Cardiff Athletic Club (CAC) is a

multi-sport club A sports club or sporting club, sometimes an athletics club or sports society or sports association, is a group of people formed for the purpose of playing sports. Sports clubs range from organisations whose members play together, unpaid, and ...

based in

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

, Wales. It is the owner of the

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park (), also known as The Arms Park, is primarily a rugby union stadium, and also has a bowling green. It is situated in Cardiff, Wales, next to the Millennium Stadium. The Arms Park was host to the 1958 British Empire and Common ...

site, however, it is also a major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of corporate stock refers to an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the ...

of Cardiff Rugby Football Club Ltd and therefore has a large influence over the rugby club's two sides. Cardiff Athletic Club was established in 1922, and has been the main body responsible for much of the premier amateur sporting activities in Cardiff. The Athletic Club has

bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which players try to roll their ball (called a bowl) closest to a smaller ball (known as a "jack" or sometimes a "kitty"). The bowls are shaped (biased), so that they follow a curve ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

sections.

History

In 1922 Cardiff Football Club, later renamed Cardiff Rugby Football Club, and Cardiff Cricket Club amalgamated to form the Cardiff Athletic Club. Before that in 1878, the two Clubs had been granted the use of Cardiff Arms Park at a peppercorn rate, by the 3rd Marquess of Bute, who owned the site at the time. The two clubs wanted to preserve their grounds, so the cricket and rugby clubs joined forces, and created the Cardiff Athletic Club. The Athletic Club purchased the site from the 4th Marquess of Bute, apart from a strip of land adjoining Westgate Street, for £30,000 on the understanding that the site should be preserved for recreational purposes only. By 1935, the 4th Marquis of Bute built a new block of flats on his land adjoining Westgate Street. There had been previous attempts to merge the clubs, in November 1892 and between 1902 and 1904, when the two clubs worked closely to fund a new pavilion to serve the needs of both clubs, but it was not until 1922 that the merger finally took place. Later the Cardiff Arms Park Company Limited was formed by Cardiff Athletic Club, Arms Park (Cardiff) Greyhound Racing Company Limited and the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

(WRU). By 1933 the Cardiff Athletic Club acquired a 99-year

lease A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

from the Cardiff Arms Park Company Limited on a rental of £200 per

annum A year is a unit of time based on how long it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. In scientific use, the tropical year (approximately 365 solar days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds) and the sidereal year (about 20 minutes longer) are more e ...

. Since the 1930s, Cardiff Arms Park has changed considerably, with new facilities and amenities, but it was the building of the National Stadium which would see the greatest change for the Cardiff Athletic Club. After an agreement between Cardiff Athletic Club and the WRU, the freehold of the rugby ground was transferred solely to the WRU in July 1968. Work could then begin on the new

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football ...

Glamorgan County Cricket Club Glamorgan County Cricket Club () is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of Wales, historic county of Gla ...

and the cricket and hockey sections of the Athletic Club moved to

Sophia Gardens Sophia Gardens ( ; ) is a public park in Riverside, Cardiff, Wales, on the west bank of the River Taff. International test cricket Test cricket is a Forms of cricket, format of the sport of cricket, considered the game’s most prestig ...

in 1967, and by 1995 the cricket section moved again to the Diamond Ground in Whitchurch, Cardiff., although the hockey section still play at the Sophia Gardens complex. This allowed the cricket ground to be demolished and a new rugby union stadium built on the same site for Cardiff RFC, who would move out of the old rugby ground, allowing the National Stadium to be built, for the sole use of the

Wales national rugby union team The Wales national rugby union team () represents the Welsh Rugby Union in men's international rugby union. Its governing body, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), was established in 1881, the same year that Wales played their first international agai ...

. By 1999, the National Stadium had been replaced by the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

Present day

Cardiff Athletic Club has five sports sections; *bowls section ( Cardiff Athletic Bowls Club (CABC)). The Club was established in 1923, and ever since then, the club has used the Cardiff Arms Park as its bowling green. *cricket section ( Cardiff Cricket Club). The Club was established in 1819. The club initially played on various cricket grounds, mostly in eastern Cardiff, due to better drainage. The club then moved to

. Cardiff Cricket Club played their final game at Cardiff Arms Park against Lydney Cricket Club on 17 September 1966. In 1998, Cardiff Athletic Club sold the Sophia Gardens ground to

and the cricket section of Cardiff Athletic Club (Cardiff Cricket Club) for many years had no fixed cricket ground, while they were looking for a suitable cricket ground. In 1997 the club moved to their permanent home of the Diamond cricket ground at Forest Farm, Whitchurch, Cardiff and by July 2007 a new pavilion had been built on the ground. *hockey section ( Cardiff & Met Hockey Club including the Cardiff Athletic Ladies Hockey Club), *rugby section ( Cardiff Rugby Football Club as its major shareholder. The club was founded in 1876Parry-Jones (1989), pg 59 and played their first few matches at

, shortly after which relocating to Cardiff Arms Park where they have been based ever since. Cardiff Athletic Club also has a minority shareholding in Cardiff Rugby) ''and'' *tennis section (

Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club, also known as either the Cardiff Tennis Club, or the Lisvane Tennis Club, is a tennis club based in Lisvane, Cardiff, Wales. Lisvane Tennis Club amalgamated with the tennis section of Cardiff Athletic Club in 2003 to ...

). Tennis was first played on Cardiff Arms Park in 1867. The tennis club joined with the existing rugby and cricket sections of CAC in the mid-twenties. Cardiff Tennis Club relocated to a new permanent location in 2003 by amalgamating with the Lisvane Tennis Club based in North Cardiff to form the Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club. Each section is represented on the Management Committee of the Club. The Athletic Club is one of the few multi-sport clubs in the United Kingdom. File:Cardiff Athletics Bowls Club, Cardiff.jpg, The Bowls Section
( Cardiff Athletic Bowls Club)
play at the Cardiff Arms Park bowling green File:Cardiff Cricket Club building (geograph 7309520).jpg, The Cricket Section
( Cardiff Cricket Club)
play at the Diamond Cricket Ground File:Sport Wales National Centre September 2023 01.jpg, The Hockey Section
( Cardiff & Met Hockey Club)
play at the National Hockey Centre File:Clubhouse, Cardiff Athletic Club.jpg, The Rugby Section
( Cardiff Rugby Football Club)
play at Cardiff Arms Park rugby ground File:Lisvane (CAC) Tennis Club.JPG, The Tennis Section
(

)
play in the Cardiff suburb of Lisvane

Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir

The Arms Park has its own choir, called the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir. It was formed in 1966 as the Cardiff Athletic Club Male Voice Choir, and today performs internationally with a schedule of concerts and tours. In 2000, the choir changed their name to become the Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir ().

Notes

External links

Official website of Cardiff Athletic ClubCardiff Athletic Bowls ClubCardiff Cricket ClubCardiff and Met Hockey ClubCardiff RFC (Cardiff Rugby Football Club Ltd)Lisvane (CAC) Tennis ClubOfficial website of Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir
{{Cardiff Arms Park and Millennium Stadium timeline Sports clubs and teams established in 1922 Multi-sport clubs in the United Kingdom Sport in Cardiff

History

Present day

Cardiff Arms Park Male Choir

See also

Notes

External links