CHAIRMAN NOTES | Burgess Hill Town | 18/4/26

We bring the curtain down on our home league campaign today. 2025/26 has certainly been a ride, shooting out of the blocks faster than we could have ever dreamed possible, grinding to a halt and then picking up the pace again.

That leaves us pretty much where we were trying to get to in the first place, with a top ten finish firmly within our grasp and a Cup Final to look forward to.

With an at times, similarly erratic schedule thanks to the fixture computer, I would like to thank you all for sticking with us through the mid-season re-arranged dates mayhem. It's been great to see everyone back in good numbers and in such good spirits during these last final few weeks of the season.

Be assured that, as a club, we'll be pushing hard for a fairer and more consistent distribution of league fixtures with the Isthmian League ahead of the start of the 2026/27 season. But before we turn our attention to planning next season we have the London Senior Cup Final to look forward to.

As of last Tuesday night, we now know that we will face QPR and I for one, cannot recall our Men’s team facing these opponents before. I'm sure our History Group may be able to find a precedent. That match will be played at Champion Hill on Tuesday 28th April with a 7.45pm kick off and whilst it will be here, at our home ground, this is a London FA fixture and we will technically be the ‘Away’ team on the night.

This is the opportunity for silverware that manager Mark Dacey spoke about at the start of this season. It is also an opportunity for us to pack the Hill and create an atmosphere unlike any these particular opponents will have played in front of previously. Please spread the word, bring your friends and look out for further ticketing information on the London FA's website and socials.

If the stirring semi-final triumph over League One Leyton Orient's Academy side taught us anything, it is that 'the Rabble' do indeed make a difference. I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of our staff and volunteers for putting on another season of games – at times, this has been in very trying circumstances.

I'd also offer a big 'Thanks' to the players and management team for instilling their new approach and delivering on the belief we all had in them. This season has been the most enjoyable for some time with everyone involved understanding what it means to represent the 'Pink'N'Blue' and how important that is to the fans.

That connection is key. We see it in the crowd reaction at home games and in the numbers who travel to away matches. I have been through periods where that connection has been somewhat lacking and during such times, let me assure you that Champion Hill becomes a very different place in which to operate.

I believe football clubs should earn and then work hard to keep the support of their fans and so my final thank you goes to you, for making this a wonderful place to work and for being committed to helping us improve our Club and fighting for what it should stand for.

Even before the action stops on the pitch at the end of each season, plans are already in motion behind the scenes as the club turns its attention from running match days to making improvements for the following season. The Annual Review changes a little each year but is always spearheaded by our General Manager, Mel Hughes. The goals always remain simple and consistent.

To continue doing what went well and make changes to the things that could have gone better seeking to improve them. Our immediate priority from the Annual Review is to keep fans engaged with the Club during the close season. We need better communications during the build-up to our summer friendlies and the kick-off to the new league season.

It often takes a while for the fan community to return to Champion Hill each summer. This is a shame as it means they miss out on a run of games in good, often sunny, weather. As many of you will hopefully experience today, that makes our terrace experience all the more enjoyable and is something much loved by all during the final, all too fleeting, final weeks of each season.

That feeling of the good times being over before they have begun will be more keenly felt next season as the expansion of the Isthmian Premier Division play-offs from four to six teams necessitates an even earlier end of the 'regular season' and the loss of another weekend fixture.

So, our highest priority in our annual review of ‘areas to improve’ is the league fixture schedule. With only two-thirds of our 2025/26 home league games being played at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon – far fewer than was originally scheduled.

There cannot that connection has been somewhat lacking and during such times, let me assure you that Champion Hill becomes a very different place in which to operate. I believe football clubs should earn and then work hard to keep the support of their fans and so my final thank you goes to you, for making this a wonderful place to work and for being committed to helping us improve our Club and fighting for what it should stand for.

There cannot be a repeat of that if the football authorities want to see sustainable clubs compete with those funded by the deep pockets of wealthy benefactors and whose finances are unaffected by the levels of support they get from match-going fans. We must make that case to the authorities and fiercely protect what should be a key pillar of the non-league game – matches with Saturday 3pm kick-offs.

Our Annual Review’s footballing priority is to build on the positives of this season. I have spent a long time studying what went wrong two years ago, after a season in which we got within touching distance of the play-offs was followed by one that saw us finish one place above the last relegation spot.

There are some clear lessons to be learned from how we planned our second season at this level. Whilst it is up to the manager to take the decisions on the squad, I feel that as a Club, we are now, from a position of experience better placed than ever before to advise him.

The Annual Review is critical in finding ways to move forward in a fast-moving non-league environment. The relegations of Chippenham Town, Bath City and Eastbourne Borough from the National League South (the division above our) is shocking, but sadly predictable. These three clubs were all Step Two stalwarts during our five years playing at that level.

The simple fact is that clubs like ours who have dropped from Step Two to Step Three in the past few years are more likely to find themselves dropping again to Step Four than bouncing back up. The top tiers of the non-league game are a vastly different financial beast now compared to just ten years ago.

Our decisions last summer were taken with that in mind and we must take the same care again this offseason if we are going to be competitive in this new environment. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible for the Cup Final and to then sharing next season with you all. When we all get there... enjoy your summers.

Up the Hamlet!

Ben

CHAIRMAN NOTES | Whitehawk | 3/1/26

Chairman Ben Clasper reflected on 2025 and looked ahead to the rest of 2026 in his notes from our postponed fixture against Whitehawk on Saturday.

