The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road is a

cricket ground Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. The ground was given to the town in trust in 1911 by Sir Harry Waechter, Bart. Guildford Cricket Club play their home matches on the ground.

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South Londo ...

usually play at least one first team match there each season, as well as some second XI and Surrey Stars fixtures. Until comparatively recently,

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

was played on the ground in winter. The ground was also used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

until at least 1921. It was the home ground of the

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

team Guildford F.C. who existed until 1953 (not to be confused with the

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

Guildford City team who played at Josephs Road) and was also used as the venue for some

Surrey Senior Cup The Surrey Senior Cup is the senior Saturday cup competition of the Surrey FA. It is currently competed for by teams playing in the top nine levels of the English football league system who are affiliated to the Surrey FA. The competition was i ...

finals. The ground capacity is 4,500. The two ends of the ground are known as the Pavilion End and the Railway End.

History

The

2nd Royal Surrey Militia The 2nd Royal Surrey Militia, later the 3rd Battalion, Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) was an auxiliary regiment raised in Surrey in the Home counties of England. From its formal creation in 1797 the regiment served in home defence in all o ...

used the 'Woodbridge Road cricket ground' for its annual drill from 1853 until the 1860s, and particularly during the

Crimean War The Crimean War was fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the Second French Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Kingdom of Sardinia (1720–1861), Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont fro ...

when the regiment was embodied for full time service but was quarantined at Guildford due to an outbreak of

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

. Surrey first used the ground in 1938, against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

from 13 to 15 July, winning by an innings. They have played there in most seasons since. In 1957, as part of a visit to Guildford to mark the 700th anniversary of the granting of a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

to the town by Henry III, the Queen and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

visited the ground during a county fixture, and the two teams (Surrey and Hampshire) were presented to them. The ground is on the small side, so that some high scores have been made there. The highest individual innings played on the ground in first-class matches is

Justin Langer Justin Lee Langer (born 21 November 1970) is an Australian cricket coach and former cricketer. He is the former coach of the Australia men's national team, having been appointed to the role in May 2018 and leaving in February 2022 and became ...

's 342 for

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

in 2006. Somerset made 688-8 declared in their first innings in this match, but Surrey responded with 717 - the highest total made on the ground - and the match was drawn. The most notable bowling feat is Martin Bicknell's against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

in 2000. He had match figures of 16-119, the second best match figures ever returned for Surrey. His figures in the second innings were 9-47. The highest individual innings in a

List A List A cricket is a classification of the Limited overs cricket, limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competit ...

one-day match on the ground is 203 by Alastair Brown in a 40 overs a side AXA Life League match against Hampshire in 1997. This remains the highest score in any 40 overs

match played in England. The English women's cricket team have played two Test Matches on the ground, against New Zealand in 1996 and against Australia in 1998. The former Woodbridge Road groundsman, Bill Clutterbuck, won the Ransomes Jacobsen Trophy for Achievements in Cricket Groundsmanship at the ECB's annual pre-season dinner for First Class Groundsmen for 2006. Surrey currently play at least one match at Woodbridge Road each season as part of a festival. In 2018 a new pavilion was opened offering much improved facilities, as well as being an events and private hire venue. In 2019, Surrey CCC took over ground maintenance. In 2019, the ground hosted two championship games versus Somerset and Yorkshire and four Surrey Stars matches in the

Women's Cricket Super League The Women's Cricket Super League (WCSL), known as the Kia Super League (KSL) for sponsorship reasons, was a semi-professional women's Twenty20 cricket competition in England and Wales operated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The comp ...

season.

References

External links

Cricinfo article about the groundGuildford Cricket Club and ground information
{{Guildford Cricket grounds in Surrey Sports venues in Guildford Surrey County Cricket Club grounds Sports venues completed in 1911 1911 establishments in England

History

See also

References

External links