Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful
Iconic Rugby Pictures: PART 122 Opening ceremony of Commonwealth Games at Cardiff Arms Park July 18, 1958
What’s happening here?
It’s July 18, 1958, and Cardiff Arms Park as you have possibly never seen it before. The home of Welsh rugby has undergone a radical transformation for the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games.
The weather was not particularly kind that summer but the opening ceremony was blessed with a gorgeous July afternoon and shadows are forming as the opening ceremony takes place.
We are looking here from the River Taff End into the City and in a miracle of geometry and improvised design, the stadium architects and groundsmen have shoehorned a six-lane 440-yard cinder track into the rugby arena – essentially while at this near end we have a pole vault runway and landing area, a small shot putt circle and high jump semicircle. There is scarcely a redundant square yard in the stadium.
What’s the story behind the picture?
The 1958 Games were in many ways Wales’ coming out party which perhaps seems an odd thing to say but Welsh nationalism, or even just the sense of a Welsh identity, sometimes struggled to find an outlet.
Remarkably it wasn’t until 1951 that Wales had its own Secretary of State and it was just three years before this picture was taken that Cardiff was declared the administrative capital. And until 1954 Cardiff shared Wales’s home internationals with St Helens in Swansea.
So when the chance to host the 1958 Games came along it was an important opportunity to demonstrate Welshness and of course the Welsh Rugby Union was expected to get fully behind that process.
Wales had in fact been slated to host the 1946 Games but of course they were shelved in the immediate aftermath of World War 2 but when, after an outstandingly successful Games in Vancouver in 1954, the opportunity arose Cardiff jumped at the opportunity.
Money was tight and what was available was spent building the Empire Pool, the swimming pool next door to the Arms Park which hosted all the aquatic events.
Which means that the Arms Park had to be cleverly transformed to become the main athletics arena and the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies.
What happened next?
Wales went to work with a vengeance. The last home Five Nations championship game of the season wasn’t until March 29 when Clem Thomas’s Wales squandered the chance of sharing the title with England by slipping to a 16-6 defeat at home to France.
The following Monday the diggers and constructors were in. The entire greyhound track had to be dug up – greyhound racing was a regular feature at the Arms Park until 1977 – and additional areas of ground prepared and levelled for the laying of the cinder track up to the required standard expected by international athletes. They certainly achieved that and three world records were posted during the athletics part of the Games.
There were also the field events areas to be laid out, long jump runways and pits to be prepared and a new all-singing scoreboard to be erected although the old rugby scoreboard next to it remained defiantly unchanged, reading Cardiff and Visitors throughout the Games.
The diggers had to go quite deep at times – there were electric cables to be laid as well – and there was unquestionably some collateral damage, mainly to the drainage system at the Park. Cardiff Arms Park had never been the driest of grounds but when rugby reclaimed its stadium later in 1958 the authorities soon noticed its tendency to flood or become swamp-like after heavy rain.
None of this was fully appreciated at the time and the transformation by the end of June was hailed as a minor miracle. By July 18 everything was in place to greet HRH Prince Philip at the welcoming ceremony. Wales and Lions wing Ken Jones delivered the baton which was very fitting. Not only had Jones won an Olympic silver medal in 1948 in the 4×110 yard relay he had also taken a bronze medal in the 220 yards in the previous Empire and Commonwealth Games in Canada.
Jones had played his last international at the Arms Park the previous season and had just retired from the game altogether.
Why is the picture iconic?
The evolution of famous, iconic, stadiums is always fascinating, there is always a backstory and the 1958 Games is part of the narrative for the Arms Park which in turn became the Principality Stadium of which Wales is so rightly proud.
The stadium in all its guises often feels like the emotional and cultural epicentre of Wales the nation and this revealing picture demonstrates how rugby put its shoulder to the wheel when the moment came. Of course it was already a great and revered rugby venue but the WRU didn’t hesitate to rip things up and produce a pop up athletics arena, just as Wembley had been transformed for the 1948 Olympics.
The big message was very clear.
Wales might be a small nation of limited resources but great things can be achieved when you demonstrate flexibility and imagination.
As a nation they should aim high.
Footnote: It wasn’t a vintage time for Welsh athletics and alas there was only one home medal to celebrate in the stadium, John Merriman taking the silver medal in the six miles behind Australia’s Dave Power. Shame. A massed singing of the national anthem a top the podium would have been the icing on the cake. Wales in fact won only one gold medal at the Games, Howard Winstone in the boxing ring.
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