More community news

Here's our column that appeared in yesterday's official match day programme, if you never had time to purchase one

Roll on next week…for what will seem like a ‘rare’ Saturday afternoon awayday!

For this afternoon completes a ‘hat-trick’ of Saturday afternoons at Champion Hill. This time at home to Billericay Town. Which means a welcome return back for their manager Craig Edwards, a name that will not actually mean much to the majority here today…such is the extent of our growth in crowds in recent years. But Craig was actually our manager her before Gavin arrived in the summer of 2009, and for those of us ‘old school’ fans is remembered as a decent bloke who we had a great rapport with, and in truth some of our faithful though he would be a hard act to follow, when Gavin arrived as our new gaffer half a dozen years ago! I’m sure Craig won’t mind me saying that, although we appreciated his time in our dugout…he’s certainly been surpassed by Gavin!

Also welcome this afternoon, we hope, are lots of people coming to our game for the first time, or at least for a very long time. This was thanks to the hard work put in by our Supporters Trust, who had a stand at both the Dulwich Fair & the Lambeth Country Show in the summer months, where they collected hundreds of emails from members of the public, after our Football Club repeated last years offer of a free pair of tickets to a home game, once the season starts. If you are one of those fans this afternoon we thank you for coming along, and hope you like what you see…

In the last few years everyone at our Club has really mucked in together, be it Club Committee; Supporters Trust or individual fans…to reach out into our local community. And now we are asking you to do so again-on two fronts.

Firstly, we have previously mentioned that we are holding a special ‘Pay What You Like’ game against VCD Athletic on Saturday 3rd October, which is our way of supporting ‘Non League Day’, albeit a week early. This isn’t to ‘steal their thunder’ or anything like that, but to simply offer our support for their great initiative that is growing year by year, to highlight & promote the game at our levels. It was rotten bad luck when we were scheduled to be away to Farnborough on the actual day, which is October the 10th. What we need you to do is put the THIRD of OCTOBER in your diaries, and tell all of your friends either in person or by the variety of types of social media out there, and get as big a crowd as possible, paying as much as possible through voluntary donations at the gate, so we can have a respectable amount raised for our two chosen beneficiaries, which are our official 2015/16 charity partner COOLTAN ARTS & also the BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION. Two great causes, so please start to and continue to spread the word throughout the rest of September, right up until the day of the game!

Secondly, we also like to reach out to local community groups, to offer them free tickets to attend one of our games. Giving them a ‘taste’ of The Hamlet, if you like. In truth this is one of our ‘target areas’ this season, and it is a task we have neglected slightly, not because we can’t be bothered, but it can be a combination of both a lack of time, and not quite knowing who to contact. And this is where you can help. If you are involved with a local organisation, adult, youth or children, then we would like to hear from you. We are more than happy to supply free tickets to a league game for your organisation…even groups of staff from your work! There is no catch..all we respectfully ask is that if you receive one of these yourself that you pass it on to be used by someone who is not a regular, as all of our community work is not to subsidise our current fans, even though we appreciate your loyalty, but to reach out and build our fan base even more. Or maybe even a group of regulars from your pub, or Sunday football team, or another local sports club. We’re not setting ‘guidelines’ we just want local people to come. For we know we have the ‘product’ and one sampled we’re sure many will want to pay and come back for more.

This afternoon we welcome a small group of users from the Copleston Centre, from just over the other side of Dog Kennel Hill.
So if you’re interested in some free tickets to a future Ryman League match, in the first instance, simply email me at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Enjoy the game…see you back here again for another home match this coming Tuesday, when we take on Leatherhead.