Here's what we had to say

This is the 'Community Column' from the official Club programme yesterday, in case you forgot to buy a copy

Welcome back to Champion Hill for the first of three consecutive home matches, this one being a ‘run-of-the-mill’league fixture at home to Burgess Hill Town I deliberately choose that phrase as they were, of course, our opponents on that never to be forgotten last day of the 2012/13 season, when we clinched the Ryman League Division One South title by virtue of picking up a point against them in our last match of the season, on an extremely emotional afternoon, which was played out in front of what seemed a massive crowd of well over a thousand, but which we have grown to better many times since in the three years since.
Of course there are a vast multitude of reasons for the growth in our attendances, not least the type of exciting football teams that Gavin Rose can produce when our boys perform to the best of their ability. But another, which should not be under-estimated is the varied & committed swathe of community work that we carry out as a Club to promote The Hamlet.

This is exemplified by another new initiative next month, as we have designated our home fixture with Bognor Regis Town on Saturday 8th October as our first ever Trade Union Day. This is something we, as a Football Club Committee, have been trying to formulate for a while, and it all gelled together when we were approached by Dave Rogers, the community lead on the Supporters’ Trust, who came up with some of his own ideas and sponsorship to add, to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, which included local people from our own parts of South London going to fight with the International Brigade. Without a doubt, bearing in mind we could regularly attract five figure crowds in the nineteen thirties, at least one or two of those volunteers would have stood on the vast old Champion Hill terraces, with many more of our followers from that era supporting them in spirit, if not taking up arms themselves; as lots of them would have done in the Second World War a few years on.

Many of our current fans are members of trade unions, we have had sponsorship from local branches of UNISON in the past, long may this continue. The people of our local boroughs such as Southwark, Lambeth & the like have a strong, proud record of supporting trade unions, and long may that continue, as far as I am concerned. Indeed, whilst not being the type to blow my own trumpet, I am proud to say that-at the grand old age of 49- I have never crossed a picket line in my life!
I am sure that there are lots of local trade union members who may not be regular football fans, perhaps disillusioned or disenfranchised by the way the professional game has gone at the top levels. These are just some of the types of fans we continue to try to attract through our community work, and why we are staging a Trade Union Day.

We are open to many more ideas and welcome input from each and every Hamlet fan out there who wants to help. And this is where YOU can come in. On Wednesday 21st September the Dulwich Hamlet Football Committee are launching a sub-committee based around community issues & fundraising. If you have an idea, or want to help but are not quite sure how, then please come along. It’s open to all, headed by myself, alongside George Parnevelas from the Club committee; and we will also be working closely with the Supporters’ Trust Board on this. But if you are not part of either, indeed you may not even be an individual Trust Board member, it could be for you as well. It is open to anyone & everyone who supports The Hamlet, so we look forward to seeing some of you at half past seven, in the Boardroom, a week on Wednesday.

On a final note for today’s column, I’d like to say thank you to Michael Shaw, who helped out by volunteering to sell ‘50/50’ tickets at our last home match against Canvey Island. Really appreciated, and just one small but important way that YOU can help YOUR Club!

We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible who can make our Isthmian League Cup tie at home to Grays Athletic on Tuesday night. Bearing in mind that this is sandwiched in-between today & our FA Cup second qualifying round tie with Hendon next Saturday, we are grateful to Grays for agreeing to a half-price admission charge for this match, prices set at a mere five pounds for adults, & two quid for all of our concessions-children twelve and under FREE as always.
This is a bit of gamble on the part of our club, as matchday costs don’t go down by fifty per cent, so please spread the word & repay the faith of our owners who have allowed the reduction.

Mishi Morath (Football Committee, community liaison)