Naismith's game spread across the United States and variations of the rules soon emerged. Physical education instructor Senda Berenson developed modified rules for women in 1892.
Around this time separate intercollegiate rules were developed for women. The various basketball rules converged into a universal set in the United States. Martina Bergman-Österberg introduced a version of basketball in 1893 to her female students at the Physical Training College in Hampstead, London; the rules of the game were modified at the college over several years: the game moved outdoors and was played on grass. Österberg's new sport acquired the name "net ball". The first codified rules of netball were published in 1901 by the Ling Association the Physical Education Association of the United Kingdom. From England, netball spread to other countries in the British Empire. Variations of the rules and names for the sport arose in different areas: "women's basketball" arrived in Australia around 1900 and in New Zealand from 1906, while "netball" was being played in Jamaican schools by 1909. From the start, it was considered appropriate for women to play netball. Netball became a popular women's sport in countries where it was introduced and spread through school systems.
School leagues and domestic competitions emerged during the first half of the 20th century, in 1924 the first national governing body was established in New Zealand. International competition was hampered by a lack of funds and varying rules in different countries. Australia hosted New Zealand in the first international game of netball in Melbourne on 20 August 1938. Efforts began in 1957 to standardise netball rules globally: by 1960 international playing rules had been standardised, the International Federation of Netball and Women's Basketball the International Netball Federation, was formed to administer the sport worldwide. Representatives from England, New Zealand, South Africa, the West Indies were part of a 1960 meeting in Sri Lanka that standardised the rules for the game; the game spread to other African countries in the 1970s. South Africa was prohibited from competing internationally from 1969 to 1994 due to apartheid. In the United States, Netball's popularity increased during the 1970s in the New York area, the United States of America Netball Association was created in 1992.
The game became popular in the Pacific Island nations of the Cook Islands and Samoa during the 1970s. Netball Singapore was created in 1962, the Malaysian Netball Association was created in 1978. In Australia, the term women's basketball was used to refer to both basketball. During the 1950s and 1960s, a movement arose to change the Australian name of the game from women's basketball to netball in order to avoid confusion between the two sports; the Australian Basketball Union offered to pay the costs involved to alter the name, but the netball organisation rejected the change. In 1970, the Council of the All Australia Netball Association changed the name to "netball" in Australia. In 1963, the first international tournament was held in England. Called the World Tournament, it became known as the World Netball Championships. Following the first tournament, one of the organisers, Miss R. Harris, declared,England could learn
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Netherlands
Belgium
United States
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Chinese Taipei
Czech Republic
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