Hot Air with Hutty

Faced with the prospect of a four hour Channel crossing in the company of Hutty & Griff on the way back to dear old Blighty a few weeks ago, having been to watch Red Star there, I wasn’t sure if I could take the prospect of their inane witterings with no hope of escape. Other than jumping overboard, so I took the easier option of turning the sailing to my advantage and got out the old trusty pen and notebook to make Mark Hutton the second interviewee on this blog. Here’s what we passed the time about:

Rabbler: So when did you start supporting Dulwich Hamlet?
Mark: About 1992, one of the first games was a seven nil defeat against Carshalton Athletic. But I had been to the old Champion Hill ground before. I was at the FA Trophy quarter final replay versus Boston United, which we lost one nil. I think we had a goal disallowed in the first minute, which turned the game! I also saw Wimbledon win the London Senior Cup there, when the Dons beat Leatherhead in 1975. Back in the late seventies I also refereed a number of times on the old ‘back pitch’, which was used by a team called Distillers as their home ground, in the Southern Olympian League.

Rabbler: So having seen us get thrashed seven nil what exactly made you come back?
Mark: I was just looking to get back into watching football & first impressions count. The people I talked to in the bar seemed very friendly, & I remember talking to Dave Blythe the window cleaner, & the trainspotting chap Foggy.

Rabbler: You have supported other clubs, before coming to Champion Hill though.
Mark: Yes that’s true, my first love is for Wimbledon Football Club. My old dad took me to Plough Lane regularly in the late fifties and early sixties. I’ve also got a bit of a soft spot for Crystal Palace.

Rabbler: You are known to frequent Imperial Fields occasionally. Have you got a bit of a ‘soft spot’,to use your polite phrase, for Tooting then?
Mark: No, not at all! They were always bitter rivals of Wimbledon FC in the old days, if you don’t mind!

Rabbler: So you’ll be a keen watcher of the AFC Wimbledon results it would be fair to assume.
Mark: Not really no. I consider the true heirs to Wimbledon Football Club are Milton Keynes Dons.

Rabbler: You must have seen some decent players over the years. Are there any old ‘uns that stick in the mind?
Mark: It would all be Wimbledon players for me. The great Eddie Reynolds, who scored all four goals with his head, in the 4-2 victory in the 1963 FA Amateur Cup Final. I was actually at Wembley Stadium that day to see him do it. Another great one was Gerry O’Rourke. There was the great Dons team of the mid seventies who took on reigning Football League champions Leeds United in the FA Cup Fourth Round & held them to a draw a Elland Road, before only losing to a Dave Bassett own goal in the replay, which was at Selhurst Park. Roger Connell, Kieran Summers & Dickie Guy in goal of course. He saved a penalty from Peter Lorrimer up there! I remember walking back to the buses after the game with my dad. We had to keep very quiet as sections of the home Leeds crowd around us were a bit upset!

Rabbler: Is it true your dad actually saw Edgar Kail play?
Mark: He used to follow Chesham United, as our family lived there in the twenties, when he was young. He certainly saw Edgar Kail play, though I’m not sure if it was against Chesham. Maybe Dulwich played them in the Amateur Cup, or something. He always reminisced that the greatest players he ever saw were Alex James, of Arsenal & Scotland; as well as our Edgar. I’m sad to say I didn’t realise the significance of it at the time.

Rabbler: You mention great players there. Staying on that topic can you talk us through THAT goal in Belgium last summer?
Mark: Well to be fair, although I am honoured to be the oldest ever goalscorer for “The Rabblers” on a European tour, I was fortunate to have a local Belgian guesting for us, which helped. I was unused to such a pinpoint pass to me in the middle, from the Belgian, and I think it just rebounded off my knee into the back of the net! At my age I fear it might be a feat that might last for quite some time, I’m not expecting to add to my tally in Estonia this July, and it will be a few years before some of the others catch up with me, age wise. My career is coming to an end really, I’d like to think the younger players are coming through. Though I hope to still be playing when I hit the big’ six oh’ in a few years time.

