Dear WSC
The checklist of things to look out for in the Football League in WSC 259 brought to my mind the imminent passing of one of the great grounds. Ninian Park is every-thing a stadium was supposed to be: old-style floodlights; a terrace the length of one side of the pitch; seagulls taking flight in panic at the surge of electricity up the pylons; a club shop with no new kit in stock before the start of the season. Some even put our relatively low attendances in recent years down to the rusty roof, crumbling concrete and general air of neglect. Terraced houses? I bet the locals were delighted to hear we were leaving. Imagine their disappointment as the new ground started going up just over the road. I’m well aware that all of the above are the very reasons some supporters use as excuses not to come, but it does sadden me that there will be a whole generation of fans who will grow up in all-seat stadiums. For better or worse, Ninian Park truly is the last of its kind. Whatever anyone’s feelings towards Cardiff City, anyone who has been attending football since pre-1992 will join me in acknowledging the approach of a landmark moment. But this being Cardiff, it would be remiss of me not to mention the prospect of a good old-fashioned pitch invasion. I’m sure I’m not alone in being secretly glad that Swansea got promoted last year, just to send the old place off in style.
Gareth Dix, via email
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Stories
Roger Titford looks at the progress of Supporters Direct, the government scheme set up to help fans play a role in running their clubs
“Who rules the game?” In an attempt to answer that age-old question, here are two extracts from the leading football fanzine of the day. “It is clear where the way to democracy lies but it will only be followed as part of the road to socialism as a whole… Eventually I would like to see democratic supporters’ associations withdraw paying support at the turnstiles in order to force financial crises on the boards until democratic control is handed over to them.”
South Yorkshire's clubs can learn from the trials of their rugby league neighbours. Dick Roebuck reports
Somewhere along the A61 connecting Barnsley with Wakefield there is a disruption in the sports-time continuum. Things are similar but not the same. This is the frontier between football and rugby league, a Checkpoint Charlie dividing the sporting affections of Yorkshire’s working classes.
Martin O’Neill has worked wonders at Leicester but, as John Williams explains, his mentor’s title-winning achievements are out of reach
Earlier this season Leicester City, playing at home in the Worthington Cup and stinking out even Filbert Street’s Shanks and McEwan Stand (sponsor’s motto: “For all your waste needs”), found themselves two goals down to a Fulham side late in the match. The visitors had run the game and at most clubs this might already have been given up and put down as just a bad night. Not here. A whirling Martin O’Neill signalled a final throw, a new City partnership up front.
Dear WSC
I’m stunned. Whilst channel hopping for some late night smut, I came across none other than Garth Crooks hosting an in-depth politico-chat show, Des-patch Box.I sat transfixed as Garth, a man whose normal journalistic beat leads him to doing humourous pieces on the shopping trips of the Reggae Boyz or Graham Kelly’s musical tastes, spent air-time slapping down Austin Mitchell’s views on the strong pound, summarizing the extradiction of Pin-ochet and probing into why the Welsh Secretary resigned.I first of all dismissed his presence on such a programme as a fluke, poor Garth being pressed into service when a Paxman clone went down with lumbago, chucked a copy of the Independent and told to get in front of the camera. But no! Garth gave a much more measured display than he ever did for Man Utd. At the end of the show he astound-ed me by announcing that he’d be back next Thursday.As a mere lad when Garth was in his prime for Spurs, I remember Tony Galvin being championed by the Topical Times as a major intellectual force because he had a degree in Russian. Shoot! thought Chris Hughton a real academic because he read the Guardian rather than the Mirror. But now know who was the true colossus of culture – Garth Crooks.I can only wonder at what Mark Falco and Gary Brook are doing now – teaching juris-prudence at Oxford and developing new forms of antibiotics, perhaps?
James Kerr, York