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...