Woodbridge Road
Encyclopedia
The Sports Ground, Woodbridge Road is a cricket ground in Guildford
Guildford
Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

. The ground was given to the town in trust in 1911 by Sir Harry Waechter, Bart
Harry Waechter
Sir Harry Waechter, 1st Baronet DL was the only son of Sir Max Waechter. He was a businessman and philanthropist, who started developing the garden, now called "Ramster" near Chiddingfold in Surrey, which he purchased at some time between 1890 and 1900...

. Guildford Cricket Club play their home matches on the ground. Surrey CCC play one County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...

 match and one List A one-day match there each season, as well as some second XI fixtures. Until comparatively recently, hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

 was played on the ground in winter.
The ground was also used for football until at least 1921. It was the home ground of the amateur
Amateur sports
Amateur sports are sports in which participants engage largely or entirely without remuneration. Sporting amateurism was a zealously guarded ideal in the 19th century, especially among the upper classes, but faced steady erosion throughout the 20th century with the continuing growth of pro sports...

 team Guildford F.C. who existed until 1953 (not to be confused with the professional
Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...

 Guildford City team who played at Josephs Road) and was also used as the venue for some Surrey Senior Cup
Surrey Senior Cup
The Surrey Senior Cup is the senior Saturday cup 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...

 finals.

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

Surrey first used the ground in 1938, against Hampshire  from 13 to 15 July, winning by an innings. They have played there in most seasons since.

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
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 matches is Justin Langer
Justin Langer
Justin Lee Langer AM is a former international cricketer who represented Australia in 105 Test matches and the current Assistant Coach and Batting Coach of the Australian cricket team. A left-handed batsman, his opening partnership with Matthew Hayden was one of the most successful of all time...

's 342 for Somerset 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
Martin Bicknell
Martin Paul Bicknell is a former English cricketer. He played only four Test matches, but the last two, against South Africa in 2003, came ten years after the first two in the 1993 Ashes series. England had played 114 matches between his appearances, a record...

's against Leicestershire 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.http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/story/89125.html

The highest individual innings in a List A 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 List A match played in England.

The English women's cricket team
English women's cricket team
The England women's cricket team played their first Test match in 1934–35, when they beat Australia 2–0 in a three-Test series. Their current captain is Charlotte Edwards, replacing Clare Connor after her five-year tenure, which she finished by leading England to their first Ashes series win since...

 have played two Test Matches
Women's Test cricket
Women's Test cricket is the longest format of women's cricket and is the gender equivalent to men's Test cricket. Matches comprise four-innings and are held over a maximum of four days between two of the leading cricketing nations...

 on the ground, against New Zealand in 1996 http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/62/62487.html and against Australia in 1998.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/66/66305.html

The 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. http://www.ecb.co.uk/news/features/gordon-wins-groundsman-award,7635,EN.html

Surrey CCC currently play one first-class and one List A match at Woodbridge Road each season.

External links

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