2014 might have been a sporting “annus horribilis” for this country, but things could be about to get a lot better with the start of the World Lacrosse Championships in the United States.

The World Cup winners’ confetti will yet to have fallen in the Estadio Maracana – with England’s involvement a distant and bitter memory – when another global sporting challenge gets going, writes Danny Buckland.

From 10 July, it is the turn of lacrosse to parade its skills, with 38 nations competing in Denver, USA, over 11 days and the final played in the Colorado Rapids soccer stadium.

Lacrosse is considered a preserve of private girls’ schools and children’s books about, well, private girls’ school. But men’s lacrosse has a blood-curdling past as a rite of passage and an occasionally fatal way of settling disputes among native American tribes.

England are pretty good at lacrosse. In fact, they are in the top group at the tournament and have a chance of a medal.

Known as baggataway – which roughly translates to “the creator’s game” – it pre-dates Columbus. French Jesuit missionaries thought the stick used by the tribes of southern Canada and North America resembled a bishop’s crosier, and it was re-christened lacrosse.

The good news is that England are pretty good at it. In fact they are in the top group at the tournament and have a chance of finishing with a medal. Refreshing news after their soccer star equivalents failed to make it out of the group stages.

Here’s our quick nine-point guide to the game and the 2014 World Lacrosse Championships.

Rolling substitutions



(1) The game is played by teams of 10, with rolling substitutions – think ice hockey – on a football pitch-sized field, with the aim of scoring in the opponent’s goal. The hard rubber ball is smaller than a football – cricket ball dimensions – but so are the nets at 6ft by 6ft.

(2) It is violent. Massive hits – think American Football – are common. Red cards are not. Players move at pace with the ball in their sticks, which have aluminium shafts topped by a sculpted net – think summer holidays and rock pools. No, don’t, really; they’re a bit more sophisticated than that.

Massive hits – think American football – are common. Red cards are not.

(3) Germany will not beat England and there’s no penalties. What’s not to like? England may meet Germany in a play-off game but we have never lost to them and crushed them 13-6 on the way to winning the 2012 European Championships.

(4) England’s captain is Tom Williamson, a 28-year-old tiler from Stockport, who like all of the 23-man squad, has had to find around £4,000 to fund the cost of training, tours and the tournament itself. He earns less in a year than his counterpart Steven Gerrard does for 20 minutes strolling round Anfield.

(5) England have an outside shot at a top-three slot in Denver, but the winner will be either the holders USA or Canada, where the game has two professional leagues: an outdoor competition and a body-crunching indoor league on ice hockey rinks – think ice hockey without the ice but with the fighting.

Niche status



(6) Our players to watch out for at the World Cup are power-houses Chris Brady and Tom Gallon, who will take it in turns to compete at the game-starting manoeuvre known as the “face-off”. No simple pass to your mate here. Two players, one from each team, crouch down with the ball between their respective sticks and then virtually wrestle for possession – think Greco-Roman wrestling from the Olympics.

(7) These players are highly specialised and often play little part in the rest of the game when possession has been secured. They are known as FOGOs – Face-Off, Get-Off. England has a dynamic attack, and even the Americans are scared of 25-year-old Nick Watson, from Oldham. This is why (see video above).

(8) The stars of the show will be the Iroquois Nationals‘ ultra-skilled Thompson trio – two brothers and a cousin – who are bit like having like George Best, Johan Cruyff and Ronaldo on your team. But watch out for the US pro poster boys Paul Rabil, of the Boston Cannons, and Kyle Harrison, of the Ohio Machine, who are superstars in the States.

(9) Why haven’t you heard of it? Well, it has been rooted in niche status for more than a century, since a touring team of Canadians brought the game to the UK in 1876. But playing numbers have jumped almost 20 per cent to 24,000 over the last five years and it is now played in more than 60 universities.

Sport England rewarded English lacrosse’s development with a £2.1m grant and expects playing numbers to increase 40,000 by the next World Championships in 2018, which will be held in Manchester.

Check out www.englishlacrosse.co.uk and @EnglandLacrosse