Community News

In case you missed out on programme yesterday here's what we had to say in our Community Column

Good evening everyone,
Tonight we welcome Staines Town to Champion Hill for the start of another run of home matches. And with this comes added strain on your pockets, especially as we approach Christmas time.

As a Football Club we understand this, and never take your support for granted which is why, next Tuesday 13th December when we host Faversham Town in the Alan Turvey Trophy, we have HALVED admission prices to only five pounds for adults & concessions to two quid. It goes without saying that the costs of staging the match are not reduced, and as with all cup ties, we must share the gate with our opposition. So it is a bit of a gamble on our part, so we hope as many of you as possible will take advantage of this special offer.

Talking of coming events, the Club and our Supporters’ Trust are promoting a Quiz Night in the Club House TOMORROW EVENING,(Wednesday) with the beneficiary being our official 2016/17 charity partner, which is ‘Football Beyond Borders’. The evening is being arranged by Dulwich fan Ben Sibley, from the ‘Forward the Hamlet’ blog & old podcast brigade, so many thanks to him, once more. I understand there’s also a raffle on the night, again with all funds going directly to FBB. All the fun starts at 7.30pm.

Well done to the Supporters’ Trust, who also raised both the profile and cash for FBB last Thursday, when they staged their as always successful Christmas Party in the bar, with well over thirty Hamlet fans turning up for the fun. All profits from the door money, raffle and auction is being split equally between themselves-‘charity begins at home’, so to speak-and ‘Football Beyond Borders’. So a BIG WELL DONE to their Board for arranging such a successful night for so many of our supporters to enjoy.

Talking of the Supporters’ Trust, have you visited their Mega-Container recently? There’s an amazing amount of Hamlet related merchandise in stock, which you can use as both ‘proper Christmas presents’ or as ‘stocking fillers’.

Some of the more recent lines include two new ‘Up The Hamlet’ enamel badges, going for only three pounds each, as well as the superb 2017 Dulwich Hamlet calendar, with players featured in full colour each month, going for a well worth it £7. You can then have fun chasing the players round the bar after games, to try to get each and every snap inside it autographed! The only exception being Roman Michael-Percil, who has become an early ‘curse of the calendar’ even before it is in date. But don’t let that put you off…it still a great item to hang up on the wall at home or in the office at work.
Moving on, when I attempt to write this column I am honestly not sure what I am going to say, and this one has unintentionally become a Supporters’ Trust ‘love-in’, but hey, when they’re doing the amount of work they do that benefits the Club so much, what else can you do? But it’s not just our Club they help…I am sure that many of you have seen on the internet and in the local press that a Peckham Town player, Alli Abdullahi, was hospitalised after he was allegedly attacked by the opposition in a recent Kent County League Premier Division match.

Our Trust immediately swung into action to set up a fundraising page for him, you can find a link on the Trust website, and this was BEFORE they even realised that Alli was a former Dulwich Hamlet player, been part of Gavin Rose’s ASPIRE Academy, and having a brief time with our First Team back in Gavin’s first season at the helm, which would have been before the majority of our Trust Board were supporting The Hamlet, so you can understand not knowing. But this makes their support of self-employed Alli even more commendable, reaching out to help a local amateur player. I’m certain they would have done exactly the same if it wasn’t a Dulwich-based outfit like Peckham Town, whether that be Lewisham Borough; Dulwich Village…or whoever.

If you wish to make a donation, large or small, simply just approach any Trust Board member sitting in the Mega-Container at home games. The advantage of this being it cuts out the loss of 6.4% fee taken from the GoFundMe page that the Trust have set up.

We look forward to seeing you back here on Saturday, for the First Round Proper of the Buildbase FA Trophy, against either Hampton & Richmond Borough or Royston Town, who are hoping to stage their replay this evening, after it was postponed last week.

Mishi Morath (Dulwich Hamlet Football Committee, community liaison)