Cardiff Arms Park - History, Cricket

Welsh rugby and cricket ground, the home ground of Cardiff Rugby Club from1876. It became the venue for the Welsh national team in 1884 (sharing the matches with St Helen's Swansea until 1954) and for Glamorgan County Cricket Club in 1888. It has also been used for athletics, boxing, greyhound racing, and international football. The Arms Park has hosted some of the most famous matches in rugby history, notably Wales v New Zealand in 1905, Barbarians v New Zealand in 1973, and the Commonwealth and Empire Games in 1958. While redeveloped in the 1960s into the National Stadium, it was still popularly known as the Arms Park. Cardiff RFC moved on to the site previously occupied by the cricket ground, while Glamorgan moved to Sophia Gardens, Cardiff. The National Stadium was demolished in 1997, to be replaced by the Millennium Stadium (on the same site) for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. The ground's memorial gates commemorate Gwyn Nicholls (Welsh international rugby player). A history, Taff's Acre by David Parry-Jones (ed), was published in 1984.

Cardiff Arms Park is a stadium complex situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales.

History

The site of the park was a meadow behind the Cardiff Arms Hotel and was owned by the Marquess of Bute.

In 1941, the stadium was hit in a blitz by the Luftwaffe

There are two stadia on the site, both with approximately east-west alignment;

Cricket

More than 240 first-class cricket matches were played at Cardiff Arms Park. West of England v East of England was the first, in June 1910, but when Glamorgan were elevated to first-class status in 1921 they played their first match at the ground, and indeed competed there every season (except while first-class cricket was suspended during the Second World War) for forty-five years, their last match being against Somerset in August 1966.

Only one List A game was ever played at the ground, and this was only the second match of its type: Glamorgan's Gillette Cup fixture against Somerset on 22 May 1963.

Preceded by: none

Heineken Cup Final Venue 1995-96 1996-97

Succeeded by: Stade Lescure Bordeaux