THE name of Croydon's newest beer has been chosen – thanks to an Advertiser reader.

Dozens of entries were received in our bid to find a new name for the Cronx Brewery's latest ale, which will be hitting the pumps early next month.

And with everything from "Crocus" and "Eagle Flyer" to "Crog" and "Chicken Bones" rejected, Dawn Assefa's suggestion of Nektar was chosen as the winning name.

The ale is the sixth brew to be launched by the New Addington-based-Cronx, which has gone from strength to strength in the year since it launched Croydon's first brewery in 60 years.

The chosen name reflects the ale's Polish roots, according to Cronx co-owner Mark Russell.

He told the Advertiser: "We got so many entries for the competition but as soon as we saw Dawn's idea it stuck in our head.

"We wanted a name that fitted with our branding while also suiting the beer, which is made using the Polish hop Marynka.

"That's why Nektar is such a good name; it is the Polish spelling but it also fits in with us and it sounds delicious!

"A lot of other names we received were quite traditional, and although some were good, this was the obvious winner."

The victor will get to enjoy a brewing day at The Cronx HQ in Vulcan Way, as well as receiving a special presentation box of three bottles of beer.

Nektar, a pale ale of about 4.5 per cent volume, is to be launched at pubs across the borough and beyond in May.

The Cronx, led by Mark and co-owner Simon Dale, has enjoyed huge success since brewing its first beer in August last year, with its ales now on sale at pubs across London, as well as other locations including Crystal Palace's ground Selhurst Park.

Mark added: "We've done better then we expected; in fact we didn't have enough space to keep up with demand, but we bought another fermenter last week which means we can now keep up and experiment a little more.

"Nektar will be our sixth beer and we are also launching another one at the same time, so it's a very exciting month for us."

After hearing she had won our competition, Dawn, 48, from Coulsdon, told the Advertiser: "I'm really thrilled. I knew I had chosen a damn good name but I wasn't expecting to win at all.

"It's really great to win and I can't wait for my brew day.

"It will also be great to see the name that I've chosen on the bottles."

AN ACCOUNTANT is defying the stereotype and proving his profession's creative credentials, by funding a movie through smart accounting.

Farook Owadally's firm has financed One Night In Istanbul – a film about Liverpool FC's unlikely Champions League triumph in 2005 – through a government scheme that offers tax breaks to investments in certain smaller start-up enterprises.

Owadally and King accountants, in Park Lane, set up Big Ears Entertainment Ltd as an Enterprise Investment Scheme to fund the movie.

He got involved after being approached by producers from Stray Dogs Films, who wanted to transfer the hit play, about Liverpool FC fans' escapades in the Turkish city during and after their famous victory over AC Milan, to the big screen.

Mr Owadally said: "They knew that I was in accountancy and that I have access to raising finance from high net-worth individuals.

"I am, for my sins, a supporter of Liverpool Football Club."

Shooting started in Istanbul late last year, after Mr Owadally raised the "in the millions" budget within a year, from 30 investors.

"Some come on board the moment they understand the tax advantage," he said. "Some come on board because of the link with Liverpool Football Club."

Due to feature at Cannes Film Festival this year, the movie stars big British names including The Full Monty's Paul Barber – also famous for playing Denzel in sitcom Only Fools and Horses – Steven Waddington and Lucien Laviscount.

"I did not know who he was," said Mr Owadally, of the latter, a former Big Brother contestant.

"But I told my daughters and they were screaming."

The plot follows two Liverpool cabbies and their sons' jaunt in Istanbul to watch their beloved team play in the European Cup Final.

"The chemistry between them [the actors] is absolutely magical," said Mr Owadallt. "They get on really well and I hope the audience will be able to see it."

Due to be released on DVD and in cinemas, it is unlikely to be Mr Owadally's only venture into the big screen.

"We have two more in the pipeline," he said.

"Because we have gone through the process of putting it together and meeting with the productions company, it should be much easier next time."

Mr Owadally's firm, sponsors of the Croydon Business Awards this year for the third year running, is thought to be the only accountants dabbling in movies in the borough.

"It is a niche area," said Mr Owadally.

"You have to understand how EIS works. And how you make sure the budget is not blown and you have not made a movie."

PALACE make the short journey across south London to face Millwall tonight, in what should be a super-charged atmosphere.

The sides had to settle for a 2-2 draw at Selhurst back in October, which turned out to be Dougie Freedman's last game in charge of the Eagles, but if Palace are to guarantee a play-off place they will need to show lots of grit in this London derby.

All 2,200 tickets in the North Stand Upper Tier at the New Den have been snapped up and there will be no further tickets available to Palace supporters.

