Dulwich Hamlet v Leatherhead

CHAMPION HILL

BOSTIK LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

GROUND NO 197

NON-LEAGUE football outside the National League has, let's face it, earned a bit of a reputation for being a bit one man and his dog.

You know - pokey little grounds, empty terraces and the bloke in the anorak who doesn't count a ground as a tick unless he's seen a goal at both ends, bought a programme and touched every corner flag. And frankly in my opinion there's nothing wrong with that!

But then there's Dulwich Hamlet where non-league football is cool again.

Champion Hill has gained a bit of a reputation for being Hipster Central with its passionate all-inclusive social policies, community outreach projects and terraces brimming with trendy young things you'd expect to see in an artisan cereal café rather than a non-league ground.

The stickers and stencilled artwork around the ground, the craft ales at the bar and the Asian street food stall where food is served with chopsticks does little to play down the reputation. I genuinely expected to see an advert for beard oil in the programme.

But it's easy to be flippant about Dulwich Hamlet's rampantly lefty principles and uber trendy following.

The bottom line is that this is a proud old football club supported by fans who genuinely care about the team and who want to enjoy a game played in a vibrant and colourful atmosphere - and surely that's what we all want as football fans, isn't it?

And for all it's pink and blue trend-bucking quirks, Dulwich Hamlet is very much a football club not a freak show.

To illustrate - after we'd walked through the turnstiles (keep your eyes open before you enter or you'll get a soaking from the car wash slap bang outside the gates) there stood a programme seller, someone selling 50-50 draw tickets and another guy asking regulars to sign a get well soon card for a committee member who had been taken ill. How much more non-league can you get?

And the hardcore fan base known as The Rabble, many of them decked out in the imaginative apparel from the well-stocked club shop (I particularly like the T-shirts based on the Ramones tops worn by legions of trendies who wouldn't know a track from Road to Ruin if it bit them on the bum) were right behind the team all afternoon.

There were more than 1,700 in for this game. That's an amazing turnout for a game and this level and I've been at Football League games where fewer people have parted with their hard-earned cash on the gate.

Apparently the fans have a song based on Duchess by The Stranglers - one of the greatest songs ever recorded - although sadly I didn't hear it on this occasion. There were, however, plenty of roars of approval for the Pink and Blue Army as they marched to a 4-0 win.

Champion Hill in its current guise has only stood since 1992. Its predecessor on the same site was one of the most imposing stadia in non-league football - it even staged the FA Amateur Cup final in the 1930s and an international clash between South Korea and Mexico as part of the 1948 Olympics. A non-league ground as an Olympic venue - imagine that!

But with the club going through a bit of a hard time and the ground falling into a state of disrepair, an unlikely saviour arrived in the form of Sainsbury's. The supermarket giant got out the chequebook to secure land for their newest superstore - but part of the deal was that Dulwich Hamlet could build a new ground on the site of the old one. Result.

And a fine ground it is too. Though much smaller than its predecessor, it can still accommodate 3,000 fans including 500 in its defining feature, the Tommy Jover Stand, named after the club legend who spent seven decades at Champion Hill as a player, official and president.

Built into the brick-built structure, the top storey rising above the stand's roof is the clubhouse, changing room and a commercial gym. With its pale brickwork and small towers rising at either end it looks like something in between a castle and a shopping centre.

Perched up top in the middle is a clock, but don't bother checking it to see how long is left to play. Word has it that it's not worked since being struck by lightning in 1956 but whether or not that's an urban myth created by someone who's watched Back To The Future too many times, I can't be sure.

Beyond the stand towards the far end is an open tarmacked area with a goal painted on the perimeter wall and a couple of small basketball nets. Along with the chopsticks, another football first for me...

Behind the goal is a bank of terracing, smaller than the modest section at the opposite end, while midway down the side facing the main stand is a covered standing area.

If you've enjoyed a can or two of Beavertown from the bar and need to answer nature's call but aren't sure where to head, help is at hand. For painted in letters of unprecedented size at the top of the structure are the words 'toilets opposite'. This area is now commonly known as the Toilets Opposite Stand.

Yes, going to Dulwich Hamlet is no run of the mill non-league football experience. And non-league football is all the better for it.