A Brief History of Dorking Wanderers FC - "Forever The Underdog"

me and my friend said actually we should just start our own team and start playing football um to which I said yeah fine and um we just a fun side and literally uh my friend uh had a Peter buckin had a kitchen company in 1999 he had a kitchen company and literally he shouted up as I was leaving he shouted up the stairs what should we call it quickly and we doing something I said you want to have a doing in the name and he he shouted up the stairs what wandas I went yeah that do and I walked out the [Music] door that's how the club was formed 1999 we needed to find a lead to go so somebody join the cring district League which we started in division four and basically it was structured that you'd have a game of football and then a fight afterwards so um it was Rough and Ready these leagues and it was just fun and we just kept winning and winning and winning the wanders quickly was were going right through the leagues winning League after League after league and that was a stage then that I was getting on a bit I hadn't retired yet so I decided to come down and play so I actually played a Bram on on The Big Field and all the boys and it was like it you know boys putting up the net or so obviously as a senior player what you want to do is get the young Lads out early to put the Nets up first and all that so you didn't have to do it and that's how we used to do it so so this was our our very first pitch we uh our very first pitch we started on and we used to drag the Nets literally 200 M from the Rugby Club over here it cost 50 Quid a game the players would arrive late or just sit around the corner in the hope that they didn't have to first ones here would have to drag the Nets over so it All Began here for us yes we started to become a real good side for about four or five years we got promoted three times then we got into the big promotion was about five six years ago where we got into the uh in the county we got right up to the county League county level three and at that time our team was as good as you know anyone around we moved into moved into West humble and this when we fa moved in this was just a field and whatever else we needed a new ground because the council fi could only do so so much on so then we literally walked around we went to all the places in dorin and we got invited to go down to uh what we know now to be West tble uh some guy showed us around and he and he walked around there really negatively this guy and the grass was knee high and it's an old Sports ground that belonged initially to the asham School in dorin um and it's a field in trust property so I was it's just a field that's kept in trust um has a lots of rules and caveats on it he he took us to this area of the field and said look it's knee high he said people have looked at this before there's nothing you can do with it he said there's no electricity and there's no water there's nothing here he goes but if you want to use it you can use it it's yours we came here as I say there was nothing and all the boys during a pre-season there was there was an old shed over there and all the boys in the preseason were Bing and painting it all out and even then all of this wasn't here it was just literally a field over there there was none of so but it was still the pitch was perfect and it was a nice wide pitch and it was just a it it was your own pitch when we came here that was really the start of the upward real upward trajectory of the club facilities you know not the best but still it's your your own ground so and we could attract better players and you you know a lot of younger players that that got us through the leagues off the field now the club's in its best ever shape probably up to 25 people in various roles uh across the board which you know we go to clubs that have been in existence for 100 100 years plus struggling to get volunteers Etc so quite proud of the fact really just 17 years in we've got a really solid foundations to the club and I think what people like about it is it's still continues to be somebody's project the project of ding wanders local people um local volunteers we find it quite easy to get people engaged with our club because it's a genuine success story there's not a chairman who's trying to produce good profits this is a p this is a pure project this is real life Championship manager that's what people you know call it it's like you know start a football team and keep going through the leagues like on your computer we really believe that we'll be a professional football club three promotions I think from professional football uh one two yeah three where it be professional football we've done we've done more than that already we I really believe that and we do that it'll be easier to achieve being a professional football G than what we've done already we literally challenges are incredible people don't realize what the club been through even things like putting three concrete paths and and and 250 seat a stand cost a lot of money but the real challenge is not just Financial but we we've been based on a property that's owned by field in trust um it's in an area of outstanding Natural Beauty with its own committee so it's in the backdrop of Box Hill so therefore it has its own committee so it's green belt planning rules which mean Green Belt planning there's no such thing as temporary planning even so if you want to do a even a um literally a portaloo would need permanent planning on Green Belt l so without all the planning issues we have local residents that care dearly about the field because it backs onto their uh their beautiful houses and it's um fil and trust also has strict rules within operating on their field so one being you can't charge essentially to get into a fieldon trust property two being you cannot exclusively enclose a fieldon trust property uh three being you cannot have sponsorship um um with an fient trust property so we've had all these things had to work around as well so we had loads of challenges and no Club has worked harder off the field um so to to to achieve what we've achieved on the field as well was such a well puze success story that the local Council acknowledged that