Both clubs are also advising not to travel to the stadium if you haven't got a ticket.

When it comes to recent game history, there have been five draws in the last nine clashes since 2003, with Palace's last defeat in south Bermondsey coming in January 2011.

Palace striker Jermaine Easter, on loan at Millwall, won't be able to face his parent club.

However, captain and centre-back Danny Shittu received a second yellow card after the final whistle last Tuesday for protesting too much over Blackburn's winning penalty, so he looks set to miss the game and that will be a big boost for Palace.

Parr is confident his team-mates can get the job done going into the final games and says it's important to show more "character".

"I think at this time of the year it doesn't matter who you play, they're going to be tough games anyway at Blackburn and Millwall," he said.

"We've just got to keep going from what we did last Saturday. We showed a lot of character and did a lot better because it was difficult especially without scoring.

"Now we have something to build on and I think we'll have three good games to end on before the play-offs."

THE detective who led the investigation into the murder of Umar Tufail believes it was an "isolated" killing and not the result of gang rivalry.

Detective Chief Inspector Lee Watling and his team's painstaking work led to the conviction of best friends Sanchez Thomas and Kyrone Daley for shooting Umar, 25, outside his house in South Norwood on July 15 last year.

Thomas and Daley, both 19, were jailed for a total of 47 years last week after being found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.

Throughout the trial the jury were told of Thomas' involvement in south London gang Squeeze Section, and that the "deliberate execution" was a revenge attack provoked by his feud with Umar's younger brother Amir, a member of Croydon's Block Cartel gang.

Another of the borough's "crews", Don't Say Nothing (DSN), was also mentioned.

DCI Watling told the Advertiser that the drive-by shooting was the result of a disagreement between two people who were childhood friends, and did not have the hallmarks of a gang slaying.

He said: "Was it part of a larger gang problem or an isolated incident? Generally if you have a gang rivalry you get a sequence of events after a murder, such as revenge attacks or reprisals.

"In this case there doesn't appear to have been any follow-up. The sad thing is, as Thomas admitted in court, he and Amir had been friends at school.

"It's easy to think that these people were part of gangs, but whatever has happened appears to have been between them and a small group of friends."

This bad blood began when Amir, known by the street name Renz, threatened Thomas, nicknamed Limitz, with a knife in Regina Road, South Norwood, in October 2011, before stabbing him in the arm near the sports shop where he worked in Tooting in March 2012.

Thomas did not report the incident to the police or seek medical attention.

Instead, he resolved to get even and, on the afternoon of July 15, drove to Amir's house with Daley in the passenger seat and confronted Umar, who was sitting in a car outside his home.

First he accused him of "being Renz" and, even when he had established it was his brother, shot him in the head anyway.

With only one witness seeing the grey car drive away – Amir's friend Stephen Crawford – CCTV footage became the key to solving the murder.

DCI Watling said: "What we didn't have were witnesses, other than Crawford, at the scene, so tracking the grey vehicle he saw, using CCTV, was always where we would get our break.

"If I was to tell you that we looked through more than 100 hours of CCTV, that wouldn't be an exaggeration.

"We looked for any and every source possible; whether that's council-owned cameras, Transport for London or private.

"Cameras on public transport, like the buses which enabled us to track the movement of Thomas and Daley's car, can prove very useful, though viewing the recordings for relevant footage which can be just a second or so long takes meticulous work.

"It's up to us to put together all the pieces of the jigsaw."

As a result of their efforts, police were able to produce a convincing picture of Thomas and Daley's journey from their homes in Unity Close to the scene of the murder and then back to West Norwood, before they took a minicab to a friend's house in Fulham.

The footage disproved Thomas' claim that another person in the car, a member of DSN, was the shooter.

Judge Kramer praised the police for their "detailed" investigation. "It was a team effort," said DCI Watling.

A YOUNG and healthy father of two died suddenly in his sleep on the morning of his sister's wedding.

Dean Chapman suffered sudden adult arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) on December 6 last year, an inquest heard this week.

The 28-year-old, of Dunley Drive, had no alcohol or drugs in his system when he died and a range of medical tests found no obvious health problem.

Croydon coroner Dr Roy Palmer gave his cause of death as SADS, saying it was a "diagnosis of exclusion".

"If we have looked for anything else and found nothing then we are left with this," he said.

The syndrome is given as the cause for the roughly one in 20 sudden cardiac deaths for which there is no obvious reason.

Dean's partner of 10 years and mother of his children Danielle Humphris said this week life was a "daily struggle" without him.

