With Bromley playing away at Crewe Alexandra I had originally pencilled in taking my Dad to Cray Wanderers V St Albans City on this Saturday, but with The Saints progressing in the FA Cup, this was cancelled and The Wands away trip to Dulwich Hamlet was put in it’s place. I’d been to the reverse fixture a week or so earlier where Cray had run out 4-2 winners at Flamingo Park and thought this would be a good one to see and cheer on The Wands. With Hamlet pulling in crowds of 2,000+ every game and no guarantee of a seat sadly I knew my Dad would have to miss this one out, by myself, Mik & Martin made the trip across South East London from Bromley.
With the joys of London traffic, it took 45minutes to go the eight miles to Champion Hill, eventually arriving at 2.30pm. I would have gone by train, but I banjaxed my ankle playing over 50s football a few weeks back and couldn’t face the walk from Denmark Hill and definitely not the one back up the hill after the game! A journey I have made countless times in the past to see Dulwich, Fisher and of course Bromley when they played home games here in the infamous 1992/93 season.
I booked tickets in advance very easily via the Hamlet website, (Bromley FC take note it should be this simple) and parking too in the Sainsbury’s car park next door, so we were all set for the match. On arrival the ground was buzzing with the turnstiles taking cash & card payments and pre-booked tickets being scanned by two more staff at an open gate. By 2;40pm three quarters of the ground was packed, there were no empty seats in the main stand, the club shop and various bars & food outlets were doing a very busy trade and the teams were out warming up. Dulwich in their famous pink and dark blue, with The Wands strangely in their all light blue away kit.
Dulwich Hamlet FC definitely wears it’s values on it’s sleeve, the banners, flags and signs all let you know the club stands for inclusivity and everyone being welcome.
There isn’t a Stone Island badge in sight among the 2,740 crowd for today’s game, no songs of anger fuelled ‘patriotism’. There’s loads of locally brewed £6 a pint beer being drunk, within sight of the pitch no less, but no malevolence or threat. It’s all quite refreshing, but equally it doesn’t feel like I’m at a football match.
Only about half of the crowd actually watched the game, I don’t even know if they were aware of the score, but they were all happy to be there and have a catch up with their friends and have a drink. It reminded me more of Rugby or Cricket crowds. A small group of Wands fans made most of the noise during the match.
The game itself saw Dulwich have the best of the play, taking the lead on 11minutes when ex-Wanderer & Hamlet Legend Nyren Clunis netted after Harry Seadon had parried a cross under pressure, but Cray dug in and they equalised on 38muntes when Lateef Adaja sent the ball into the box for Alex Hernandez who challenged Bull for the cross and scooped home the loose ball into an empty net as the home side appealed for a foul. Both teams had half chances in the second half and despite being reduced to ten men late on The Wands came away with a hard earned point.
I’ve no idea how this phenomenon happened at Dulwich Hamlet and how it grew so quickly, but the large crowds have maintained for a good period of time now, through promotions and relegation and they have tapped into a philosophy and identity that the people of the larger area can relate to. It must be slightly baffling to the 3-400 original Hamlet fans who were there when Bromley played in the same league as them twenty years ago, but it’s probably no different to how I feel at Bromley these days. I guess you either get on board or wave it off like a child that’s moving out and no longer really needs you, knowing you’ll be there for them if it ever gets bad.
I would definitely go back, but I couldn’t do it every week as it was actually quite hard to concentrate on the game!
Take care,
Col.
