Increased vigilance after attempted abduction

You may have read in the local or national news about an abduction attempt at a primary school in Worcester Park which is being linked with two previous incidents in the Kingston borough. Police report.that
"The third reported incident happened in a primary school in Worcester Park at approximately 15:15hrs on Monday 21 May. A man was seen on a push bike weaving in and out of cars parked in the public car park at the front of the school. The person who reported the incident shouted at the man and he rode away. This suspect is described as a white man in his early 20s wearing a woolly hat."

The description of the people involved is as follows:

He is described as white, with a tan, wearing a black jumper with a blue shirt underneath, blue trousers and a black woolly hat. It is believed he was accompanied by a woman who is described as white, with long black hair, of slim build, approximately 5' 6", wearing a red hooded top and red trousers

For more information you can read the Police report here:
Kingston police investigate alleged attempted abduction

Please contact the Police if you see these individuals or can provide any other information.

Scout Group Posters - We Have A Winner!

After my post the other day about the competing Scout Fair posters I had no expectation whatever that someone would come along and better them but not for the first time, as Mrs Brinkster would be only to happy to attest, I was wrong.

Along came a poster-related email today that brought a huge smile to my face. Now THIS is what Scout group posters should be all about!!

As you can see it's announcing the Cuddington Beer Festival which is organised by supporters of the 2nd Cuddington Scout Troop and is due to take place on 14th July, though the biggest challenge for me is working out which session to go to if I was forced to choose.

Rather than repeat the contents of the poster I'm only going to point out that you must buy your tickets in advance and that all other details, including sponsorship opportunities, can be found at www.scoutingforbeer.org.uk and having had a look at the site I'd say that they're very reasonably priced.

I also understand that they're putting up their posters with easily-removed cable ties, though if you're after souvenirs of last weekends scout fairs the posters were still there as of this morning...

Can anyone give me a lift home?

Let Battle Commence

Leaving Worcester Park station last night it seemed that there was a battle taking place for the hearts and minds of Worcester Parkers as posters for two rival scout jumble sales adorned the street furniture. Both events take place on Saturday at slightly overlapping times and while not a head-to-head struggle on the scale of, say, Britain's Got Talent versus The Voice I like to imagine some kind of competitiveness taking hold with scout leaders fingering their woggles in nervous anticipation.

The two protagonists in this event are the 4th Worcester Park Scouts and the 1st Old Malden Scout Group so here's a quick look at the two.

If it was to be judged on the standard of the poster then 1st Old Malden would be the clear winners with their colourful poster sturdily mounted on card and attached to the fence by the station with easily removed cable ties.

4th Worcester Park would win on coverage though as it seemed as though pretty much every lamppost on Central Road seemed to be sporting one as I walked up the hill so there was little chance of missing their monochrome encouragements to part with 20p for the pleasure of perusing their wares. Rather than using the cable ties favoured by the 1st Old Malden, scrap merchants and innumerable club/disco nights the 4th Worcester Park have opted for transparent sticky tape so I'll be interested to see how well that comes off.

Timing-wise the 1st give the start and end time of their event while the 4th provide only the start time, presumably in the hope of encouraging an opening rush, and with the overlapping time you can go to both if you're so inclined. The weather for Saturday is looking to be warm and dry, if a bit grey, which will please the 1st as they'll be on Plough Green rather than in the cosy scout hut the 4th will be holding theirs in.

If you're free on Saturday and have already sampled the joys of the Cheam Charter Fair then head on down to either or both groups to pick up a bargain and show your support to these great community institutions.

The one remaining, and currently unanswerable, point is which group will do the best job of clearing up after themselves...

Cheam Charter Fair In Full Swing

Photo from www.friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk

This week sees the Cheam Charter Fair taking place and while you've already missed the Traditional Cheam Charter Fair Day yesterday events continue on until Saturday with Whitehall in Bloom this afternoon from 2pm, a guided walk of Cheam and the Lumley Chapel tomorrow, Whitehall's own "Night at the Museum" until 9pm on Friday and concluding with the Special Cheam Charter Fair on Saturday with stalls down Park Road and at the Whitehall itself.

If you've never been there the Whitehall is a most amazingly preserved piece of history that has seen and survived more than its wooden frame could reasonably have been expected to when it was built around 500 years ago. If you want to imagine how hard that is try and think of what The Hamptons will look like in the year 2512!

For more information go to www.friendsofwhitehallcheam.co.uk and www.cheamcharterfair.org.uk

Scam-tastic Updated

*** UPDATE ***

Thanks to an email from another Worcester Park resident we've been able to identify the person originally reported in the last post from a picture on the Sutton Guardian website and pass on the details to the Police to attach to the original crime report. The person identified has previously had a two-year ASBO for aggressive begging amongst other things so is known to the Police

Good result all round!

Scam-tastic

I had an email from a fellow Brinkley Roadian about something that happened to her on Sunday evening which I'm passing on in the hope that it will be of help should you find yourself in a similar situation.

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Last night (Sunday 6th May) at around 10.40pm i reached the Kingfisher restaurant and a white male, approx 29 years of age, fairly well spoken, tall (approx 6 foot tall), black jeans and jacket approached me. My first thought was that he was going to ask me for directions. Conversation went like this:
"Do you speak English".
Me: "yes"!
Him: "ive just had a telephone call to tell me my girlfriend has been involved in a road traffic accident, the door of her vehicle is all smashed in. I need to get to the Mayday hospital urgently".

I realised at that point he was going to ask me for money so i told him i had no money on me, which i didn"t.
He appeared very much on edge and then he ran off, probably to ask someone else the same thing. I told my friend who works in the police and she said it sounded like a scam.

Just thought i should let you know and if you could pass the word around so other members of the community are aware. I mentioned it to my next door neighbour and she said the same thing happened to her when she was in sutton last year.
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It's All Happening Now!

"What's this!" I hear you cry (or not). "3 posts in two days?". This afternoon's excitement comes from something that's going to excite Miss Brinkster when see finds out, not the ugly yellow skip obviously but behind it lies the promise of the imminent opening of a Sushi and Bento place in the row of shops by the library. It's one of her favourites so if it's any good I can see this costing me a fair bit....

Last Chance To Buy...

I see that the people at Nicholls Interiors on Central Road are having a massive "closing down forever" sale offering discounts of up to 75% off! The only problem I can see with this is that their chosen method of advertising these massive discounts is to completely obscure them from your vision so that even trying to peek between the cracks of their huge posters yields not even a morsel of useful information. It could be that the place has already been stripped bare by eager bargain hunters but I will never know as it's (almost) equally possible that there's a zombie army waiting inside for more unfortunate victims. Best not to risk it eh?

A touch too much?

As I came out of the station this afternoon there were some workmen outside the Midas Touch apparently in the process of fixing some broken windows at the front. Do any of you keen-eyed locals know how they were broken? Protest at a runny creme brûlée perhaps?