Football Grounds Quiz

[Rowls]

Here's a fun little quiz about identifying old football grounds on the BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52394131

[Rowls]

Unfortunately the descriptions that accompany the old pictures make the answers far too obvious so it's best to try and avoid reading them if you actually want to be challenged.

However, they're nice old images anyway and it will pass a few minutes.

Enjoy!

[tiger76]

Yes the clues are fairly obvious,mind you i only got 10/11,got OT wrong,changed my mind,the images are evocative,the size of those terraces.blimey!

[ClaretTony]

Just done and didn't look at the descriptions - got all 11

[Colburn_Claret]

10 as well

[mdd2]

Would have got those 11 without the pics of the grounds

[Quickenthetempo]

Would have got those 11 without the pics of the grounds

The pictures didn't show for me but I had 9 from 9 just with the clues, before I realised it was just clickbait.

[Clarets4me]

Mistook the City Ground for the Baseball Ground ......

Still love that multi-span roof at Molineux, and the picture of the vast East Terrace at the Valley, which held 45,000 at one point, before being reduced to 32,000 in December 1950. It was permanently closed after a review following the Bradford Fire ....

[ClaretTony]

Mistook the City Ground for the Baseball Ground ......

Still love that multi-span roof at Molineux, and the picture of the vast East Terrace at the Valley, which held 45,000 at one point, before being reduced to 32,000 in December 1950. It was permanently closed after a review following the Bradford Fire ....

First time I went to The Valley the terracing was still there. ITV were covering the game and set up their own commentary area. So big was that terrace that they set it up no more than a third of the way up the terrace.

[houseboy]

11/11. Must admit the clues made it easy though. Was the Valley one of the biggest grounds ( capacity wise ) in the country at one time?

[Rileybobs]

11/11. To make it more interesting I didn't look at the pictures but just read the clues.

[ClaretTony]

11/11. Must admit the clues made it easy though. Was the Valley one of the biggest grounds ( capacity wise ) in the country at one time?

I think it was the biggest league ground with a capacity of over 75,000.

[groove]

Mistook the City Ground for the Baseball Ground ......

Still love that multi-span roof at Molineux, and the picture of the vast East Terrace at the Valley, which held 45,000 at one point, before being reduced to 32,000 in December 1950. It was permanently closed after a review following the Bradford Fire ....

I'm curious has to how it got closed after the Bradford fire. It doesn't look like a fire hazard.

[Sausage]

Mistook the City Ground for the Baseball Ground ......

Still love that multi-span roof at Molineux, and the picture of the vast East Terrace at the Valley, which held 45,000 at one point, before being reduced to 32,000 in December 1950. It was permanently closed after a review following the Bradford Fire ....

The closure of the East Terrace was threatened by the Greater London Council after Heysel, not Bradford. The terrace was absolutely knackered; the concrete steps were crumbling and the whole thing was subsiding. By the time of the Bradford fire in 1985 the board of Charlton Athletic had already decided to abandon The Valley and move the club to Selhurst Park.

[Rowls]

You can still see the remnants of that monolithi terrace behind the stand at the Valley. It's the stand to the right of the away end.

It must have been a sight to behold but I gather it was so large that it was rarely, if ever, "full" (before or after the capacity was reduced) and fell into disrepair quickly, partly down to its size.

[timshorts]

First time I went to The Valley the terracing was still there. ITV were covering the game and set up their own commentary area. So big was that terrace that they set it up no more than a third of the way up the terrace.

The terracing is still there. I went to see Chesterfield there about 3 seasons ago. Its behind the stand to the right of the away end. You can see it from the far corner.

[Clarets4me]

The " Fire safety and safety in places of Sport " Act ( 1987 ), further tightened the " Safety of Sports Grounds " Act of 1975 ...

The 1975 Act was largely in response to the Ibrox disaster in 1971, it seems hard to believe now but Hampden had an attendance of over 136,000 for the European Cup semi-final between Celtic and Leeds, whereas in 1975, 104,000 crammed into Murrayfield for the Scotland v Wales 5 Nations game, a combination of the Act and that attendance forced the SRU to start making the games ticket only ...

The 1987 was not just about Fire regulations, but Stadium capacities were drastically cut, as crumbling terraces, unsafe crush barriers, poor entry and exit routes etc all cited as reasons .... for a short temporary period, I believe Turf Moor's capacity was cut to sub 10,000 until certain remedial work was completed ....

[jdrobbo]

11/11

Thanks for posting.

I love The Valley

[ClaretTony]

The terracing is still there. I went to see Chesterfield there about 3 seasons ago. Its behind the stand to the right of the away end. You can see it from the far corner.

There is definitely a small part of the old terrace which you can see to your right if you are in the away end. We played there in 80/81 & 82/83 and I think the current away end was built between those two visits. Then the ground was left derelict when they moved out soon after.

[Clarets4me]

There is definitely a small part of the old terrace which you can see to your right if you are in the away end. We played there in 80/81 & 82/83 and I think the current away end was built between those two visits. Then the ground was left derelict when they moved out soon after.

" CT " .... you will probably remember better than me, but I seem to remember reading " The Football Grounds of Britain ", by Simon Inglis and him stating that capacity at Turf Moor was slashed for a short period in the 1980's .. can you recall the figures ?

[ClaretTony]

" CT " .... you will probably remember better than me, but I seem to remember reading " The Football Grounds of Britain ", by Simon Inglis and him stating that capacity at Turf Moor was slashed for a short period in the 1980's .. can you recall the figures ?

I thought it was around 8,000 but as someone pointed out to me the other day it couldn’t have been that low given the seats in the two stands. I recall the fence separating the Longside from the Bee Hole was put in place to help raise the capacity.

[Clarets4me]

The closure of the East Terrace was threatened by the Greater London Council after Heysel, not Bradford. The terrace was absolutely knackered; the concrete steps were crumbling and the whole thing was subsiding. By the time of the Bradford fire in 1985 the board of Charlton Athletic had already decided to abandon The Valley and move the club to Selhurst Park.

Charlton were skint in 1985, here's the excerpt from Simon Inglis's seminal " The Football grounds of Britain " ...

" In August 1985, the GLC ordered the closure of the East Bank.This was just after the Bradford fire, when all local authorities were anxiously reviewing their safety policies, but even so, Charlton had been warned since 1979 that repairs were needed, and none were done. One report found that 90% of barriers tested had failed. The board challenged the GLC's ruling in the courts, but lost, then dramatically declared that repairs would cost £2,000,000. This was partly, they said, because a sewer ran at an awkward angle under the terraceand made the repairs unusually complicated. It is true that the sewer was there ( large enough to drive a car through ), but their estimate for remedial work later proved to be a gross exaggeration. "