Introduction
On June 19th 1895, Chilean football acquired its first governing body. It was the first major step towards Chile’s immensely popular football league, and it was Chileans of British descent who were behind it.
IN 1909, David Foxley Newton founded a football club in Cerro Alegre, Valparaíso, and named it ‘Everton’ after the prestigious team from Liverpool which had recently toured Argentina.*
It was by no means a first. British merchants had established a trading base in Valparaíso in 1826, and since then other British-heritage Chileans had started sporting clubs: Mackay and Sutherland FC met on school playing fields in the same Valparaíso suburb in 1882, and in 1889 David Scott started a soccer team at the Badminton cricket club.
The first game between sides from two different cities, Scott’s Valparaíso and Santiago Club, and the first international, against an Argentinian side composed entirely of British nationals, both kicked off in 1893.
Encouraged by Chilean football’s first governing body, formed in 1895, and aided by footballs imported from England, club after club sprang up with names such as Wanderers, Rangers, Morning Star, and El English, forming the basis of today’s passionate Chilean Football League.**
Valparaíso’s importance comes from its position at the Pacific end of the Straits of Magellan, which allow ships in the Atlantic to cross the American Continent without braving the wild seas of Chile’s Cape Horn to the south.
** Contrary to appearances, top-flight side O’Higgins in Rancagua is named in honour not of a club founder but of Bernardo O’Higgins Riquelme (1778–1842), a landowner of Spanish and Irish descent who is considered one of the Founding Fathers of Chile.
Précis
The first football clubs in Chile were founded in the 1880s by Chileans of British heritage, descendants of merchants who had settled in Valparaíso. They founded the first governing federation in 1895, and organised club and international matches, and their influence is reflected in English-sounding team names such as Everton and Rangers. (52 / 60 words)
The first football clubs in Chile were founded in the 1880s by Chileans of British heritage, descendants of merchants who had settled in Valparaíso. They founded the first governing federation in 1895, and organised club and international matches, and their influence is reflected in English-sounding team names such as Everton and Rangers.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: besides, despite, just, may, ought, unless, until, whereas.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Jigsaws Based on this passage
Express the ideas below in a single sentence. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Game. Merchant. Same.
2 Establish. Since. Start.
3 Aid. Import. Soccer.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
mnt (7+2)
amount. emanate. meant. mint. minuet. minute. mount.
manatee. minutiae.
