FOOTBALL GROUND ACCIDENT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 11938, 27 March 1914, Page 2

FOOTBALL GROUND ACCIDENT.

COLLAPSE OF A WALL

Eighty people were injured recently, many seriously, by the collapse oi a brick wall owing to the pressure of the crown cm the ground oi' the Shellield Wednesday Football Club at llillsborougli. After receiving attention at the inlirmary and the hospital, all except about (ifteen were able to go to their homes. Oi. those detained, it was feared that three might not recover. Some, of the injured, have many ribs broken; others have fractured, legs and arms. The- collapse occurred; a quarter of an hour before the finish of the Association Cup re-play between Sheffield Wednesday aud Wolvrihampton Wanderers. 'There were 40.000 spectators, and the. gate money. £Ki(W, was a record for the ground. The wall was of brick, 7ft high on the one side, surmounted by a stone coping. Its purpose was to retain a bank on higher ground and to form si barrier between the bank and the terracing which is built up to it < from the lower ground. The first cry of disaster was from a woman —"Oh, it's gone!"— uttered at an exciting moment when all the crowd was straining to see theplay. Bricks, coping stone, and men fell over on to the crowd below. The game was forgotten. The ground became black with hurrying figures. Police , ollicers and ambulance men struggled to reach the injured. Some of the players joined in the work of rescue, others helped to keep the lines dear as the injured were carried across tho field. A woman was borne into the old stand, and others of the less seriously injured followed. The more serious cases were , taken to the main stand, whither one by one i>o men and boys,were, carried. Here the players' dressing rooms were converted into casualty wards. Hones were set, injuries were dressed, and the sufferers were removed to the infirmary in taxicabs, private- motor-cars, and a. motoroniuibus. Describing the accident, an injured youth said: "We weve standing under the. wall, packed like herrings in a barrel, when I heard a, crack. I looked up and saw the Avail coming down. In a moment 1 was in darkness, and remember no more until I was pulled out some five minutes later." A lad of about fifteen was brought later to a stand injured in the head. His first question on recovering consciousness was: ''Is it over yet—has Wednesday won?" On being assured they heel, ho lay back with the remark:' "That's all right, then." With difficulty the ground was cleared, ami the disheartened teams struggled through the final quarter of an hour's play. No one paid much attention to the game, and there was no