Sports Terms and Measurements: Grounds, Players and PYQs

The correct answer is A, football. An offside trap is a defensive tactic in which the defenders move up the field together at the right moment so that an attacking player is left beyond the last defender when the ball is played forward, and the referee then gives offside. The tactic exists only because football has an offside law. Option B is wrong because badminton has no offside rule; its terms are smash, drop shot, lob and deuce. Option C is wrong because tennis is played across a net with the players in separate courts, so there is no line to be caught behind; its terms are love, deuce, ace and let. Option D is wrong because table tennis is also a net game with its own terms such as chop, loop and let. Hockey has an offside rule in its older form, but the trap as a named tactic is asked for football.

The correct answer is A, golf. In golf an albatross, also called a double eagle, means holing out in three strokes fewer than the par of that hole, which is among the rarest feats in the game. The same bird family gives birdie for one stroke under par and eagle for two under, while a score over par is a bogey. Option B is wrong because polo is played on horseback and its period of play is a chukker, its stick a mallet. Option C is wrong because fencing uses foil, epee and sabre, with terms such as riposte, lunge and parry. Option D is wrong because rugby speaks of a try, a conversion, a scrum and a line-out. When a question offers a bird name among the options, golf is almost always the intended sport.

The correct answer is D, basketball. Pivoting is the legal turn in which a player holding the ball keeps one foot fixed on the floor, the pivot foot, and steps around with the other foot; it lets a player face the basket or protect the ball without being called for travelling. Option A is wrong because hockey uses bully, short corner, penalty stroke, scoop and dribble. Option B is wrong because volleyball uses service, spike, block, dig and libero. Option C is wrong because badminton uses smash, drop shot, net shot, lob and deuce. Basketball also contributes dunk, rebound, free throw and hold ball to exam papers, and the game's other favourite fact is the ring height of 3.05 metres, so revise the two together. The pivot foot may be lifted to shoot or pass, but it must not return to the floor before the ball leaves the hand.

The correct answer is B, 22 yards. The Laws of Cricket fix the pitch at 22 yards between the two bowling creases, that is between the two sets of stumps, which works out to about 20.12 metres; the pitch is 10 feet wide. Option A is wrong because 20 yards is a shorter distance used in some junior formats, not in the standard game. Option C is wrong because 24 yards is simply a nearby figure offered as a distractor. Option D is wrong for the unit rather than the number: 22 metres is longer than the pitch, and the metric value of the pitch is 20.12 metres. This unit swap is the usual trap in such questions, so read yards against metres before answering. Each set of stumps stands 28 inches high and the three stumps together are 9 inches wide.

The correct answer is B, 3.05 metres. The ring, or basket, is fixed with its upper edge 3.05 metres above the floor, that is exactly 10 feet, and the measurement has not changed since the game was invented by James Naismith in 1891. Option A is wrong because 2.44 metres is the height of a football goal, and also the height of the crossbar in the question papers that mix the two games. Option C is wrong because 3.5 metres is a round figure with no place in the rules, offered only because it is close. Option D is wrong because 2.43 metres is the height of a volleyball net for men, the companion figure to 2.24 metres for women. The safest way to keep them apart is to remember the game with each number rather than the number alone.

The correct answer is C, seven. A water polo team plays with seven players in the pool, six field players and one goalkeeper, with substitutes on the bench. Option A is wrong because five is the number for basketball. Option B is wrong because six is the number for volleyball, and also for ice hockey. Option D is wrong because nine is the number for baseball and softball. The group of seven is worth learning together, because water polo, handball, netball and kabaddi all field seven players, and papers often ask which of the listed games is played with seven. Keep the other counts beside them: eleven for cricket, football and field hockey, four for polo, fifteen for rugby union and two or four for badminton and tennis according to the event.

The correct answer is A, polo. A chukker is one period of play in polo, and a match is made up of several chukkers with breaks between them so that the ponies can be changed. Polo also gives the words mallet for the stick and goal for the scoring unit, and a team has four players. Option B is wrong because a period in boxing is a round, and its terms are jab, hook, uppercut and knockout. Option C is wrong because wrestling speaks of a pin fall, a hold and a half nelson. Option D is wrong because archery uses the words end, gold, quiver and recurve, and its Olympic distance is 70 metres. Chukker is one of the four or five terms that decide these questions, so learn it with bully for hockey and half nelson for wrestling.

The correct answer is A, 1.524 metres, that is five feet at the centre of the court, with the net standing slightly higher, 1.55 metres, at the posts. Option B is wrong for that reason: 1.55 metres is the height at the posts, not at the centre, and the question asks for the centre. Option C is wrong because 2.24 metres is the height of a volleyball net for women. Option D is wrong because 1.07 metres is close to the height of a tennis net at the posts, which is 1.07 metres against 0.914 metres at the centre. Badminton questions usually pair this figure with the court length of 13.4 metres and the doubles width of 6.1 metres, the singles width being 5.18 metres, so revise all four together.

The correct answer is B, 40 millimetres. A table tennis ball is 40 millimetres across and weighs 2.7 grams, and it is made of plastic with a matt white or orange surface. Option A is wrong because 38 millimetres was the older size, used until the ball was enlarged at the start of the 2000s to slow the game down for television, so it is a historical figure rather than the present one. Option C and option D are wrong because 42 and 45 millimetres are simply larger round numbers offered as distractors and appear in no rule. Learn the ball with the table: the table is 2.74 metres long, 1.525 metres wide and 76 centimetres above the floor, and the net across it is 15.25 centimetres high. The older 38 millimetre ball also weighed less, at about 2.5 grams, which is why the two figures are asked together.

The correct answer is C, 42.195 kilometres, that is 26 miles and 385 yards. The distance was fixed after the London Olympic Games of 1908, where the course was lengthened to finish in front of the royal box, and it has been the standard ever since. Option A is wrong because 40 kilometres is only the approximate figure people quote in conversation and is not the official distance. Option B is wrong because 41.195 kilometres changes the first figure while keeping the familiar decimal, which is the commonest distractor in this question. Option D is wrong because 45.195 kilometres is longer than any marathon course. A half marathon is exactly half of the standard distance, 21.0975 kilometres, and that figure is also asked. The full Olympic marathon is run on the road, and the men and women run the same distance, unlike most track events.

The correct answer is A, hockey. In field hockey a bully was the method of restarting play after certain stoppages: one player of each side stood facing the other over the ball and they tapped sticks and ground alternately before playing it. Modern rules restart with a free hit or a bully only in rare cases, but the term still appears in question papers as a hockey word. Option B is wrong because kabaddi uses raider, anti, cant, bonus line and lona, the last meaning that a whole side has been put out. Option C is wrong because volleyball uses service, spike, block and dig. Option D is wrong because baseball uses pitcher, batter, innings, home run and diamond. Bully, along with short corner and penalty stroke, is the set of hockey terms worth memorising.

The correct answer is A, 18 metres by 9 metres. A volleyball court is a rectangle 18 metres long and 9 metres wide, divided into two square halves of 9 metres by 9 metres by the centre line, above which the net is fixed at 2.43 metres for men and 2.24 metres for women. Option B is wrong because 28 metres by 15 metres is a basketball court under international rules. Option C is wrong because 13.4 metres by 6.1 metres is a badminton court for doubles. Option D is wrong because 23.77 metres by 8.23 metres is a tennis court for singles, the doubles width being 10.97 metres. Papers set this question by listing four correct court sizes and asking for one game, so learn each size with its game rather than as a loose number.