Sociology

Dorking Wanderers  3  Slough Town   5

National League South

In a week where my old Keele University sociology course colleague, Priti Patel, was hitting the headlines again due to her alleged archaic management style, it seemed somewhat apt that I decided to visit a place where one of the first people I met while at University came from.

Lucy was in my sociology group as well, in fact I dug out a recent team photo and the two of us were stood together on the back row, Ms Patel is nearer the front, as was her way. Lucy was from the Surrey town of Dorking, and clearly Dorking was a place where the children didn’t qualify for a student grant, the parents were too wealthy!

I’ve not seen Lucy since Belper Town played away in the FA Vase semi-final at Oxford City in March 1995. She was studying for a Masters at Oxford University and the hotel we were using for a pre-match lunch was literally minutes round the corner from her digs. We kind of lost touch after that, and other than a very brief exchange on LinkedIn about ten years ago, contact is non-existent.

While not at Ms Patel levels, she does now work in a very senior position in the Education system, which actually begs the question as to what went wrong with myself. We’ve got a Home Secretary (or at least for the time being), we’ve got someone who can close a school down with the press of a send button on an email, and then we’ve got me, but I was never one for conformity or following the prescribed pathway.

Plus, I went to school in Alfreton, I take being alive and not having served a prison term as being a bonus!

Anyway, I’ve never set foot in Dorking in my life. We did plan to meet up, but when push came to shove it just seemed a touch too far round the M25 for me to drive down, so it simply didn’t happen. But, when Dorking Wanderers won the Isthmian League last season and with it won promotion to the National League South, it was the excuse I needed, because at some point in 2019-20, for one day only, I was going to head round the outskirts of Leatherhead and into the town that normal money simply cannot buy a part of!

I did think about going on the train, but that didn’t materialise, however what I did do was save it for when the weather was less than favourable, which in effect is all of 2020 so far and a large part of the final quarter of 2019!

What’s the story around football in Dorking then?

A club called Dorking FC joined the Corinthian League in 1956, before transferring to the Athenian League in 1963. In 1974 they merged with Guildford City to form Guildford & Dorking United, it subsequently went pear shaped.

In 1978 a club called Dorking Town joined the Athenian League from the Surrey Senior League, and in 1983, after being promoted to the Isthmian League, they dropped the ‘Town’ from their name.

They bumbled along, moving between the various divisions of the Isthmian League until 2006 when they were relegated to the Combined Counties League. The Isthmian period saw the club reach the First Round Proper of the FA Cup in 1992-93, losing 3-2 at home to Peter Shilton’s Plymouth Argyle.

By 2017, Dorking FC had vanished, resigning from the CoCo, but a club called Dorking Wanderers joined the Sussex County League in 2007 having been promoted from the West Sussex League. This new club moved up through the Sussex ranks before winning promotion to the Isthmian League in 2015, therefore taking over the mantle of the senior club in the town. Success continued, and after losing a Play-Off to Faversham Town, they went one better in 2016-17 and beat Corinthian Casuals in the Final.

Last season they won the Premier Division of the Isthmian and now find themselves in the National League.

Wanderers always played just to the North of the town in a village called Westhumble. But when the Surrey Football Association took it upon themselves to develop the now derelict Meadowbank ground in the centre of town that Dorking FC had used, it was a great opportunity for the club to move into a purpose built and perfectly located home for an up and coming outfit.

Meadowbank is quite literally on the High Street in Dorking. You enter the town from the North, pass the railway stations on the left and do a right at the roundabout. The High Street is full of shops that are neither budget or charity, but about quarter of a mile down you do a right and this road takes you to a multi-story car park. Parking at the ground is not possible, so unless you want to drive around and find some seemingly non-existent street parking, you may as well go to the aforementioned.

The beauty of the aforementioned is that when you walk out of the pedestrian exit, you are no more than thirty yards from the turnstiles. I was quite early, but it was a hive of activity even though it was two hours before kick off.

It’s a very shiny new facility, with dual branding in terms of the football club and the Surrey FA. A large FA facility sits in the Eastern corner of the South side, while adjacent to it is the dressing room and clubhouse facility spread over two storey’s. The clubhouse is very nice, serving meals and lager at a mere £3.90 a pint!

Beyond this is a smart grandstand, while further down the South side to the West end of the ground is an area of Atcost style terracing, more on that later.

The West side and the North side are hard standing only, while the East end is inaccessible as building work of some sort goes on. I assume it is more covered accommodation as the ground certainly needs it.

It’s a very nice ground though, in a nice setting, I did like it, but, in it’s current format, it has it’s issues when a big crowd is in situ, as it was today. 778 pitched up, but it looked and felt like more, with around 150 of them having travelled down the M4 and round the M25.

Both sides sat in the play-off berths before the game, with Slough having the edge in terms of positions. The game turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, I’ve seen all season.

Jack Barham gave Dorking the lead in the twelfth minute when he escaped beyond the Slough defence and slotted home under the goalkeeper. We had parity though four minutes later when Dan Roberts rifled home from just inside the penalty area.

Jimmy Muitt restored Dorking’s lead just before the half hour mark, and by now with the rain failing and both sets of fans wedged under the limited cover, we had some tension. The Slough fans were brilliant and very vocal, whereas their Dorking counterparts responded in good measure, barring a few teenage causal wannabees who thought it would be a good idea to goad the away support. A minor confrontation occurred and a Slough fan ‘Nigel’ was hauled away by the stewards, who in my opinion seemed more concerned with the Slough fans reaction than the initial provocation.

More cover, and segregation would have prevented the issue, and if Dorking are to progress again, that is something they’ll clearly need to address.

Anyway, just after the break Roberts made it 2-2 when his shot was fluffed by the Dorking goalkeeper, but shortly after that the visitors Paul Hodges was sent off for a professional foul. A decision made by the linesman, and based on video evidence he wasn’t the last man, it was very harsh.

Roberts then got his hat-trick to make it 3-2 to Slough, but Jason Prior was on hand for Wanderers with twenty minutes to go to make it 3-3. The man disadvantage only seemed to spur the visitors on though, and they went on to get a fourth and then a fifth goal from Warren Harris and Ben Harris respectively.

Nigel was back in the ground by the time the second half started, so in my opinion justice was done as he shouldn’t have been lobbed out in the first place, and, he got to see his team record a brilliant victory that took them second in the table.

The journey back was straightforward with no hold ups, it had been a fantastic day out and well worth the travelling. Just one more National League ground to visit now, fingers crossed for next Saturday and the South coast!

If one day I put my qualifications to good use and got a proper job working for the right people, maybe I too could live in a place like Dorking. Until then, I’ll leave it to the Lucy’s and the Priti’s of this World, besides, they’ve turned down Wetherespoons, and that’s something that my home town of Belper has in common with them. So maybe they’re not that much better after all!