Soccer’s top of the Kops

QUESTION Why do so many football stadiums have a Kop stand?

The name Kop refers to the battle of Spion Kop during the Second Boer War.

The Afrikaans name for the 1,470ft hill not far from Ladysmith in Natal is Spioenkop: spioen means spy or lookout, and kop means hill or outcropping.

It was wrongly thought by the British to be of major strategic importance. On the night of January 1900, the Lancashire Fusiliers stormed the hill and suffered heavy losses.

The British military hadn’t realised Spion Kop was not the summit and that beyond it lay the higher ridges of Aloe Knoll and Twin Peaks, where the Boers were dug in. As the dawn mist cleared, they realised their fatal mistake.

During the fighting, 383 British soldiers died, with more than 1,000 seriously wounded. Despite the Boers losing 600, the British were forced to withdraw.

Football supporters who had fought in South Africa equated the large earth terracing at soccer grounds with the mound assaulted by the British.

The Woolwich Gazette of August 26, 1904, has a reporter recording a fan’s comment ‘Look at ’em on the Spion Kop’, referring to Arsenal’s then ground at Plumstead, South-east London.

When Arsenal moved to highbury in 1913, the term Spion Kop came to be associated with the large, unroofed terracing at Liverpool’s Anfield ground, built during the summer of 1906.

ernest edwards, sports editor of the Liverpool Daily Post & echo, felt the name to be an appropriate memorial to the soldiers who had died.

he wrote: ‘This huge wall of earth has been termed Spion Kop and no doubt this apt name will always be used in future in referring to this spot.’

The name was made formal in 1928 when a roof was built.

Tim Mickleburgh, Grimsby, Lincs. MANy British stadiums have a Kop stand to describe their steepest terraced stand in honour of the soldiers who died on Spion Kop.

Aston Villa’s holte end, a bank of terracing at the home end of Villa Park, once held 28,000 standing supporters. It’s a goal! Liverpool’s Kop celebrate The old South Bank at Wolves was also called the Kop and held a similar number. These were gradually reduced in size because of safety concerns.

Sheffield Wednesday’s Spion Kop at hillsborough was built in 1914 with a seated capacity of 11,210. By the mideighties, it had become the largest standing area in Britain, with a roofed terrace covering 22,000 spectators.

hillsborough was the scene of the disaster that was to change the nature of football grounds. Lord Justice Taylor’s report into the tragedy in which 96 fans were crushed to death recommended allseater stadiums.

hillsborough’s capacity was halved, while a new Spion Kop was built at Anfield, reducing its capacity to 12,390.

Other stadiums that have, or have had, Kop stands include Tottenham hotspur, Leicester City, Preston North end (the Bill Shankley Kop), Coventry City, Leeds United, Barnsley and Sheffield United.

Birmingham City’s Kop is unusual in that it runs alongside the pitch. Normally, the Kop is behind one of the goals and houses the most vocal home supporters.

Bob Smart, Maidenhead, Berks.

QUESTION Where does all the rubber from tyre wear go?

By The time the average car tyre ends up at the scrap yard, it weighs 3kg less than when it was new. It’s estimated that Britain discards 50 million tyres a year — 150,000 tonnes of burned rubber.

Most of this rubber wears off tyres by abrasion. Some becomes chemically incorporated into tarmacadam roads, both being partly made from petroleum.

Most rubber particulates wear off as small particles that are rinsed off the road by rain, or blown off by wind, ending up in the soil, on plants, and in lakes, rivers and streams.

The main ingredient in tyre rubber is the synthetic polymer styrene-butadiene. Recent studies suggest it may break down in water and affect river quality.

Some of the rubber forms dust particles, making it between the 12th and 15th major air pollutant in cities.

The effects of rubber in dust particulates we breathe are as yet unknown.

Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.

QUESTION Venice is built on stilts, so how is sewage dealt with?

VeNICe is a unique city, made up of 118 islands intersected by canals and connected by bridges. It sits in a lagoon that covers 212 square miles and is mostly just three to 10ft deep.

Up until the early 16th century, Venetians dealt with their waste in medieval fashion — by chucking it into its seawater canals. The tides swept the waste out to sea twice a day, making it very clean by medieval standards.

In the 16th century, Venice developed one of the first major sewer systems in the world.

A series of tunnels, called gatoli, channelled the city’s wastewater into the canals via outlets known as sbocchi. The sewage would then flow out into the lagoon with the tides.

Modern forms of sewage disposal have been implemented in the outskirts of the city and serving the peripheral islands, such as the areas of St helena, Giudecca, Santa Marta and Murano.

About 60 per cent of this population is served by eight sewage treatment plants. The mechanical-biological plants in Fusina and Campalto are the largest, treating the sewage of 200,000 people.

Most of the historical town, except businesses such as hotels, are required to have their own septic tanks, relying on the 16th century system of gatoli and sbocchi.

This has caused problems as between 12 and 15 per cent of sediments in the canals come from sewage discharge.

Significant levels of hepatitis A and enteroviruses have been detected in Venice’s canals.

J. E. Watt, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. n

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