And so to Champion Hill and the eagerly awaited Bostik League clash between Dulwich Hamlet, in their famous pink and navy blue shirts, and Billericay Town, who have attracted much press coverage of late.
The Dulwich Hamlet story began in the summer of 1893 when Lorraine `Pa` Wilson was handed the princely sum of one shilling and eight pence by a couple of keen young footballers to start a Dulwich Hamlet Football Club.
Hamlet
joined the Camberwell League initially, before moving to the Isthmian
League in 1907 where they have stayed ever since. The club have won 4 FA
Amateur Cups and 5 Isthmian League titles, the most recent being in the
1977/78 season.
During World War I the legendary Edgar Kail joined Dulwich, scoring 427 goals in 14 seasons and winning 3 full England caps in an international career that lasted 6 days !! The approach to Champion Hill is now named Edgar Kail Way, with a blue plaque, in his memory. Goalkeeper Bert Coleman also won a full England cap.
The 1948/49 title came in the middle of popular flying winger Tommy Jover's career. The main stand is named after him in honour of 70 years of magnificent service as a player, official and club President.
The Hamlet returned to the Isthmian Premier Division at the end of the 2012/13 season, after two unsuccessful play off campaigns. There have been three consecutive play off defeats in the last three seasons, as promotion to the National League South proves elusive.
Long since known for their work in the community, and anti homophobia and anti discrimination crusades, Dulwich were awarded the Football Foundation Community Club of the Year in 2016.
The visitors were established as Billericay FC
in 1880 playing at Archers Field in the Romford & District League up
to the First World War. Local competition was provided by Billericay
Albion and Billericay Thursdays.
Ricay then moved to the Mid Essex League until World War II before changing the club's name to Billericay Town, not popular at the time, and joining the South Essex Combination League. The Blues became founder members of the Essex Olympian League in 1966, and were crowned champions in 1970 and 1971.
In fact 1971 was a significant year for the club, moving to New Lodge, named after the adjacent hospital, and becoming founder members of the Essex Senior League. Around this time Ricay also redesigned the club badge to feature an image of the Mayflower which set sail for North America in 1620 - some of the passengers were from Billericay. Tenuous at best, although the club's strapline remains We Sail As One.
The 1970s saw 3 Essex Senior League
championships, 2 Athenian League titles and 3 FA Vase successes - 1976
(1-0 v Hoddesdon), 1977 (2-1 after a replay v Sheffield 'The Club') and
1979 (4-1 v Almondsbury Greenway). Dougie Young scored a hat trick in
the latter, the first in a Wembley final since a certain Geoff Hurst in
1966.
The following season Ricay moved up to the Isthmian, yoyoing between the 3 divisions and moving to the Premier in 1998. The title was won in 2011/12 but this led to a solitary season in the Conference South before demotion.
In December 2016, after his overtures were rejected by Dagenham & Redbridge, the club was bought by multi millionaire Glenn Tamplin, who appointed himself manager in March - the Blues just missing out on the play offs.
But the circus has really been in town this summer with Tamplin sacking the club's cheerleaders, for distracting the players, then reinstating them. The club's wage bill has rocketed to over £30,000 a week as he brought in the likes of Paul Konchesky, Jamie O'Hara and Jermaine Pennant, expecting to 'smash the league'.
Add in the home dressing room being repainted as a mural of lions ('My players are lions'), and a (now deleted) tweet from Tamplin telling a rival fan to commit suicide, and you get the feeling it could be an interesting afternoon....
After a disastrous start, with an expansion joint 'failing' on Thelwall viaduct, leading to the M6 being closed for 9 hours and causing gridlock in Cheshire, it's finally into Euston and a whistle stop tour of the sights.
First the sauna that is the Tube to Marble Arch, then the Serpentine, Kensington Palace, the Albert Memorial and a sadly bescaffolded Royal Albert Hall. Onto Buckingham and St James's Palaces before reaching Westminster Abbey, and then Big Ben and its bongs, but not for much longer !!