Rabbler: Do you remember your first supporters’ team games?
Mark: I’m not exactly sure. I think it was one of them against the Southwark Libraries team on Peckham Rye Park. I know I was up front, and I’ve been turning out ever since. I do recall one of the earlier ones was away to West Ham United supporters’ on Hackney Marshes. We only had ten men, as Big Nose Baker cried off, claiming he’d been burgled, & Gareth Taylor played in that game as well.

Rabbler: There must have been one or two funny moments over the years?
Mark: Well Phil Bakers’ own goal in Prague for starters! The ball came harmlessly in from midfield & all he had to do was nod it out of play. Instead he smacked it past poor old Ian Wright with a bullet header, which he had no chance of stopping. There was the farcical moment when the Italian tournament organiser insisted we had to show all of our passports as identification before we took the field, despite most of us having them safely back at the hotel two miles away! Not a funny moment, but the greatest moment was when we scored in Prague and the whole ground erupted. A tribute from all the other teams & their parties to a bunch of no hopers that never stopped trying and merely travelled half way across Europe for the fun of representing their team in European competition!

Rabbler: You’ve been part of the squad for a few years now. Who’ve been some of the better players in your opinion?
Mark: One that springs to mind is Damon Green. He’s always been outstanding when he’s been available. Then there’s the big, steadfast & dependable man at the back: Steve Rickerby. Mattie Hammond in goal, for some incredible saves. But essentially the whole team has been a good bunch & I’ve just had some memorable times being a part of it.

Rabbler: I can’t believe you haven’t mentioned your good friend Phil Baker in that question. You must have a few ‘Big Nose’ stories to tell?
Mark: Oh dear, you’ve sprung that one on me. Where do I start? One of his greatest moments was coming back from a Tooting & Mitcham match, it wasn’t a Dulwich game, I don’t think we were playing that day. He managed to break dance in the street, and found himself in someone’s garden in one of their flowerpots! He was in a state of great distress and making even less sense than Bill & Ben the Flowerpot Men! Many years ago we both turned out for a team called Islington Regal. The opposition were often made up of Greeks or Italians from works teams in the hotel trade, or places like that. In one game he was in goal & went off injured, with his brother Robin taking his place .We were well beaten, and at the end of the match a Greek lady who had borrowed their umbrella to stand under congratulated Robin and told him: “You were much better than that other wanker you had in goal!” Resulting in ten well beaten team-mates all on the floor in tears!
Sometimes after games we watch, we go for a bite to eat, to soak up all the beer we’ve consumed. After an AFC Wimbledon game at Kingstonian we ended up in a Korean restaurant. A small heater, a cooker type thing, is placed on the table, to cook and heat your order. Phil of course did not realise this, and proceeded, caveman-like, to stuff raw food into his mouth. A shocked young Korean waitress dashed over, and as the place wasn’t took busy, she became our own delightful personal chef for the evening!

Rabbler: It’s not just football you excel at is it? I believe you’re a bit of an athlete?
Mark: I always enjoyed running. I’m obviously not as quick as I used to be in my more agile younger days, but I’m proud to say that over the years I’ve completed no less than 24 marathons. My personal best was three hours, twelve minutes. And doing a half marathon my PB was 1:25. I’ve been about a bit competing in them. London, of course. But I’ve also done the IsleWight, Paris & Dublin. My particular favourite was the old Polytechnic Marathon to Windsor.

Rabbler: You’re also a keen fan of other sports. I know you’re a rugby league man.
Mark: I got the bug, so to speak, when the old midweek cup was first shown on telly, & Eddie Wareing was commentating. When Fulham started a rugby league team in 1980 I went to several games at Craven Cottage, though I can’t claim to have been at the very first one. I then started to go to the local London amateur finals with the late Gordon Anderton, who became a good friend, and was then o-opted onto the committee. I’ve been involved ever since, and seen many changes in the sport, including the change to summer rugby, establishing the London League as a thriving merit league, which feeds into the Rugby League Conference; in which South London Storm rugby league play, & of which I am club president. Back to football I was also club secretary for AFC Millbank for many years. They were a staff team for the Price Commission, a Government quango type thing. After a year or so we opened up the team to include more friends and colleagues & that’s how I met Phil Baker, along with his brother Robin, in the mid to late seventies. I still have some old team photos from the Millbank days, but thankfully I don’t have any with Big Nose in them. Contrary to rumours put about by young Larry Marsh, he did turn out for us, it’s not true when Larry says Phil wasn’t good enough to play for us. He just can’t have been around on the days when the team line-ups were recorded.

