Green shoots at last in new bid to make Crystal shine again

THE site of the athletics track at Crystal Palace National Sports Centre was home to the FA Cup final from 1895 to 1914. For its penultimate edition as host, more than 120,000 people flocked there to watch Aston Villa beat Sunderland.

- Matt Majendie

The venue was the backdrop to the first rugby meeting between England and the All Blacks a 15-0 defeat for the hosts and W G Grace even set up a cricket team in the wider area.

Icons of athletics have graced the track since its opening in the Sixties. Dave Bedford, the long-time race director of the London Marathon, broke the 10,000-metre world record on it, while the boss of World Athletics Seb Coe and his great rival Steve Ovett had countless duels at Crystal Palace.

In more recent times, the world's fastest man, Usain Bolt, was racing down the home straight in the lead-up to the London Olympics. British athletes at the time referred to it as "the Wembley of track and field".

Those Games, as glorious as they were, acted as a precursor for Crystal Palace to go to rack and ruin, with a bigger and better equipped venue for major athletics down the road.

The neglect got so bad that rats were scurrying across the indoor track, trees were growing out of the stands and pigeons were fouling tables at the café.

Only five years ago, there was talk of ripping up the main Jubilee stand and bringing the bulldozers in to do away with the outdoor and indoor tracks.