The Houses of Parliament, 10 Downing Street, Westminster Bridge, Nelson's Column and a trip on the London Eye - where the neighbouring pod hosts a Japanese wedding party, and our half hour revolution is greeted by a thunderstorm (Thunderbolt and Lightning, very very frightening - the Eye in a storm J) Finally the Tower of London and Tower Bridge completes the sightseeing.
The journey to Dulwich Hamlet involves three hills, firstly an overground to Denmark Hill where the station lamp standards are painted in pink and navy blue, a nearby roof is covered in graffiti 'Feed The Pigeons' and the air ambulance at adjoining Kings College Hospital chops into action. A walk round Ruskin Park, up Champion Hill, a pint of Spitfire at The Fox On The Hill and then down Dog Kennel Hill and through Sainsburys car park to the ground.
Hamlet have played at Champion Hill since 1902 on 3 separate grounds. The last of these was constructed in 1992 after the sale of the adjoining training pitch to Sainsburys and a season of groundsharing at Tooting & Mitcham.
Inside the stadium immediately to the left is a shipping 'mega' container which houses Dulwich Hamlet Supporters Trust. Three sides sport set back three step partial terraces, with the popular side partly covered. The ground is dominated by the Tommy Jover Stand and clubhouse on the near side, with an abundance of stickers and approved graffito images on all sides.
There's also a tea bar to one side of the Tommy Jover Stand and a Thai food outlet to the other, next to a bar in a prefabricated garage. The far end shouts 'Up The Hamlet', and this is where the Rabble, Dulwich's 'ultras' congregate for the second half. The toilets continue the stickers and graffiti theme - 'Refugees Welcome', 'No to Fascism', 'No to Homophobia', and various associations with other foreign clubs including Altona 93 and St Pauli plus.
Hamlet are in pink and navy blue, Ricay in
change red and white - and both sets of supporters are in fine voice
with a significant away following in the crowd of 1,688. The Rabble
raise flags declaring 'No One Knows Us We Don't Care' and 'Ordinary
Morality Is For Ordinary Football Clubs'.
Within a minute Hamlet's Dumebi Dumaka has fired just wide and then Sierra Leone international Ibrahim Kargbo shoots marginally over the Ricay bar. At the other end Ricay's Louie Theophanous is put through on goal but scuffs his shot horribly, and Preston Edwards saves well from Rob Swaine from a corner to preserve Hamlet's clean sheet. Kargbo's deflected drive is then tipped onto the top of the bar by Ricay's keeper Alan Julian.
Just before the break a lofted ball forward catches on the wind, allowing Billy Bricknell to control with one touch and then rifle the ball past Edwards, and Ricay lead. But there's still time for one more Hamlet attack which sees Leo Chambers handle the ball on the floor to concede a penalty. Ashley Carew sends Julian the wrong way, and it's 1-1 at the interval in a first half that certainly lived up to expectations.
The second period continues in similar vein, although despite Dumaka's splendid control and trickery Hamlet fail to create real opportunities. Bricknell's shot is hooked off the line, and from the resulting corner Carew also clears off the line. Pennant, booked earlier, makes way for the heavily braided Ricky Modeste.
Shortly after substitute Nana Boakye-Yiadom gets in a tangle, the ball hits him on the arm and Ricay have a penalty. Bricknell dispatches it nonchalantly. Hamlet fight back and Nyren Clunis's slaloming run is brought to a cynical end by Konchesky, who receives a yellow card that could easily have been red.
With three minutes to go Hamlet win another free kick just outside the area, but lose possession and the ball breaks to Jake Robinson, a £24,000 capture from Hemel Hempstead in March. He takes one touch before chipping the ball home past the flailing Edwards from 50 yards - a quite stunning and audacious goal. Edwards makes a wonder save from Bricknell's free kick in injury time to deny him his hat truck.
Ricay win 3-1 and their expensively assembled side justify the bookies favourites tag in the second half. The teams leave to Hamlet chants of 'What a waste of money' directed at the ever animated Tamplin.....