"There is no reason for it – it is very hard for me as it makes no sense," she said.

"I want to make people aware of it, the fact that it does happen more often than people think.

"It is one of those things – the luck of the draw."

Close blood relatives of a person who has died of SADS are advised to have tests to check whether there is any inherited underlying medical condition.

Ms Humphris said she and Dean had planned to marry in Las Vegas this year, alongside their children, Jessica, 7, and Jake, 3.

"Everyone else had the big white wedding; I wanted to be different, so I said we could go and get married through an Elvis impersonator," she said.

"So us and the kids would just go out there and come back and say, 'Look what we have done'."

She added that Dean, a refuse collector who worked for Croydon Council, was "devoted to his family".

"He was very happy doing what he was doing, as long as me and the kids were happy – and we were," she said.

"That is the thing that mattered to him. We did not need all the expensive things in life.

"We just had each other."

Dean had attended Broadmead Primary School and then Selsdon High before studying plumbing at college.

He then started working for the council.

Remembering the morning of the wedding when he died, she said Dean had taken to bed, feeling unwell.

Ms Humphris added: "When I left him in bed, he was snoring.

"As was said in the inquest, I had to go and do the bride's hair – I was maid of honour.

"Then his brother called me. I got to the hospital the same time as the ambulance because I was driving like a maniac.

"It felt like hours but it was minutes [until] the doctor came out – I did not want to hear what they wanted to say."

Dean sister's wedding went ahead on that day, added Danielle, who did not attend.

PLANS are continuing to progress for the first Croydon Heritage Festival this summer.

The Whitgift Foundation is presenting the inaugural festival from June 3 to 23 as a "celebration of past and present".

People of all ages will be able to get involved in a wide variety of events and activities during the festival, including photographic exhibitions, donning period costume, short-film competitions, historic tours and expert talks.

The centrepiece will be a major town centre event taking place in North End on Saturday, June 8, from 11am to 4pm, as well as the South End Food Festival.

Martin Corney, clerk of the Whitgift Foundation, said: "With Westfield and Hammerson about to build a new £1billion shopping centre in the heart of Croydon our town is looking forward to a bright future, so there is no better time to celebrate its rich and colourful past.

"We are excited by the prospect of facilitating a programme of events from across the wider Croydon community because the town and borough has so much that is worth celebrating for the enjoyment of people of all ages."

If your organisation would like to get involved, call Rose on 020 8774 5966 or visit www. croydonheritagefestival.co.uk

AFTER a long, dark and very cold winter, spring appears to have sprung in Croydon town at last. The lighter evenings are here and some days have even been mild enough to brave the playground... without an anorak!

Traditionally this is the time of year to spring clean, and there is no reason for spring cleaning to be purely for the reorganisation, tidying and cleaning of our homes. It's also a great time of year for a mental de-clutter. We can take a critical look at the methods we're using to raise our children and to spring clean our parenting practices.

Since last spring, your children have aged a full year. There is no resting on our laurels as parents. We hit a plateaux of calm in which we can predict our children's wants, needs and demands.

Each plateau is separated from the next by a mini-revolution. Some new stage of physical, emotional or social development kicks in and throws all of our parenting methods up in the air again.

Parents have to learn to manage this "new" child. It is too easy to miss these transitions to new ages and stages, and to keep attempting to use the parenting methods that used to work.

As you look at each area of your family life and parenting, you will be able to assess how smoothly each one is running at the moment. Some of the main areas include; mealtimes, bedtime, getting dressed, school or childcare arrangements, study habits and chores. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. What area do you need to spring clean in your family? Which area will make the most impact on the happiness and smooth running of your home and family life if it is adjusted? Start with that one.

2. What strategies are still working and having the required effects?

3. Which strategies have reached their sell-by-date and need to be discarded or adjusted?

4. List all of the ideas you have for a new way to manage this area of family life. Remember to discuss and ask for ideas from trusted friends and family, and to consult books, parenting websites and parenting experts whose philosophy fits with your own. Watch other parents and notice what works for them.

5. If you have a partner with whom you share parenting responsibility, discuss 1-4 with them and decide on 6 in collaboration. In this way, the message coming from both of you will be consistent, and you will have each other's support as you implement any changes.

6. Choose a maximum of two new strategies and put them into place with a firm commitment to try it out for a reasonable amount of time. If you want to, adjust it to fit better with your knowledge of what works for your children and household.

7. After the allotted trial time, discuss the impact of your new methods and decide what has worked and what isn't right for you at this time.

