Ninian Park memories

[the other bob wilson]

The smell of Old Holborn, the ground had that smell of tobacco. The ‘bounce’ of the Grangetown End on the wooden sleeper terracing. The approach to the ground for a night game, seeing those wonderful floodlights shining, the floodlights at any time of the week in fact, just seeing them in the distance, they just drew your eyes to them. The ‘matchbox like’ grandstand perched over the enclosure, so out of place, like it shouldn’t have been there. Stood on the narrow wall at the back of the Bob Bank during the early ECWC games (Esbjerg, Sporting Lisbon, Zaragoza etc), banging the tin sheeting with your heels ...Cardiff, bang bang, Cardiff, bang bang, Cardiff, bang bang. Radio Ninian in the corner of the Grange & Enclosure. Checking the half time scores in your programme against the letters alongside the enclosure wall. BIF & BAF sellers. Attempting to get a pint in The Bluebirds Club aged about 14, no chance. Golden Goal a tanner sellers. The Echo seller with half an ear shouting ‘Cardiff City gonna win today’ outside the ground before the game. The black fella who leant on the crash barrier directly behind the goal with chain link fencing separating the boys enclosure from the rest of the Grangetown End, he had his son sat on the barrier and a fag permanently welded to his bottom lip. The ‘Hockey’ post on the Grangetown End, so called after Birmingham fans had vertically sprayed his name on it before being unceremoniously shifted off the End. So many memories.

My first game was a "normal" Saturday afternoon one, but it was only after my second one, a floodlit game, that I really started to get what all of the fuss was about. I used to love the old Grange End and especially the walk under it before the match until you got to that walkway which took you up into the stand, I always used to say that short walk into the stand was the closest I'd ever experience to running out onto the pitch before a match.

It was from the Grange End that I was able to look at the rest of the ground at the Man United match in 1974 and see fights going on simultaneously in the other three sides of the ground and it was from around the same spot that I watched John Toshack run up to take a penalty with the score 1-1 in a game with league leaders Coventry in the late sixties only to lose sight of what then happened because I was too small to see in what was a pretty big crowd. When nearly everyone around started celebrating, I joined in assuming he'd scored, only to discover they were all Coventry fans - crowd segregation was still a long way off then.

There was the old supporters club building and the odd structure which used to display the time of the first goal in minutes and seconds for people who'd bought a golden goal ticket in apposite corners of the ground and a tiny booth above the old enclosure where the person doing the hospital broadcasting would be - I also remember that there was no way I could watch a game from the front of the enclosure terrace until I was about fifteen because the wall was so high.

[Gofer Blue]

Back in the dark days of the 80’s being able to turn up at 5 minutes to 3, walk straight in (no queues) and having acres of room to myself in the enclosure beneath the grandstand!

The infamous gents “toilet” at the back of the Bob Bank.

Witnessing the famous John Buchanan goal against the Jacks.

The Leeds FA cup game – an atmosphere at a City game the likes of which I have never witnessed before or since, in over 40 years of following City. There were other cup games of course but this one beats them all IMO!

The passion and commitment of some of the City players which I don’t seem to see so much these days, the likes of Phil (Joe) Dwyer, Jason Perry, the Bennett brothers, Kavanagh and John Buchanan to name just a few that come to mind immediately.

Managers: Remember Frank Burrows throwing his cap onto the ground to show his disapproval of a refereeing decision. Eddie May and the barmy army days – surely one of, if not THE, fans’ favourite manager?

[Majorblue]

The floodlights at night games sighted from a distance.
The Canton Stand wooden benches.
Season tickets in booklets.
Jumbo on the PA.
The sandpit of a pitch in the 70’s.
But mostly the excitement of the anticipation followed, normally, by the disappointment of reality.

[CCFCC3PO]

Today, Saturday April 25th, 2009. Was the last home game at Ninian Park.

It was a shit show, we lost 0-3 and went on to miss out on the play offs when it was nailed on.

But that fail aside what are your best memories of Ninian Park?

After a long summer, walking up Sloper Road and getting to see those beautiful floodlights for the first time in 3 months.

The smell of cigar smoke. The old bloke on the Bob Bank telling me stories of Trevor Ford, Gerry Hitchins and when there were 60,000 (his words) there for a game against Spurs. This was when crowds were 2-3 thousand, so it seemed like this happened in a different universe.

Risking food poisoning by having an ice cold pasty from the food kiosk on the corner of the Grange End/Bob Bank, discovering that dipping the cold pasty in a hot cup of oxo was an improvement.

Sitting on the wooden seats in the Canton Stand, my dad pointing out Jeff Hemmerman. Cups of hot oxo with pepper floating on the top.

The Captain Morgan advert, the board that would tell us who we were playing next, sit-ins. protests, chucking money in buckets for whatever cash crisis was happening.

The Executive boxes that took 20 years to complete, the Notts County graffiti on the corner of the Bob Bank Canton stand. The rare chance we had to stand on the corner.

Watching a bloke getting put onto a stretcher, unconscious. The people on the gate walking around the pitch with the gate money (I assume), lying about my age to get in for a quid.

It was a great football stadium.