Letter: Thank You Dragon for Helping Guildford City

Published on: 14 Jul, 2023
Updated on: 14 Jul, 2023

From: Barry Underwood

club secretary, Guildford City Football Club

See: As a GBC Director I Will Try and Help Guildford City FC

I wanted to take the opportunity of thanking your editor for his considerable help in introducing to us Guildford Borough Council director Ian Doyle into the debate on the poor quality of the pitch at Spectrum.

We have since attended a site visit with interested parties, and attended a meeting on July 3 with representatives of GBC, its parks department and Freedom Leisure.

I felt that the meeting, chaired by Ian, made significant progress in highlighting the issues and problems faced by various parties. There were a number of action points and the next meeting will show whether significant change is likely.

Thank you also to The Guildford Dragon NEWS for covering the story. My colleague and Guildford City supporter Brian Holt tells me that you are happy to publish updates on the pitch issue, and we will certainly keep you informed as we move forward.

As we told GBC, a town the size of Guildford deserves a football club playing at a level similar to Aldershot, Dorking and Woking. That is to say, the level that our much-missed old club played at. We are working hard to improve the club’s standing in the game but we do need as well the support of our local authority.

Editor’s response: Only yesterday I met with old school friends and we were all lamenting the loss to Guildford of a football club of the status you mention. Two of them were regular attendees at Josephs Road in the late 60s early 70s. Good luck with your efforts and thank you for taking the time to write and for undertaking to keep us posted.