and so the dwan football club uh with respect to them and um you know as a result of that there's a 6 million pound project and a brand new stadium being built um which we're planning to move into with with dwan football club and we've now formed an alliance with them there's very few football grounds in nonleague football now where the town center location is is preserved essentially because what they've tended to do in every single town is set off the main sites and then put the local football club on the outskirt somewhere cheaper and the local Authority in doring um alongside dwking football club have made sure they preserved this venue right in the middle of town um we've all come together we're going to share the ground and um we would expect attendances and interest in both clubs um to accelerate this is this is the home of um football and dkin for as long as anyone who lives in the local area would remember so I came my first ever game of football spectating was around about 5 six years old um dwking football club be treay wandas so I came down here with my granddad and watch my first ever game of football and I'd imagine anybody in dorin south of 50 55 years old is the same and that's a huge bit of Legacy it's got one of the best backdrops in in the country in terms of boxill which um is over there and it's got the S Martin Spire there famously as well it's going to be an artificial pitch um there's going to be infrastructure for the community as well as for the football clubs that are going to use it and being an artificial pitch on top of the senior football clubs you got a mass benefit to all of the local footballing uh community in terms of uh the youth element where can be used for for training and and matches all week round uh and there's going to be a coffee shop and soft play Etc um in the park as well so a significant local project primarily dorkin football club um new owners ensured that this was going to happen and everybody should be grateful to that our relationship with dor has benefited both clubs there much at share the facility and it have a significant difference I think to both clubs in terms of support base oldfashioned stuff really people able to walk out of any one of these chimney pots as they say surrounded by houses and the town center and watch a game of [Music] football I don't think anyone deserved anything but in in terms of having an opportunity to Bear the fruit of the hard work we put in it's nice to be able to play from the central Town Center location I think we put so much effort time and and money into what we what we've done as a project it's nice to get that recognized not just by local Authority but by the uh by dkan football club who've been in existence since uh the late 1800s uh so I think we feel privileged that's been recognized and feel flattered and we're really excited by you know what this is going to be down here it'll be finished hopefully by by end of June um 17 it should be transformed it's going to be incredible the kind of Benchmark of where you come from where you're going to we used to we literally used to drag out jumpers for for goal post we had a game called off once because a Shep and pony invaded the pitch in Crawley which is totally true totally true there's a gypsy site next door and a Shep and pony invaded the pitch and the kid wouldn't get off it so ref called it off um you know but now we're selling season tickets that that that is the kind of where you've come from where you are what what we're hoping people recognize with is the project because the project could happen on on anyone's uh in anyone's backyard if you like what we tried to bring back and people identify with is we're trying to bring back the dad that comes down with his children to watch the game and the Really the great work Chris has done with the youth section now we get last year we gave out all of our youth section we gave threee passes for all the first team games bar in FA competitions it's against the rules and they could uh they would come free with their kid for free any other adults half price I think so all year long increasingly we would have a game with have have kids in the kits and their dads in the scarves I like like all of the fans and like they have like all of the like the bar over there and at half time you're like allowed to go on the pitch and it's like fun because like like all of your friends could be here your family and you can like have fun and also like it because you just like I like watching the players and like staying up all late yeah my nan my my nan lived back there IED to play down at D myself and um but my n every single Saturday would watch out the window and try and watch the game and uh you know she and I'd be down there and then she'd put my kids on the kitchen and my kids would would look out and trying try and spot me down the ground and uh so is it is a it's a per I think um it's a personal thing for me in some respects I always measured a football club by my daughter because she's uh um my ex was pregnant at the time and uh so in 1999 so um if I look back then to to when we started it and the intentions behind it you could dreamt really you could get where you get to it just shows really hard work in any of project you need people involved with the right intentions uh people involved for the right reasons no one's ever been financially motivated at any point you can't be a non-league football um and they're probably a capital really in some respects of how far you can take it um on that basis we couldn't have dreamt we couldn't have dreamt to have had the success we've already had let alone how much opportunity uh the new venue would give us um and we always seem as a club without try really every year to create a few new firsts there always seems to be something happening that's not happening before we don't tend to stand still and long may that continue we're just trying to engage more and more people with the [Music] club

Channel: Selachii Legal

Views: 79,052

Keywords: dorking, wanderers, dorking wanderers, football, selachii, solicitor, sponsor, ryman league, non league

Id: 9htDLLuKtZI

Length: 13min 56sec (836 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 23 2016