Bandy (Russia, United Kingdom, Estonia)

Source: https://www.bandyinolympics.com/history/
As most ancient and medieval evidence hockey refers to curved shaped sticks and a ball, bandy can claim to be the oldest team hockey sport on ice.
Skates made of animal shack bones 2000 BC and irrigated ponds are found in Hungary, although yet no final proof of ball hockey on ice using skates. Most concrete evidence suggests ball hockey on plains or frozen ponds without skates.
Historians suggest that the oldest branch of ball-sports is hockey sports. The ball and a curved stick describe them. Curved shaped crooks (the shepherds crook) were used as a stick. In summer time it was played on plains, and wintertime on frozen ponds. Bandy’s twin summer sports hockey (FIH), Ireland’s hurley, Scotland’s shintey, and Wales’ bando can in a way claim to be the oldest team sports. This is based on e.g. the mural illustration of ball hockey found in excavations in Egypt originating 2600 BC.
Unlike in ancient Greece, the most common ancient Chinese sports were ball games. Buda (field hockey) was played in the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). Buda later developed into Chinese golf. The Daur people in the north played Beikuo (field hockey) for 1000 years. In 2004 FIFA recognized that football originates from China. Cuju (soccer) appeared in the Warring State period (476-221 BC) to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). The inflatable ball was invented 200 AD. This innovation is probably the greatest sports innovation in history.
Football on ice emerges in China. When the 2000-year-old cuju (soccer) faded, the Manchurians in the north created football on the ice. This was during the Manchurian Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 AD). But cuju on ice appears to be without a stick. In North Asia, bandy is the main winter heritage sport.
Evidence suggests that ball hockey on the ice was played without skates, or by using simple skates made of animal shack bones. Indigenous tribes in North America played with curved sticks. They pressed the stick into a curved shape using animal sinew. It was considered cheating keeping the sinews on the stick. According to the legend, this was the start of lacrosse. The Vikings on Iceland (Knattleikur) played ball hockey with curved sticks. 1st evidence of ball hockey skates appears to be 1000 AD found in Russian monasteries.
Joseph Strutt’s book from 1801: Sports and Pastimes describe a game called bandy appear on the British Isles from 14c.
West Europe, particularly the British Isles, would later develop ball hockey on modern skates, which today is known as bandy. Interchangeably, depending on the Isles’ geographic area, it was called hockey on ice, hurley on the ice, shintey on ice or simply bandy.
Many sports got their modern rules codified in the era of the British Empire. The same applies to bandy. Evidence from Cambridgeshire in England suggests formal competition bandy from the mid 18c. No written codes are found, but historians suggest that there were standard rules agreed upon prior to each competition. With regular bandy matches from 18c, bandy can demonstrate coherent sport-competitions for at least 250 years.
During 19c, bandy was played between bandy clubs like Bury Fen, Virginia Waters, Winchester, and Northampton. Well-known football clubs like Sheffield United (1855) and Nottingham Forest (1865) even had bandy in their names. Oxford University claims that the 1st Varsity Match held 1885 in St Moritz between the Oxford and Cambridge University was with bandy rules.
Charles Goodman Tebbutt from Bluntisham in the Fens codified modern bandy rules. He came from the bandy stronghold in Cambridgeshire, England in 1891/92. Tebbutt campaigned successfully and European nations adopted the rules. In 1891 Tebutt’s club, Bury Fen played a team from Haarlem in the Netherlands. Following this, the Amsterdamsche Hockey en Bandy Club (AH&BC) was established 1892 and the Netherlandsche Hockey en Bandy Bond 1898. Four Dutch (field) hockey clubs still keep bandy in their official name e.g. Breda Hockey en Bandy Club (BH&BC) established 1905.
Prior the Great War eight continental European nations competed in European Championships up until 1913 in Switzerland. In parallel, the Nordic countries participated in the Nordic Games.
At the same time, Canadians rules hockey emerged in North America. Governor General of Canada, Frederick Stanley commissioned the famous trophy 1892. The USA joined Canadian Rules hockey but had back in history played ball hockey. Simplified one can say there was Canadian rules hockey in North America and Anglo-Russian rules hockey (bandy) in Europe and the Asian part of the Russian Empire (later USSR). As mentioned, both sports (confusingly today) used the official name ice hockey.
Canadian hockey was well organized and established the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) 1908. The IIHF managed to get a bridgehead in the Summer Olympic in Antwerpen 1920. Antwerpen had a small sheet ice venue.
Bandy was part of the Winter Olympic precursor The Nordic Games 1901 – 1926. But it is fair to say that international bandy was not as well organized internationally compared to that of ice hockey.
Subsequent the IOC decision 1924 to not include bandy in the Chamonix Games, the Nordic national ice hockey federations changed their official name to bandy. USSR however, kept the name hockey with the ball. More importantly bandy lost entire nations and its players to ice hockey.
Bandy has a strong history and tradition. The IOC decision in 1924 to exclude bandy was influenced by the rivalry between Sweden and the IOC. Outside the aegis of the IOC, bandy was surprisingly strong until the late 1960s. It was not only a large winter sport but among the larger of all sports in the USSR and the Nordics. In terms of nations it, however, lost ground in continental Europe 1924-1971. It lost continental European nations and its players to ice hockey. Facing the overwhelming resources of the IOC bandy was bent, but not beaten. These new ice hockey nations (based on bandy tradition), with the exception of Czechoslovakia, could not match the North Americans. Thanks to affordable ice and synergies with bandy, the Nordic countries, and the USSR/Russia were the only nations that could challenge the Americans in ice hockey. Thanks to bandy.
Norway accelerated bandy as an Olympic demonstration sport up to 1952. The backdrop gives insight into the rationale. The USSR joined the IOC 1949. No other winter sport could better reinforce the objectives of Olympism.
The winter sports universe was (and is) small compared to summer sports. Exception was bandy. In the 1950s and 1960s, bandy was among the largest sports in 3-4 of the 12 leading nations. This is an unusual observation in winter sports. Even more astonishing is that the IOC refused to include one of the few sports that had strong fundamental backing and could help fulfill its mandate (Olympic Principles).

WORLD CHAMPIONS:1957 USSR, 1961 USSR, 1963 USSR, 1965 USSR, 1967 USSR, 1971 USSR, 1973 USSR, 1975 USSR, 1977 USSR, 1979 USSR, 1981 Sweden, 1983 Sweden, 1985 USSR, 1987 Sweden, 1989 USSR, 1991 USSR, 1993 Sweden, 1995 Sweden, 1997 Sweden, 1999 Russia.

WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS: 1974 Sandviken (Swe), 1975 Broberg (Swe), 1976 OLS Oulu (Fin), 1977 Broberg (Swe), 1978 Broberg (Swe), 1979 Edsbyn (Swe), 1980 Boltic (Swe), 1981 Boltic (Swe), 1982 Jenisej (USSR), 1983 Broberg (Swe), 1984 Jenisej (USSR), 1985 Boltic (Swe), 1986 Boltic (Swe), 1987 Västerås (Swe), 1988 Vetlanda (Swe), 1989 Västerås (Swe), 1990 Zorkij (Rus), 1991 Edsbyn (Swe), 1992 Sirius (Swe), 1993 Vetlanda (Swe), 1994 Västerås (Swe), 1995 Boltic (Swe), 1996 Boltic (Swe), 1997 Västerås (Swe), 1998 Falun (Swe), 1999 Hammarby (Swe).

Antique Bandy Shinty Game - Caux-Jeu de Hockey - 1906 - Geneve - Switzerland