Rabbler: Talking of rugby league, you’re currently wearing a West Bank amateur rugby league shirt, and are on your way back from a French non-league match at Bihorel yesterday. Just how strange are you…
Mark: What do you mean? Not at all! I exchanged this shirt for an Avignon rugby league one & a Paris one with a friend from Widnes. I like to think I’m reasonably normal.

Rabbler: You worked for the Sports Council for many years. You’ve had a bit of a career change since then…
Mark: Indeed. I now work for 4D Inter-Active, a well known telecommunications company.

Rabbler: Is that a polite way of saying you work in the sex industry?
Mark: Well, I suppose it is. We operate chat lines, date lines, that sort of thing. We bring people together.

Rabbler: It is respectable enough that your company advertise in the ‘Non League Paper’ though.
Mark: Well yes, it’s all above board! That was my idea actually. I thought there might be a lot of er…sort of, er…lonely middle aged men who might read it…

Rabbler: In your line of work you must have had a few strange calls to field?
Mark: A few! One I particularly recall was a supposed lady, who I was a bit suspicious of. When I challenged her ‘she’ then switched to a broad Glaswegian masculine accent & told me to fuck off!

Rabbler: And you often joke in the bar, after matches, about a ‘Phylis of Finsbury Park’. Please elaborate.
Mark: We do get someone on the transvestite line called Phylis, and a few years ago Phil Baker used to live in Finsbury Park, so it was just another good opportunity to have a laugh at his expense really. Yet another nickname that’s stuck to him to this day.

Rabbler: You never mentioned if you’ve ever recognised anyone from Dulwich Hamlet on the line, but if one of us did ever phone up your sort of line of business, then who do you think it would most likely be?
Mark: Dear, oh dear….what sort of question is that for me to answer? I would have to say it would be Mr. Baker again. Ringing the speakeasy line. ‘Wealthy chartered surveyor seeks young lady to assist him in all things…’

Rabbler: Back to yourself. You are obviously quite a knowledgeable man. More than most of us, who seem to think the most famous Belgians are Poirot or Tintin. So who exactly is this Ernest Mandel, who you keep on wittering on about?
Mark: Witter? I beg your pardon? I don’t know what you mean, you cheeky sod! But Ernest Mandel was the leader of the left wing Belgian Solidarity Movement. Also a leading player in the Trotskyist 4th International, though he never broke from the Social Democrats, being a member of the Belgian Socialist Party. He also wrote a two volume history on Marxist Economic Theory, widely acclaimed, and published by Merlin Press in Britain, and still available. I’ve read some of his pamphlets in the past and they are very well written.

Rabbler: So politically you’re out on the left wing. Where is your chosen place on the football pitch?
Mark: Oh I don’t know really. Full back, or I’ve been up front, centre half in my time. I’m just happy to have a run out anywhere nowadays.

Rabbler: Was it a special moment for you personally when ‘The Rabblers’ played in Prague in 2003? It must have been quite an emotional moment for you visiting the city. I understand you were once banned from there.
Mark: Yes it’s true. In 1968, when the Czechs briefly broke from Soviet control, I issued a statement to the ‘South London Press’ on behalf of the South London Communist Party to defend Czechoslovakian Socialism, which they printed in their letters page. Two years later, in 1970, I was due to go to Prague with some comrades of mine, but my visa took a while coming through. I rang up their embassy to query why I had not received mine & they accused me of being a spy & refused it! I can only assume, to this day, it was because of my letter in the paper. My dear old mother was most upset, & I had to reassure her that I was not a spy.

