Monday 1st May 2023 ko 11:00

Surrey County Premier League

AFC WALCOUNTIANS 1 (Davis 65)

STAINES & LAMMAS 0

Att 49

Free Entry

I know that I say this a lot, and that is a lot of my games choose me rather than the other way round. This was a case in point, with no end of Kent County League games at 3pm, and this Surrey game at 11:00. I followed quite a few hoppers to the extent that the car park at Old Walcountians felt like a meeting of the clans!

If you’re close to anywhere here its Banstead, but the Old Walcountians Sports Club is in the leafy village of Woodmansterne, a facility built by and for the former pupils of Wallington County Grammar School. There’s no end of sports here, rugby, lacrosse, tennis, hockey and tennis. The football was rather parachuted in, starting life in 1997 as Epsom Dynamos, but moving here, and becoming incorporated later.

Clock up the kind of numbers some of the hoppers present have and you’ll have seen quite a few of these multi-sports venues. What makes this one special is the quite unbelievable backdrop of the London skyline. You’ve got the lot, from Wembley Stadium in the West through to Canary Wharf, The Shard and to the Crystal Palace and Croydon transmitters in the (south) east.  It does pay to visit on a clear day though.

Some may remember the Surrey County Premier League as the Surrey Elite Intermediate League, the name changed for this season. Also rebranded were the visitors, who many remember as Staines Lammas playing in the Combined Counties League. They like other league members such as Worcester Park and Farleigh Rovers are in this league due to Step 6 ground grading, specifically floodlights. 

The home win saw Lammas’s lingering title hopes evaporate, but I suspect most us there will remember the time we spent here more for the view than the game. Just remember to check the weather before you go!