Walton & Hersham

Elmbridge derby weekends belong to Chertsey Town, but Walton & Hersham's most bruising result was struck against nobody from Surrey at all. In November 1973 they travelled to the Goldstone Ground and beat Brighton & Hove Albion 4–0 in an FA Cup first-round replay, a scoreline that remains the worst home defeat in Brighton's Cup history. Clive Foskett scored a hat-trick, Dave Bassett played in a Walton shirt years before he went on to manage Wimbledon and Derby County, and Brighton's manager, Brian Clough, was left furious on the touchline.

The club itself came together in 1945, when Walton F.C. and their local rivals Hersham F.C. merged after the war rather than keep competing against each other. Within a few seasons the amalgamation was paying off: three straight Corinthian League titles between 1947 and 1949 built the foundations of a non-league side that punched well above its level. The peak came in 1972–73, when Walton & Hersham won the FA Amateur Cup at Wembley without conceding a goal, beating Slough Town, with Roger Connell scoring the winner. They followed it a year later by beating the Italian side Jesolo to lift the Barassi Cup.

Jack Neale, who played for the club either side of 1950, won a silver medal with Great Britain at the 1948 Olympics. The Surrey Senior Cup has been won seven times, most recently in 2024–25, and last season's Southern League Premier Division South title showed the club still competing near the top of the non-league pyramid it has occupied since the merger. They now play at the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub, having left Stompond Lane in 2017, though the fixture that still stirs the town is the one against Chertsey Town, the closest rival in the Elmbridge borough and the game the supporters mark on the calendar before any other.