Is your avatar a photo of Bobby Woodruff that was taken at Ninian Park in the early 70's? If so I can't see any sand
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I remember when the NP pitch was 80% sand in the early 1970s but just put it down to the general poor pitch care at that time (see Derby’s Baseball Ground…..)
But someone posted on here recently that all of the sand (and there was a lot!) was needed as a result of some mistake or mishap. What was the story behind it, or did I misunderstand?
Is your avatar a photo of Bobby Woodruff that was taken at Ninian Park in the early 70's? If so I can't see any sand
It was me who posted it. I’ve just had a look on Google to see if I could find anything to back up my memory that City’s awful pitch of 71/72 was at least partly caused by an expensive pitch “improvement” which went wrong, but I couldn’t come up with anything.
Doing the research for my book on the 70/71 season, I was reminded that the Ninian Park pitch was in poor shape for some of the games played in mid winter. However, it was much worse the following year and local media, looking for a reason for City’s dramatic decline from the previous season, put forward the awful pitch as a major factor.
My memory is of a story in the summer of 1971 about what was expensive and extensive improvements to the pitch - City were perceived as having the Toshack money burning a hole in their pocket and only spent about £30,000 on signing Alan Foggon and Ken Jones in the close season, so this was something they could say the club were paying for.
However, as soon as City started playing home games in wet conditions, the pitch began to cut up horribly and I remember a game in early December against Sunderland when the pitch was worse than it was at Rotherham. From that point onwards, sand was used for most games to make the pitch playable. Ninian Park pitches were never great in the early and mid seventies, but the 71/72 one attracted much more comment than the other ones did.
I recall thode early 70s games, midwinter and towards the end of season the pitch was like Barry beach - apart from a few yards of green in the corners.
I can't recall the opponents, but in one game the pitch was soo muddy that when one of the keepers went to bounce the ball before kicking it upfield the ball just stuck on the ground with no bounce at all.
I played two county cup finals on Edgar St, 78 & 79. Supposed to be the season ending show case. It was horrendous on both occasions, no grass, just mud, sand and puddles, worse than most Sunday League pitches. Those were the days
A picture from the infamous Watford game in April 71, the pitch was worse twelve months later
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1133...saAv5cEALw_wcB
City v Leeds Utd 1972 and a game that I was at. From the brief clip, look how bad the state of the Ninian Park pitch was.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDHdzHEXD3A
On the way to the 1927 FA Cup Final City drew Darlington at home, a match they should be expected to win comfortably. It ended 0-0, and reports say the pitch was so bad that it was impossible to play football. Seems it had been a poor pitch for years !
I had been to a few mid-season games with my grandfather from maybe 1965 (ish). The first opening day game I went to was Plymouth Argyle in 1967. A sunny day and the pitch looked fantastic. Lush green grass. I sat on the wall on the bob bank. It didn't take long to turn into Barry Island beach. Madrid game was sand. The Hamburg game was just as bad. I can't remember much about their third goal. I was in the boy's place at the front of the Grange End and it was scored at the Canton end. I think mud had a bit to do with it
is this the photo you meant it is on page 4 click that
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifest...paign=sharebar