From the programme today

If you didn't purchase one here is the latest from our 'Commercial & Community' column:

Good afternoon,
This afternoon it’s a pleasure to host one of the great old ‘traditional’ clubs, and one who will hopefully have their own ‘headquarters’ again soon. After having to vacate their traditional Claremont Road home they are preparing to set down roots once more in West Hendon at Silver Jubilee Park, the former home of defunct Kingsbury Town,. I am sure I echo the thoughts of everyone at Dulwich Hamlet when I wish them all the best for the future.

Today is the closest home fixture this season to Remembrance Sunday & Armistice Day, this coming Wednesday 11th November. As a Football Club we are proud to continue the tradition of remembering & respecting those members of our Club who served in the Two World Wars & paid the ultimate price; falling on foreign soil that will not only be ‘Forever England’ but also, from our perspective. ‘Forever Pink & Blue’.

I cannot tell you if there is such a place as ‘heaven’ above, or if anyone is spiritually looking down on us all, but if that were the case our Club founder ‘Pa’ Wilson, who cared so much for our men who fell in the Great War, will look down approvingly as we not only have a one minute silence prior to kick off, but also hold a small Poppy laying ceremony at our War Memorial, which was held in the Boardroom at 1pm today. This Memorial was instigated by ‘Pa’ himself at the Champion Hill ground prior to the previous one; the stadium where we played from 1912 until 1931. This is the same site that we on the Football Committee hope that we shall relocate back to when our current new stadium plans, supported by our fans, are approved by Southwark Council sometime next year. It will be fitting that the memorial will be in situ on the same site of the ground where those players wore our colours a century ago.

We are pleased to welcome Poppy sellers this afternoon from the Dulwich Branch of the Royal British Legion, many of whose members are Hamlet fans themselves. It’s always a pleasure to see them here and we hope as many of you as possible will be able to put a coin or two into their rattling tins, even if you may have already purchased your traditional poppy.

We are also more than happy to support them by adding the proceeds from today’s ‘50/50 Draw’ ; so thank you all for your support, in whatever way you choose to donate.
We’ve hopefully got quite a few ‘newcomers’ here for the match as well. We have distributed batches of complimentary tickets for today’s game to all of those who entered the ‘Wordsearch’ competition at the recent ‘Fun Palace’ open day at the Carnegie Library in Herne Hill Road. We also say hello to the many local people from our surrounding community who have been answering the rallying call from the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust to sort & pack the huge amount of generous donations made to their ‘Calais Crisis’ appeal. That work is still on-going, as there were more fans packing the remainder of donations this morning, for a second journey over the Channel. We have also provided tickets to those who took part in the recent Quiz Night held in our Clubhouse, and organised by the ‘Forward The Hamlet’ podcast team, in appreciation of their backing of the ‘Football Beyond Borders’ charity; the recipients of the proceeds from the night
If you are part of a local group, workplace, religious group, school or any other organisation, and you think they would love to have a batch of tickets to a ‘one-off’ future home Ryman League Premier Division match, then please get in touch. This is just one strand of how we are successfully building our crowds up from the 180 home league average when Gavin Rose took over back in the 2009/10 season, to the massive gates we are currently getting ; often now in four figure mark.

Truly amazing so thanks to all of you who come along to support the lads; rest assured you’re NEVER taken for granted, and your backing is ALWAYS appreciated.

Mishi Morath (Football Committee, community initiatives)