The article that appeared in the Cardiff programme on Sunday 8/3/98 is reproduced here.
Earlier this month, I received the following email from Richard Arnold in the USA …
Some of my friends think I'm prehistoric and old enough to have walked a dinosaur on a leash. It brought to mind a tragic event at the Swans match against Derby County? in 1946, or thereabouts.
The ground was packed, 20,000 and more -- after WW2, good quality professional football was a novelty. A crowd remained outside the gates -- they couldn't get in! Some climbed the walls and over the barbed wire to get in.
I got in early. I was a 13 year-old kid on the uncovered north bank. From one end to the other, and top to bottom, the north bank was just concrete steps -- with some steel piping crush barriers, about 8 feet long, scattered around. I was in the middle of the crowded bank, way up in the back, I could hardly move and was being squashed by the bigger bodies around me.
The Swans were defending to my left. The crowd swayed forward and back all the time, on their toes, stretching their necks to follow the ball. I couldn't see a damn thing most of the time. Everyone wanted to see everything and miss nothing of the excitement of post-war, long-missed, football. I could only peer over the shoulders and between bodies in front of me and try not to get pushed into the person in front of me. Then the unforgettable happened.
The Swans' right back got the ball outside his penalty area and hit a long ball way up field to his right wing, who was about half-way in the Derby half. We were all up on our toes, stretching our necks, leaning forward to follow the ball. I couldn't see much, but I got pressured from someone leaning on me from behind which unbalanced me and made me take a shuffle step forward, pushing me into the back of the person in front of me and unbalancing him. This was happening along the entire north bank with the inevitable result that the whole of the north bank surged forward uncontrollably.
Those in front, right at the bottom, got the worst of it when they were crushed up against a wooden fence separating them from the pitch. Then the fence collapsed -- not all at once, but like a wave from my left to the right. People were crushed and hurt. I don't remember how many or how bad, or even if the match was cancelled -- but I've never lost that picture from my mind. Perhaps someone else can recall that disaster, or find out what the Evening Post reported at the time.
Surprisingly, it was not reported in the Swans' 75th Anniversary publication that came out a few years ago.
Richard, Connecticut, USA, email: rarnold02@snet.net
A reminder that the supporters Internet address is http:/www2.prestel.co.uk/gmartin
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