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Not sure if this is of interest but it’s on my radar through a client.
Dulwich Hamlet FC had a sell out crowd today of 3,400 with 500 turned away v Bath in the National League South.
Cracking number. Peter Crouch is a director.
Not sure we’d manage that amount one league below the Conference.
Good to see Non League football doing well.
Yeah I think it's 'non league day' isn't it, when it's an international weekend
Great idea and good to see good crowds
13 and a half thousand at Notts County, six thousand at Chesterfield and Southend and a club record crowd for Wealdstone in theNational League.
I can remember reading something about Dulwich Hamlet a few years ago. It seems they’ve become a team that people disillusioned with the Premier League are drawn to - at the time of the article, crowds of around two thousand were quite common for them.
They broke their record for a home attendance a month ago, when Billericay were their opponents. Good luck to them, and I hope they continue to prosper.
Maccelsfield are getting 2 to 3 thousand at home in the North West Counties Premier Division. What tier is that?
9th I thinkQuote:
Originally Posted by RichardM
Bit of a football hipsters club. Left wing politics, craft ales and their supporters are awash with Doc’s or Kickers for footwear and beards.Quote:
Originally Posted by EastbourneBlue
I think they see themselves as the antidote for rampant commercialism in the game. Best of luck to them.
I once played a game (in goals) away at Fisher Athletic, Millwall were away that day, seems Fisher is their go to 2nd club. Never had so much thrown at me or so much abuse in 25 years of playing.
When I first moved to London about a decade ago I lived in Dulwich, not a long walk from the ground. When I first went there they were averaging crowds in the 300s and were two divisions below where they are now. Fisher’s phoenix club ground shared with them after their fall from grace, in fact I may have watched a game of theirs at Champion Hill before a Hamlet one.
It was quite incredible to see within a few years the crowd grow and the hype quietly build around the club, it was all a little surreal. When I first started going they had a small, hardy bunch of disillusioned league fans, I guess what people would describe as “hipsters” but to me just felt like the counter cultural, football fanzine spirit writ large and they mixed well with the old timers there.
I started going less and less regularly when the crowds really started to shoot up, as I go to that level of non league because you can move around very freely, plenty of space, easy to get a pint, minimal queues, relaxed, etc. They’d started to totally outgrow their ground and it really started to dampen my experience but c’est la vie.
The last game of theirs I saw was when they won promotion to the conference south, when they had a nomadic season at Tooting due to a dispute with the landowner at Champion Hill. Shortly after I moved to another part of London but I’m happy to hear they still have healthy attendances and I hope they manage to sort out a ground for the future that the fan base now deserves.
When I was a lad they were one of the great names of amateur football. At that time Bishop Auckland and Crook Town up north were the big names but Dulwich Hamlet, like Corinthian Casuals, we’re one of the established traditional names of amateur football.
Amateur football was a popular and important part of the fabric of football with 100,000 crowds at Wembley for the FA Amateur Cup Final. The results of the Isthmian and Spartan Leagues and the like were always reported in the Sunday papers. Having grandparents from South London I knew Dulwich quite well so never quite got the “Hamlet” bit but always thought it was an impressive name. Better than Rovers, Athletic, Town etc,
Anyway, glad to see them doing well and a great name from the past flourishing
Interesting stuff, I like their colours as well (pink and blue) - I see Jazzi Barnum -Bobb is with them according to their Wikipedia page.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kind of Blue
Who did you play for Des? Saw the reformed Fisher play Millwall at a preseason friendly at their new ground in Rotherhithe. Surreal spot to watch football with a panoramic view of Canary Wharf.Quote:
Originally Posted by Des Parrot
Yeah, colour scheme also harks back to a different era as Enoch mentioned above. It’s like had we stuck with Riverside’s colour scheme.Quote:
Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
I shouldn't have used the word 'hipsters'. I didn't want to make Dulwich Hamlet look contrived, which I'm sure it isn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kind of Blue
Mike “dreads” who did the Bluebird Jones fanzine was a big Hamlet fan, but he’s switched allegiances, as I understand, due to the new hipster following and Peter Crouch’s involvement.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordi Culé
70s Man still makes me laugh from Bluebird Jones.Quote:
Originally Posted by cityhammer
I've watched quite a bit non league football and enjoy the whole experience of it. I suppose anything that starts organically can become commercialised to an extent to enable more progress.
There are a few 'hipster' clubs that fall for their own myths mind.
Taken to doing quite a few non league games recently, Dulwich being one of them. Whilst a tidy stadium and a very impressive turnout for a fifth tier game (Vs Hampton & Richmond), the general experience there does give off vibe of moral superiority and forcing it in everyone’s face. Fair play to them but they aren’t the only club that do good things or are inclusionary, they seem to be tapping into a target market though.
Found Tooting & Mitcham and Hampton & Richmond far more pleasurable experiences.
Used to go and watch them a lot when I was living in Chiswick. They were still Hampton FC until the late nineties. Ted Lasso territory now!Quote:
Originally Posted by Der Kaiser