Here is tonight's 'Community Column'

Published earlier this evening, in the official matchday programme...

Time flies…and here we are back at Champion Hill for another home League match, this time against another former works side still bearing the company name (like VCD ten days ago), Metropolitan Police FC. Although they’re not renowned for their large travelling support, I hope whoever they bring with them are made as welcome as we all were by their friendly stewards at Imber Court a fortnight ago.

Since then we have staged our ‘Pay What You Like’ charity day, which we held as a pre-Non League Day event, on Saturday 3rd October. A big thank you to everyone who contributed something through either the turnstiles, the collection buckets at the final whistle or by purchasing a 50/50 Draw ticket. None of which were obligatory. We were rewarded with our larged attendance of the season- with an amazing one thousand ninehundred & sisty one fans passing through the gates. As a result of this we have been pleased to announce that a sum of just over FOUR THOUSAND POUNDS is going to be split between our two chosen charities that were our beneficiaries for the match; namely our official 2015/16 charity partner COOLTAN ARTS & the BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION. Once more, thank you all for your generousity…as well as a pat on the back to our Club owners, the Hadley Property Group, for once more allowing the Football Club Committee to stage such an initiative.

Last night, albeit I am typing this before then, I will have had the pleasure of being at ‘Football For All’, which was a showcase event for the Football Beyond Borders charity, who some of you will remember did a short film clip last season on The Hamlet, and have been involved with both our Supporters Trust & the Football Club itself. We pleased to say that in just over a fortnight they are holding a Quiznight in our Clubhouse, organised in tandem with the excellent independent Forward The Hamlet podcast team. This will be on Thursday 29th October, and when we have more details we will happily be plugging it on the official Dulwich Hamlet website, at www.dulwichhamletfc.london

Two days prior to this, on the 27th October, we have a home Ryman League ficture at home to Merstham, and we shall have plenty of guests in the crowd from Football Beyond Borders cheering us on that night. They requested some tickets to distribute some tickets to the youngsters who they work with, and the Committee have been more than happy to provide 150 pairs of complimentaries for the evening for them to hand out, for both the people they work with, and the volunteers who help.

Back on 3rd October, while we were all concentrating on both our Pay What You Like match, and the official launch of our first ever Black History Month display (which you can now see hanging up in the bar) we also had a joint Football Club & Supporters Trust presence at Carnegie Library, in Herne Hill Library. They were staging one of many events up and down the country, under the ‘Fun Palace’ umbrella…and hopefully this will be the first of a number of link-ups with local library services, both ‘over the border’ in Lambeth, and here, in the London Borough of Southwark. As the old saying goes…watch this space!

Talking of watching…next month we have one of longer away trips, when we visit Bognor Regis Town on Saturday 21st November. Shaun Dooley is looking, subject to having sufficient bookings, running a Supporters Coach to the match. Places can be booked at the 12th Man stand on home matchdays with a deposit of £5. The total cost will be £14 adults and £8 concessions. It’s an easy watch to travel without any hassle, from ‘door to door’, or should that be ‘ground to ground’? And it’s worth bearing in mind that if there is bad weather on the day it will save the hassle of trying to get any sort of ticket refunds from the train companies, if it fails a morning pitch inspection, with the possibility of a turn in the weather at that time of year. The will be to leave from Champion Hill at around 10.15am, which should still leave plenty of time for a bracing stroll along the prom, Having your seaside fish & chips for lunch, as well as grabbing your sticks of rock & ‘kiss me quick’ hats!

That’s enough of my ramblings for this evening, see you all back here on Saturday afternoon, when we take on Brentwood Town.

Mishi D. Morath (Dulwich Hamlet Football Committee, Community Liaison)