Talking Bull!

But in a nice way! One exiled Hereford fan who has been following The Hamlet wrote a piece on Dulwich in their latest fanzine...

"Ever since a recently-demoted Hereford United dispatched a bold Ryman League side, decked out in pink and blue quarters, in the first round of the FA Trophy in January 1998, the name Dulwich Hamlet has stuck firmly in my mind.
Last summer I moved to the Dulwich area (in fact my front door lies no more than 150 metres from the centre spot at Hamlet’s Champion Hill ground) and with the boycott of my beloved Hereford firmly in place, I decided to put the old adage ‘support your local team’ into action.

As I delved into Dulwich’s history, both recent and distant, I encountered numerous similarities between the two clubs. Both clubs are big non-league ‘names’ with long and proud histories-Hamlet were formed 31 years before Hereford United in 1893. Both clubs have been owned by property developers, and in Dulwich’s case still are. Both have their cult heroes; while Ronnie Radford is known by football fans across the country Dulwich legend Edgar Kail, the last amateur to play for England, is immortalised in ‘Edgar Kail Way’ which leads to the ground as well as a terrqce chant or two and posters inside the stadium.

My season with Dulwich began at Champion Hill in July with a narrow friendly defeat against a Crystal Palace XI featuring a recently signed Frazier Campbell and ended in April with a 0-0 draw against Ryman League Champions Maidstone United (Dulwich went on to lose a play-off semi-final against Margate). In between I witnessed record crowds and last-minute winners. I travelled to away games at the likes of fan-owned Enfield Town and AFC Hornchurch and I drank a lot of beer. I saw some spectacularly bad refereeing and heard some of the most amusing terrace songs I’ve ever heard. I revelled in walking through my front door within five minutes of full-time but mostly I learnt that Dulwich Hamlet is a great club with great fans and is doing a lot that other clubs could learn from.

In the past few seasons gates have increased dramatically at Dulwich and this season the club have averaged over 1,000 for the season, twice breaking the attendance record at the new Champion Hill stadium (the original was demolished and replaced by the current ground in 1992). Not withstanding the tickets, Champion Hill feels like a good place to watch football. It feels like a community club. The club and the Supporters Trust have worked hard to build relationships with the local community and it seems to have paid off.

Much of this engagement would be familiar to Bulls fans. Whilst at Edgar Street we love see Wye Valley on the bar Hamlet fans can enjoy a pint from one of two of two local breweries as the club stocks casks of ale from Brixton’s Clarkshaw’s and Peckham’s Brick Brewery at very reasonable prices. As with Hereford FC the London side have worked hard to engage with local businesses and with a range of reasonably priced sponsorship opportunities have formed relationships with numerous sponsors from nearby. However it’s a combination of outside the box thinking combine with some hard work that has helped to increase crowd numbers to such a dramatic extent.

On Non-League Day in September the Dulwich faced Hampton & Richmond at home in and eschewed the admission charge allowing fans to donate what they liked with any proceeds from the match going to charity in itself an interesting strategy and a noble charity gesture but one that wouldn’t have resulted in attendance of 2,856 without a mass marketing campaign from the fans who put up countless posters around the local area and spent the week leading up to the game handing out flyers at Dulwich’s railway stations.

The club and fans alike are untied in creating an inclusive atmosphere at Champion Hill. It is clear that anyone is welcome at Dulwich regardless of age, race, religion or sexuality. In February a friendly was arranged with Stonewall FC, a Middlesex County League side but more notably Britain’s top-ranking gay football team and the current Gay Football World Champions. The match not only struck a blow against homophobia in football but also attracted widespread interest and was covered widely in the national press. Whilst Hereford may not be as cosmopolitan as south London I’d love to see Hereford FC championing initiatives such as Kick It Out and making this club as welcome and inclusive as possible.

In April it was announced that Dulwich would be linking up with Cooltan Arts, a local mental health charity run by and for adults with mental distress, as it’s official charity partner for 2015/16. far from being a cynical PR move this is just one of many examples of a club engaging with its community and making an extremely positive contribution.

Of course no club would be successful without something decent to watch on a Saturday. Dulwich manager Gavin Rose has been at the helm since 2009 and has built a sound reputation for free-flowing teams that play attractive football. Perhaps more impressively many of Hamlet’s players are drawn from the ASPIRE Academy, a foundation set up by Rose in 2002 with the aim of offering young players from disadvantaged backgrounds a chance to pursue a football career while also completing A-Levels. The programme has provided numerous first-team players to Dulwich Hamlet many have gone on to professional football. Hereford has produced some great players in the past and it would be brilliant to see some local lads carrying us back up through the leagues.

Hereford FC has made a brilliant start to life and the future is looking bright. Dulwich Hamlet as one of non-league’s current success stories have shown that, even without successive promotions, it is possible to build an ever-increasing fanbase on a base of community engagement and inclusivity. Let’s keep that in mind as things progress and continue to build a club that we can all be proud of."