"Guildford City - The Spectrum"

Visited on 30th December to see Guildford City v CB Hounslow Utd in he Combined Counties Premier
I have to say I don’t like sports centre grounds, I find them completely soulless. Unfortunately for Guildford City, the Spectrum is the name of the City’s Leisure Centre

Location

The Spectrum itself is located alongside the A25 road. About 300 yards east of the intersection with the A3. Across the A25 from the centre is Stoke Park and 5 minutes walk across this will bring you to Guildford – London Road Station. Guildford Town centre and the main railway station are further away – possibly 20-30 minutes walk away. The nearest pubs are the Row Barge (the other side of the A3) or the Kings Head, which is across the park. Parking-wise, obviously there is a large car park at the Leisure Centre itself, however the ground itself is at the rear of the complex and is clearly signposted with a multi-storey next door

View

The football ground itself is located in the middle of the Centres Athletics track (another thing that I really don’t like). The turnstiles are situated at the top of a grass bank (which is not accessible to spectators). A path leads down to pitch level and then around to a group of portacabins. The first of these house male and female toilets. Next door to these, under a ‘bus shelter’ are some tables constituting the club shop – something you don’t see often at a Step 5 ground. The clubhouse houses a bar whilst the far end of this contains a hatch from which hot drinks and food is sold. The changing rooms are at the far end of this row.

All of these facilities are separated from the pitch by the running track which is very definitely out of bounds to spectators, which means that people watching from “pitchside” are a good 10 metres from the touchline. The far side of the pitch is home to a metal ‘arena type’ stand which contained no seats – nor did I see anyone in it during the match (or figure out how to get to it). The main spectator area at the ground is the seater stand which is raised above all of the portacabins, accessible by steps at either end of the buildings. The stand contains over 100 seats plus concrete terracing. The seating area is undercover although, from the amount of water on the floor, I suspect the roof leaks ! The seats and terrace give a raised view of the match, but the athletics track means that this is a distant view and far from ideal.

Facilities

Toilets are at either end of the portacabins and are OK. There is a club shop which sells a variety of merchandise (they sell Guildford City stress balls which might say something about the football you are about to watch). The programme is good for this level with a few bits to read, match reports etc

Food & Drink

The clubhouse (clubportacabin) sells alcholoic beverages whilst the teabar sells your normal array of hot food / drinks. They had 5 different soups and a variety of sandwiches as well

Police & Stewards

Friendly enough

Atmosphere

The running track really doesn't help. The hardcore were noisy enough, but you are so far from the pitch...

Write your own review of Spectrum

Have you been to Spectrum? Write a review!