You may find that by changing one area and bringing more harmony to it, there will be a corresponding change in other areas of family life too. Giving yourself thinking space and making the resulting small changes that you decide on is a simple and powerful process. Its impacts can snowball and bring bigger gains by way of more contentment and harmony in your home.

CREATED out of a desire to provide a "venue for everyone" after the horrors of the 2011 riots, Matthews Yard has celebrated its first birthday.

Founder Saif Bonar says that while the venture, located in premises off historic Surrey Street, has not yet turned promise into profitability, it has made a real mark in the life of the town.

Mr Bonar has built the venue's reputation by offering what he believes is a wide range of facilities at a price which people from across Croydon can afford.

The result is that the premises now offers hot-desk space for start-up businesses, complete with wi-fi access, meeting rooms and a bar and cafe.

Matthews Yard is also becoming an area increasingly used for entertainment, including comedy acts and live music, and an as place where people choose to simply come to relax with friends.

Work is almost completed on a £5,000 project to convert part of the rear of the building in to a small theatre capable of staging plays and offering space for rehearsals.

Mr Bonar said: "We won't be able to replace the facilities which were offered at the Warehouse Theatre or the Clocktower, but we will be offering small grassroots groups the opportunity to put on productions which they could not do elsewhere."

He hopes the theatre will be up and running within the next couple of months.

Reflecting further on the first year's performance, Mr Bonar said: "Things have gone a lot better than I thought they would, in terms of creating goodwill in the town.

"We have established ourselves as a part of Croydon quite quickly."

He added: "Financially the situation has not gone as well as we hoped, but things are looking up and over the past month we made more money than we did in the previous four.

"I think that over the next year things are going to get a lot better, and we will be making sure we start building the business rather than building the premises."

IT'S only their first season as a new club and they've just reached a cup final, but for manager Antony Williams, he hopes it's just the start of good things to come for AFC Croydon Athletic Football Club.

The club are set to face Staines Lammas in the Lemon Recordings Division One Challenge Cup on Bank Holiday Monday, May 6, and Williams has always had an eye on having a strong campaign.

It was only last summer where more than 80 players turned up for trials to form a brand new squad, and after trimming the shortlist down to 20, Williams' side have managed to have a successful season in the Combined Counties League Division One.

"Reaching the cup final is a great achievement for us, considering where we started way back in June without a single piece of equipment or any players for that matter," Williams told Advertiser Sport.

"Everyone connected with AFC Croydon Athletic has worked extremely hard to try and build a club and team the supporters can be proud of once again - I hope this is just the start of that journey.

"My personal aim was to achieve promotion this season, but I know at the start the club were happy to just be back playing competitive football.

"Perhaps I was a bit optimistic considering our starting position, but I firmly believed that we had a group of lads that were capable of getting out of our league.

"I know as the season progressed the expectations started to rise and chairman Paul Smith started talking about promotion, especially with us being in the mix until the Easter period.

"This league is tough and every team is capable of beating each other.

"To finish the season with a cup final appearance and also reaching the quarter-final of the Premier Cup and a good FA Vase run in our first season is not bad."

At present, AFC Croydon are the sixth-highest scorers in the league and Williams believes they have the players to hurt teams on their day.

However, an eye on player recruitment for next season has already begun and the boss hinted that more experienced players might be required to push on.

"Both myself and assistant Duncan Alger have been working hard identifying players we feel would make us improve," he said.

"We both believe that we have lacked experience at times, but I am hoping to retain the majority of my current squad.

"I do always want my sides to play good attacking football and will look to continue to do that.

"Our forwards have done well with Joe Loyza, Lee Jansen and Edward Cardona scoring the majority.

"However we have conceded far too many and I would take a boring 1-0 result most weeks if that meant we had a few more points on the board."

The cup final will take place at Windsor Football Club's Stag Meadow Stadium and Williams wants to win the competition for all the hard work put in behind the scenes at the club.

He said: "It is a big day for everyone connected with us, especially the supporters who have given up so much and worked so hard to get the club back playing football once again.

"A win is the target because the losing side don't get remembered.

"We will be doing all that we possibly can to ensure that the lads are fully prepared to go and give it the best shot of returning home with the trophy."

COUNCIL lawyers are putting the finishing touches to plans to seek a court injunction banning travellers from illegally camping anywhere in the borough.

The "get tough" stance is expected to be approved at Monday's meeting of the council cabinet and follows growing concern about damage and disruption caused by a specific group of travellers.

Last year alone, the council had to deal with 83 illegal camps with council taxpayers footing a £128,000 bill to remove the camps and clear up afterwards.

The idea of an injunction on specific travellers was first raised by council leader Mike Fisher last September when, referring to the mess they left, he branded them "a risk to public health".

