Ninian Park Life: That Cardiff City Noise.

Words: Andy Evans

Images: Andy Evans

A housing estate now sadly stands where Ninian Park once proudly stood.

The only thing left now are the memories and the memorabilia in supporters’ houses, with a yearning for the concrete and tin home of Cardiff City FC.

For decades, Ninian Park played host to some huge occasions, and a record crowd attendance of 62,634 once packed into the ground in 1959 for a Wales vs England game.

Ninian Park had opened in 1910 but by 2009 was demolished, despite once hosting the Pope John Paul II in 1982 and a Jehovah’s Witness convention, even divine intervention couldn’t prevent the end with the club moving to a new stadium literally built opposite Ninian Park.

The ground saw many events in conjunction to football down the decades, including boxing matches, rugby league, American football, a basketball exhibition by the Harlem Globetrotters and, in 1958, Commonwealth Games show jumping.

©Andy Evans/ Terrace Edition. Ninian Park. Cardiff.

The ground also hosted concerts with the late Bob Marley, bringing roots, rock reggae to South Wales.

But it is football that for me it will be remembered for and Ninian Park was home from home for as long as I can remember.

The club crowds had dwindled by the 80s and it was only the diehards who rattled around the sweeping terraces in the wind and rain. But of course Cardiff enjoyed some superb nights down the years at the ground, including the famous European Cup Winners Cup win over Real Madrid in 1971. Many there that night estimated that the crowd was over 60,000, with an electric atmosphere.

One thing that will always live with me was the glow from the floodlights on a midweek game. There was something special trudging through the elements in the blackness with the pylons illuminating the night sky.

Proper pylon lighting, one on each corner, not like the modern grounds with lights built into the rooves etc.

1994 and an FA Cup tie was memorable and has gone down in club folklore as Manchester City were knocked out at a packed Ninian Park in a Fourth Round tie. The city in general prior to the game was buzzing prior. The build up saw everyone talking about the game and I remember huge lines of people queuing for tickets stretching back to Sloper Road. The atmosphere on the day was electric and local lad Nathan Blake curled in a shot from the Bob Bank to secure an historic win.

It was the terrace culture that remains in my mind and Ninian Park had some fantastic steps to find your place.

The Grange End terrace behind the goal, when full, was a mass of surging bodies when the city scored.

Limbs as they say now but this was proper really chaos. Carl Dale scoring in a Welsh Cup game v Wrexham lives with me and thousands of fans massed as one, moving on the terrace in unison.

The Bob Bank terrace was also strangely comforting in the dark days of the old fourth division when the ground was sometimes sparsely populated with fans.

Yet, when the numbers turned up there was a real noise generated, with fans bouncing down each terrace step from the top to bottom and back up again chanting “barmy army”.

There was also a fair share of doom and gloom at Ninian Park. A lot of the games that I watched were in the lower divisions. Things boiled over after an FA Cup defeat live on Sky v Gillingham in 1997 and this led to a demonstration against the owners, the Kumars. I went scrambling past police and seats to join in the demonstration in the lower grandstand. It was raw emotion, passionate supporters who cared about the club and wanted answers from the powers that be.

There were promotions, relegations, Welsh Cup games, thin crowds, and fat crowds but the ground for many, even today was the heartbeat of Cardiff City and many memories and games are still discussed in the pubs pre-game to this day.

Andy is on Twitter: @wscevans and Instagram: @andythephotos

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