Adams Park

Saturday 7 April 2012

Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Carlisle United

Aerial shot of Adams Park

Ratings
Overall Ground Quality : 7/10
Ease of getting there : 8/10
Atmosphere : 7/10
Programme : 8/10
View of Action : 7/10
Quality of the game : 6/10
The "football" feeling : 5/10
Chances of coming here for a random game : 2/10
Legroom : N/A
Surrounding area : 7/10

Overall : 57/100

Programme - £3.00

Adams Park Entrance

The Hillbottom Road End

Main Stand

Green King IPA Terrace

Main Stand

Woodlands Stand (Frank Adams Stand)

The Hillbottom Road End

Main Stand

The Hillbottom Road End

Woodlands Stand (Frank Adams Stand)

Main Stand

The Hillbottom Road End

Woodlands Stand (Frank Adams Stand)

The Hillbottom Road End

Main Stand

Green King IPA Terrace

Wycombe Wanderers 1-1
Carlisle United

Adrian and I left at 9:30am and drove down the M1
Southbound. Just before 11am, we stopped at Toddington services for a quick
toilet break and look at the back pages of the newspapers before continuing our
journey.

We continued southbound towards Hemel Hempstead where we
came off at junction 8 where we visited Hemel Hempstead Town. Upon our visit,
we noticed a game was being played at the ground. The game was in fact the
Webster Cup Final featuring Wheathampstead v Maple Cross. Vauxhall Road can
hold just over 3,000 supporters.

Our next stop was Chesham United where we improvised to get
the best pictures as possible by using Police cones to stand on to see over the
wall. Chesham United play at The Meadow which holds 5,000 spectators.

We finally arrived in High Wycombe at 12:45 and parked on
Combe Rise and walked towards Adams Park where we climbed up a hill bank calledSands Hill next to the ground where we got a few photos of the ground from
above. We then walked back down the hill after a rest on the bank and bought
our tickets and took more photos of the exterior of the ground before going in.

Adams Park was opened in 1990 originally having a capacity
of 6,000 with 1,267 seats in the Main Stand. The move was financed by the sale
of the club's former stadium Loakes Park to the health authorities to expand
the Wycombe General Hospital. Due to High Wycombe's hilly area, finding a
suitably flat piece of ground that was also in a convenient place was not easy.
A few months after entering the Football League in 1993, the crush barriers on
the terraces at Adams Park were upgraded, taking the capacity not far shy of
the 10,000 mark. In the summer of 1996 the 4,990-seater Woodlands Stand was
completed. The upper tier was constructed on the hill on top of the previous
Woodlands Terrace which is now the lower tier with seating. In the summer of
2001, the Hillbottom Road end was extended by an extra 977 seats to take the
capacity to 2,026. This was simply done by extending upwards of the original
structure. The ground overall holds just
over 10,000 spectators.

The game was a must win game for both Wycombe who were
trying to avoid relegation and Carlisle who were pushing for a play off spot.
The game saw a close encounter finish 1-1. Carlisle opened the scoring thanks
to a Grant Basey own goal on 62 minutes and a 90^th minute equaliser
scored by Wanderers’ Stewart Lewis.

We left the ground prompt, jogging back towards Combe Rise
where the car was parked and headed towards Aylesbury and then Milton Keynes before
heading Northbound on the M1 towards Leicestershire arriving home at 7pm.

Overall, Adams Park is a perfect ground for Wycombe
Wanderers. Part of the ground is surrounded by beautiful countryside and on the
other side of the ground is surrounded by plenty of industrial units. A major
negative is the very limited parking due to lots of yellow lines meaning you’ll
have to park a fair distance away from the ground.