This week Cllr Fisher said solicitors were looking at final details of an injunction application to try and ensure that any application made to the courts was watertight and would not be turned down.

He said any travellers involved would have a right to object to any injunction application but the aim would be to impose a blanket ban on the groups stopping anywhere in the borough.

The ban is intended to apply to both council-owned land and sites in private ownership, with the owner's consent.

It is also hoped the terms of the injunction would enable extra names to be added to the banned list if it became necessary in the future.

Cllr Fisher said: "We want the initiative to kick off as soon as possible.

"We don't want to find ourselves in the situation we had last year when quite a large number of travellers were coming into Croydon and we were playing a cat-and-mouse game with them.

"As soon as we moved them on they were coming back on to another piece of land."

An injunction would have an added benefit over existing eviction powers granted to local authorities because it could be granted for an indefinite period.

He added people whose lives had been disrupted by illegal camps were aggrieved by the mess travellers left in their wake and angry that residents had to pick up the tab for the clean-up operation.

FREEMASONS have had a reputation for secrecy in the past.

But now the Croydon Masons have opened their doors, to give the Advertiser a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on at their temple, in Oakfield Road.

Many of you might imagine dark halls, secret corridors and elderly, middle-class white men drinking a gin and tonic at the bar.

But, according to Jim Cook – a Freemason in Croydon for more than 25 years – what you would actually find is a club which celebrates friendship, community and charity, with people from, it would seem, many walks of life.

"People think we have secrets to reveal" said Mr Cook, "but to be honest, we don't have any secrets."

The Masons are currently recruiting for new members; men to carry on the generations of tradition that they represent.

Mr Cook, who was born and bred in Addiscombe, said: "I have loved my time as a Mason, I have met some of the best people I have ever met here, and there are so many different walks of life.

"It enables me to get to know people that otherwise I would never have met. I am immensely proud of the Masons and we want to shake off this idea that we have secrets, that we have rituals, that we are not open.

"For a long time there was a cloud of secrecy over the organisation, but we are very proud of what we do and we want to share it."

As Mr Cook guides the Advertiser through the Masonic temple, pointing out a banner here or the meaning of a particular object there, he explains: "The Masons used to be very public, they would have parades through the streets.

"Then in the Second World War, the Nazis tarred the Freemasons just as they did the Jewish or the Polish or the Romani, and I think the secrecy came from there.

"Some members also enjoyed that part of it I suppose, but we are eager to move away from that.

"Obviously in our meetings we have certain things that are private, but is that not the same with any club or society?"

The Croydon Lodge of Freedom seems to be mostly split into two different areas; the public area, the dining room, the bar, all places that can be hired out to anyone for a wedding, wake or any event you wish. ("Brilliant catering", adds Mr Cook).

But go upstairs and this is where you will find the Temples; one big, a few small.

Small blue chairs line the room, with three large throne-like seats placed in there too.

Large pieces of stone – some rough, some smooth – are placed on a pedestal next to these chairs, along with different crafted candlesticks, each representing a different style of architecture.

The walls are lined with banners and tapestries, along with portraits of past Masters in full regalia.

"The Masters of the Lodge will sit in the large chairs during the meetings," explains Mr Cook.

"Each candlestick represents a different architecture. One stone is rough, another smooth, and this represents to us learning your trade. The carpet is also black and white chequered, and to us this represents your path through life. Sometimes you will have black periods, sometimes white periods."

These symbols are scattered throughout the Lodge and seem to be the foundation of what Freemasonry is about.

Mr Cook touches on the private meetings that are held four times a year, saying: "These will take the form of one-act plays that display an allegory as such; a lot of what we do is very symbolic.

"But what I love about Freemasonry, as I said, is the fact that you don't talk about politics, or religion. You must believe in one supreme being but that can be anything that is special to you.

"In Israel, the Master of the Grand Lodge there is a Palestinian, which just proves my point."

Older members may be hesitant to welcome in photographers to their Lodges, but younger members know that if they want Freemasonry to continue, they must modernise.

Mr Cook explained: "I have literally just finished the Surrey province Freemason site. If you're not on the internet, you might as well not exist, and we want to show people what we're about.

"People can hire our rooms downstairs. Many people who are not Freemasons have seen our temples, we really don't have any secrets. I am just so passionate about Freemasonry and if a younger man was interested in joining, I would tell him to do it, because you will make lifelong friends. It's not just about old middle class white men anymore, it's about everybody.

"You can go to Cuba and find a Masonic Lodge. Six million people throughout the world can't be wrong. I just feel we've got so much to offer."