I hope you had a relaxing time over Christmas and New Year, a strange time for us at the club this year after a consistent run of home Boxing Day fixtures since the pandemic and so we are looking forward to welcoming you back to kick off 2026 with the visit of Whitehawk. 

The first half of the season was a mixed bag, it delivered quickly on many of the goals we set but life has become increasingly tough as the season has gone on. We are harder to beat than previous seasons but we’re struggling to put teams away, traits that have produced a punishingly high number of draws. Statistically speaking our ‘Goals Against’ column is play-off form, but we are bottom half when you look at the ‘Goals For’ column and most regular observers agree we start games strongly but fail to capitalise and too often we end up paying the price. 

After stumbling into relegation trouble last season our goal was to rebuild and secure a more stable mid-table position to act as a foundation for next season. Whilst it looked initially like we might be able to aim higher sooner, the reality is that going straight from a relegation battle into a promotion chase is a leap usually only reserved for financially doped sides. Based on resources or experience there are few surprises in the top half of the table but we need to be mindful that the ten teams between us and the relegation zone will all have expected to be higher up the table, it’s a very strong and tight league and so it’s important we improve quickly on the weaknesses we have identified. 

We still hear a lot about clubs treating Champion Hill as their cup final and raising their game accordingly which contributes to there being no difference between our home and away results. We still need to work out how to turn the Hill into more of a fortress with performances that match your support which has been amazing throughout a tough 2025 and I’d like to thank you and whilst it’s a fact of life that every year will always be a mix of highs and lows I wish you all the best for the year ahead. 

Ben

CHAIRMAN NOTES | AVELEY | 28/10/25

When we were discussing the types of player we felt we needed to give our summer reset the best chance of success Nyren Clunis was the first name on everyone’s lips. I was thrilled to see him return to Champion Hill and approaching his 500th brings excitement for everyone at the club. 

I’d like to thank Nyren for an incredible contribution and I hope there is an exciting chapter yet to be written. I’d also like to thank our programme editor Phil Passey for putting this very special edition together and hope you join us in celebrating a feat that is becoming increasingly rare at all levels of the game. 

This occasion is the first of five consecutive home Tuesday games as clubs catch up on games missed due to cup fixtures. It’s a tough ask for some clubs to play twice a week continuously but we need to see it as an opportunity to rebuild the sort of momentum the team generated at the start of the season. 

I know it is also challenging for you as fans, it is harder, if not impossible for some of you to attend evening games and school nights are a non-starter for our younger fans. We have raised our concerns with the league about clubs having a frustrating combination of empty weekends and continuous midweek games, they do a good job juggling competing priorities but we’ll pushing for what fans want. I hope as many of you as possible will be able to support the team in the weeks ahead as we look to keep our promotion hopes burning. 

We expressed similar concerns with the new live streaming service for clubs in our league which also comes at the expense of losing traditional kick off times. We are not opposed to streaming or supporting the companies who are looking to give a platform for non-league football but it’s not something we can embrace until it can provide access to fans who cannot be present but preserves the times that fans want to watch football in person. 

Nyren has reached an extraordinary milestone for an extraordinary non-league club and I see our role as protecting what makes the non-league game such a special experience for every community. 

Tuesday night at Champion Hill:

We return to Champion Hill on Tuesday night as Harrow Borough visit SE22. It's the return of our football for a fiver initiative and you can get your tickets here.

This article originally appeared in the Dulwich Hamlet Match Day Programme

You can download PDFs of previous issues here.

Chairman notes | Hendon | 4/10/25

Welcome back to Champion Hill, where today we take a break from our Isthmian League campaign as the focus turns to one of the knockout competitions.

This time it's the start of our FA Trophy campaign. Whilst of course the magic of the FA Cup is all about seeing how far minnows, including all of the non-league clubs can progress, in the FA Trophy, two non-league clubs are guaranteed a trip to Wembley next May for the final. 

We have made no secret of our desire to deliver a marked improvement in what fans can expect of our team in the knockout competitions. It has been six years since we made the FA Cup First Round Proper and eight years since we reached an FA Trophy Quarter-Final before bowing out in a replay against eventual finalists Macclesfield Town. Since that run we have seen our peers Concord Rangers reach the 2020 final and Hornchurch go one better and lift the trophy whilst still an Isthmian Premier side one year later. So, it's about time we made our own mark on this competition once again.

Our opponents today are Hendon with whom we have plenty of recent history. Our survival last season came at the Greens' expense, with them finishing just one place below us in the final relegation spot. Then of course there was our penalty shootout play-off victory against them in 2018. Inbetween, the north Londoners got some revenge when they won on penalties in a 2022 London Senior Cup Quarter-Final.

They come into this match reinvigorated. After a difficult, winless start to the season in August, their two previous victories in this competition – against Littlehampton and Beckenham Town's – formed part of an unbeaten September. Goals have been easy to come by of late too – Hendon have racked up 19 in their last four matches! So, whilst it's good to welcome them back, don't let their mid-table Step 4 league position lull you into thinking this will be anything but a tough, competitive contest.

Our own fortunes have wavered recently with some tough results – albeit against some of the division's top sides – following our blistering August start. Mark Dacey’s team will be looking to bounce back quickly, and I’d like to thank you for your support in both good and less good times. I’d also like to remind you all that we are now at home next Saturday with the re-arranged league visit of Cray Wanderers moving from the original Tuesday 14th date to Saturday 11th October – in just seven days. Fixtures should become more static during October, but I'd still like to thank you all for your patience with the myriad changes of the past weeks... 

Ben Clasper