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West Bromwich Albion Football Club - The Premiership One for the record books! Like many of you out there, I must confess to being a bit of an anorak at times! There's nothing better than flicking through the contents of a new book or discovering a great web site and unearthing some really obscure facts to do with football grounds. One such list recently caught my attention. The page in question was headed with the intriguing title: 'The highest football grounds in England and Wales' and continued to rank, in descending order of altitude, the clubs and grounds which were amongst the top few in the country. From the professional ranks*, The Hawthorns, home of West Bromwich Albion Football Club (shown above) led the way being 168 metres above sea level. This entry was closely followed by Vale Park (Port Vale FC) and Boundary Park (Oldham Athletic FC) with respective altitudes of 160m and 155m. In Scotland the top clubs are given as Motherwell FC and then Airdrie FC. Taking into account all football clubs (including those from the non professional game), West Brom actually rank sixth. This means that five non league clubs head the overall list. Any ideas? You can check out the definitive clubs and stadia by clicking on the following Wikipedia web link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highest_English_football_stadia_by_altitude However as hoppers we hardly need to get the ski goggles and oxygen masks out if we compare it to the dizzy heights of either the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City (7,400 feet) or the Estadio Hernando Siles in Bolivia (9,800 feet). Now that's height for you! * To view the full list of all 92 (Premier and Football League) clubs ranked from highest to lowest travellers should try out this fascinating link: http://www.midfielddynamo.com/stadia/england_highest.htm#SectionLowest Photo: from WBA v Newcastle United (Premiership) 0-3, on 30/10/05 by Mike Latham |
