The Community column from tonight's programme...

For those of you who couldn't get to Champion Hill earlier this evening, here is what we had to say...

Good evening,
Here’s hoping for another big midweek night at Champion Hill. It’s amazing to think we pulled in over six hundred punters for our last Tuesday home match with Leatherhead. Especially when you consider that England were playing a crucial European Champion championships qualifier the same night, which was live on the box.
Hopefully there will be a few newcomers this evening, as the Club a new initiative called the Dulwich Hamlet Business Networking Club.

This is not just aimed at our current sponsors, large or small, but anyone and everyone out there who has heard about the ongoing success story of Dulwich Hamlet Football Club reaching out into the local community and beyond. If you simply pop along to matches and go home straight after the final whistle you may not have realised the great buzz there is around the Club, not just for the ninety minutes of football. More and more individuals and companies want to part of The Hamlet…just one way you can see this is the amount of boards around the pitch & advertisements in the programme, compared to only five or six years ago.

There is an amazing ‘feel good factor’ not just within Champion Hill but all over the surrounding area. Dulwich Hamlet, as well as being one of the oldest & most established local businesses, having been around since 1893, is a current success story that everybody, it seems, want to be associated with. Walk any day of the week along Lordship Lane and you will see fans going about their ordinary business wearing Hamlet colours. Even if South Londoners don’t come along themselves they have certainly heard of the recent Dulwich Hamlet phenomenon. Whether that’s through ‘feel good’ stories in both the national & local press; great articles on community blogs such as Brixton Buzz; knowing family or friends who now follow us; or simply seeing our unique Pink & Blue colours being worn literally all over South London & beyond….we are now one- if not THE – most powerful brand at our level of the game.

As always, though, it’s not just the business community that can help the Hamlet. Take something as simple as the “50/50 Draw” ticket sales at home games. Last season this little idea raised over two and a half thousand pounds for the Club…making YOU the fans who all bought their tickets one of the major sponsors in The Hamlet. This is actually a great little way to invest in your team, even if you’re not from the business fraternity yourselves. Collectively we all form a group just as powerful, and appreciated, as any one sponsor from the corporate community.

But one thing you must never forget, we may want corporate backing, but we will never lose track of the work we are doing in the local community. Take our next scheduled home match, that is if we don’t draw at Whitehawk, in the FA Cup on Saturday. On Saturday 3rd October we are at home to VCD Athletic, in a Ryman League Premier Division match. This is the week before Non League Day, which is a national event encouraging locals to pop along to their nearest non league side, when there is no professional football in the top two flights. As we couldn’t firmly partake on the 10th our Football Club Committee agreed to choose the VCD match, with the unstinting backing of our owners the Hadley Property Group, for a Pay What You Like Day, with all proceeds after the usual matchday costs have been deducted, to be split between our official 2015/16 Charity Partner COOLTAN ARTS & the BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION.

Without a doubt the similar scheme last season, coincidentally against tonights opponents Hampton & Richmond Borough, was a catalyst for our increase in attendances. For that was our first four figure gate of the season, and was followed by no less than ten more! The simple message is take care of your local community and they will take care of you. Without a doubt we can proudly say that Dulwich Hamlet Football Club are a part of the community at the heart of the community.

Before I sign off, an exciting reason to get to the ground early for that VCD game. Not only are we hoping for a bigger than usual attendance, but-for the first time ever in the history of the Club-we have a project to celebrate the long established Black History Month. A small exhibition is being unveiled prior to the match at ONE O’CLOCK in the Club House, which celebrates some of the achievements of black players & staff past and present on eight full colour panels in a jointly funded collaboration between the Football Club Committee & our Supporters Trust. It is also supported by the Forward The Hamlet podcast team and Jack McInroy from the Hamlet Historian publication; with Jacko himself designing the panels.

See you there then…one o’clock on Saturday 3rd October, for the unveiling…and then a good excuse for a pre-match pint or two!