Ayr United Winter Sports - Football


Ayr on a


shoestring!


Chris McCullough visits Somerset Park, home to Ayr United, to meet groundsman Jason Waddell and view one of the best football pitches in Scotland, despite the vagaries of the weather on Scotland’s west coast and a tight budget


S


itting on a prime site in the centre of Ayr on Scotland’s west coast is the home of Ayr United Football Club, known affectionately to the loyal


supporters as Somerset Park. Formed in 1910, Ayr United was an amalgamation of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr Football Club, which is said to be the only Scottish Football League club to have been formed from a merger of two pre-existing league clubs. Inverness Caledonian Thistle was a merger between a league and non- league team, in case you are wondering. Somerset Park, in the town’s Tryfield Place, has a capacity of 10,185 including 1,549 seated and was officially opened in 1896. It was commissioned in 1888 to replace Beresford Park which in fact was being used for the Ayr Cattle Show at the time. Ayr United bought Somerset Park for


92 I PC APRIL/MAY 2017


£2,500 in 1920 and its record attendance of 25,225 was set on 13th September 1969 in a match against Rangers. Floodlights were first installed in 1970, when supporters raised £12,201 towards the £18,000 that was required. There is only one side of the traditional


stadium at Somerset Park that has a seated area and it is raised above the pitch level and is covered.


On the other side of the full size pitch is a


large open terrace that extends around the corners of the ground. Both the seated area and the terraced area are split between home and away fans, who are segregated by a large fence running down the middle of them.


With Somerset Park sitting on prime


development land, it is not surprising there have been a number of offers to relocate the historic stadium to an out of town location and, during the 1990s, United obtained


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