Grier's Guide to Carshalton
When: Saturday 12th October 2019, 3.00pm
The town: Historic village long-since swallowed up by London and now part of the Borough of Sutton. Former Prime Minister John Major was born there.
The ground: War Memorial Sports Ground, Colston Ave, Sutton, Carshalton SM5 2PW. A fine ground with cover at both ends and a big, old-school terrace on the far side. It has a 3G pitch.
Directions: A short walk from Carshalton station, reached in around 45 minutes from Kingston with changes at Wimbledon and Sutton. It should take about half an hour by car via any of Stoneleigh, Worcester Park or Morden. The X26 bus runs direct from Kingston to Carshalton High Street via New Malden, taking around 45 minutes.
Our record there: Colston Avenue was the venue for Ks' 5-0 win over Faversham Town in 2016's Alan Turvey Trophy final. Last season we faced Carshalton in August and we picked up a 1-1 draw, Louie Theophanous' equaliser getting us our first point of the campaign.
Recent form: A good start, at time of writing they're eighth in the league and have kept five clean sheets in their last seven games. Today (5 October) they face a mammoth trip to Lowestoft in the FA Cup having already seen off Bracknell and Harrow.
Players to watch: Their joint-top scorer with four goals is Jerry Amoo, who had two spells in the red and white hoops. He is one of four ex-Ks now at Colston Avenue, alongside Daniel Pappoe, Ola Sogbanmu and Jordan Cheadle.
Crowd: Well-supported club and with it being fairly local to us we tend to travel well there.
Drinking: Just around the corner from both the station and the ground is The Hope, perhaps the best pub of the whole Bostik League season. It's serious about its beer and has picked up multiple CAMRA Greater London pub of the year awards. It's community-owned, has a bar billiards table and a cat with its own Twitter profile: @pubcathope
Food: The Hope does hearty pub food at good value and The Sun and The Racehorse also do food. There are no restaurants or takeaways in the area, so if you don't fancy pub food the ground is probably the only option.
