Only one social in November was the social to the dark beer festival at The Hope in Carshalton on Thursday 27th November the first day of the festival. We were supposed to meet at Horsham on the 11:14, but Jon Purdom on the earlier train reported 'cows on the line' which meant disaster for the 11:14 and us. Frantic messaging of alternative routes followed so Pete Brown and I got to the Hope only 1 hour after it started; Jon Purdom, Rachel Hardingham and Steve Weller from A&A were there already having caught the 'cows' train. Despite being only an hour late, the queue for the beer festival bar was already 15 minutes long and got longer as the day wore on. Richard and Anne Earl turned up later, along with Chris Ray and Heather Lawn, and we managed to squeeze round a table, scaring off the earlier occupants. Beer was good though.