Good afternoon…who would have thought a close season could fly by so quickly?
But then…it was a somewhat shorter break than anticipated ‘thanks’ to the on-going Enfield Town failed appeal saga.
That’s all in the past now, as we look to the 2015/16 season, where I’m sure we’re all excited with eager anticipation about what will happen on the pitch.
And off it…we’ve not been resting on our laurels either. Claudia Jukes has worked extremely hard, alongside Andy Greig & Liam Hickey from the Football Committee, to organise the huge push for the advertising fundraising during the latter part of last season & throughout the summer. This culminated in LATE KNIGHTS BREWERY, who began in Penge only two years ago, becoming our official home shirt sponsors for this year. Their name was picked out of the hat by former Dulwich Hamlet star Erhun Oztumer, after he returned to Champion Hill to captain Peterborough United in our first pre-season game, back on Wednesday 8th July.
That same night we were also pleased to announce that another local company, SHOW & TELL, from Walworth, who produce high quality theatre and comedy in London, will have their name emblazoned across our away kit.
There were many other minor sponsorship gifts for companies & local community groups who took part in our programme advertising package…we thank them all for taking part, making the total raised the highest ever in the history of our Club.
You may well have seen an article or two on the official Club website ( www.dulwichhamletfc.london ) during the last few days with regard to a collection we are holding today. And-for once- we’re NOT asking for your money! What we are after is any pairs of old football boots you have that you either no longer wear, or have outgrown, and may be gathering dust at the bottom of your cupboards. Dulwich Hamlet fan James Virgo is collecting them through his local church for re-distribution to local footballers in Uganda…where boots are in great demand, but in very scarce supply & are a luxury that most ordinary folk simply cannot afford over there.
James will also be collecting them at our next two home matches with Thamesmead Town on Tuesday 18th August; and Staines Town on Saturday 22nd of August. Please feel free to ask around your family, friends & work colleagues to spread the word for this extremely worthwhile cause.
At our recent pre-season game with our good friends from Hamburg, Altona 93, we were pleased to welcome a party of guests to the game from the Lambeth Autism Group, who had a really enjoyable day. We would love to invite more community groups from across our part of South London to Champion Hill for a great day out with complimentary tickets from Dulwich Hamlet Football Club. If you know of any schools, groups, workplaces or similar that would like a gift of free tickets to a Dulwich Hamlet home match this season, as part of the on-going Football Committee initiative to grow our fanbase, then just speak to Mishi Morath, who is the member responsible for community matters, or email him direct to: therabblers@yahoo.co.uk
To finish our first column of the new season I’d just like to remind you to keep on looking at the official Club website www.dulwichhamletfc.london as it is updated several times a week, if not every single day. And if you have any special messages you might want us to share on there, be it birthdays, anniversaries or similar, feel free to drop us a line too… we’re more than happy to do so.
Looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible back here in ten days time, for our Alan Turvey Trophy match at home to Thamesmead Town.