Hockey

a game of ball played with bats having a curve or hook at the lower end. An ice pond, a green, or a large schoolyard is a suitable place for the game. Any number may play. The ball is placed at the center of the field. Players on each side strive to strike the ball and drive it over the goal line of their opponents. Any one who can reach the ball and find room to swing his stick may strike. The game is a favorite with school boys. It possesses the merit of bringing a large number into active play all the time. The ball--a small block of wood answers quite as well--flies this way and that, and the entire field is in a hurly-burly. Of late the game has been taken up by English clubs and systematized after the manner of cricket and football. It is called also shinny, shinty, and hurly. See Golf; Polo