Rabbler: Mention of Prague brings us to our tours. There aren’t many of us who are ever present on “The Rabblers” European jaunts. How have you enjoyed them?
Mark: Immensely. The first one was to Amsterdam in 2002. We didn’t win any games, losing every match two nil, but we imbibed well. I recall the hotel being rather rowdy when we got there, there was a welcoming party for a lot of rugby union teams who had their own tournament & we all gatecrashed it, quaffing lots of free beer from their Heineken sponsors. In our first game myself & Big Nose Baker started up front. A bold experiment from the manager Steve Rickerby, but one that was a total failure! We were the two oldest players on the trip & it rather showed!
I vividly remember Prague, particularly for that great 1-1 draw against the Swiss, when all eleven of us battled in temperatures of over 100 degrees, with the hippy Paul Griffin get the all important first ever “Rabblers” European goal.
Then there was Rimini, in Italy. My abiding memory of this has nothing to do with the football, but the ‘shop til you drop’ from of Myles Quinn, in what can only be described as a very unique shopping spree. A man in his fifties wearing a punk style Union Jack T-shirt and jacket, clearly two sizes too small, and some exotic nightwear that was more suited to a kung fu fighter! A group of us were sitting outside a café on the main seafront road, enjoying the local team Rimini live on telly in a play off match.(Tickets were sold out long before we were in town unfortunately) & Myles strolled past with a number of shopping bags. We were in fits of laughter as he proceeded to show us all what he had bought, & even the Italian waiter end up in fits of laughter, holding onto the side of the bar!
The next trip was over to Paris, to play the Red Star lads. That was the match that will not so much be remembered for the hat trick from Lawrence Marsh that won us the game, but a minor error when I kindly refereed the second half. I gave an offside decision against us, not realising the Red Star goalkeeper was having a personal conversation with one of his defenders back on his own goal line! I’ve never been allowed to forget this one rare error, & I have every sympathy with poor old Graham Poll when he dished out those three yellow cards by mistake. That was also the game where the “El Pussy” nickname came about for Phil Baker in goal, as we ‘Franglaised’ the old Peter Bonetti nickname of ‘The Cat’. To be perfectly honest his labouring efforts between the sticks reminded me of a large well fed old tabby cat! I didn’t have a clear view of it but he even managed to concede an own goal, luckily we won by the odd goal in three. Later that year we ventured into Belgium, for the RFC Liege tournament. I certainly won’t forget the Saturday night. I was having a nice Chinese meal in a local restaurant, while there was an actual riot going on outside, as the local carnival got a tad out of hand! This was where we first had the pleasure of meeting Nicolas Lucas, from the PSG Belgium supporters’. Ironically it was Myles Quinn who first got talking to him & introduced us all, at the time we felt deep sympathy for him having had to suffer Myles’ company! We were honoured to win the Fair Play award from the hosts, our behaviour and general respect for our hosts a far cry from that of the independent Millwall supporters’ team-not the lot who play in the IFA I hasten to add-who really were an outfit in the worst traditions of Millwall. A few of us spent a few days sightseeing in Brussels, and this was where “El Pussy” added another moniker to his list, becoming a “Rear Admiral”. We had been looking around the excellent Belgian Military museum when Phil decided to buy himself a hat to protect himself from the warm sun outside. Despite there being quite a selection he dived in and bought a Belgian Navy hat, which he proceeded to wear constantly for the next few days. It was like he was proud to tell the world he was a sailor boy & ‘in the Belgian Navy now’, with all the implications that carries…
The following year we were back in Belgium, based in Namur, this time to the PSG Belgium competition, organised by Nicolas. Scene of my goal of course. I do remember being locked out of my room by a rather inebriated Mr. Baker. I ended out crashing out in with Ian Wright, who luckily had a spare bed in his room. On the Sunday we headed over to Liege, to cheer on RFC in a big play off game. I bought a scarf and badge, &-unbeknown to me at the time-I was snapped by a photographer from the local paper, & had my picture in there a couple of days later, with the caption: “ancient supporter shows great concern”! The Belgian hospitality shown to us in Namur by Nicolas & Danuta was superb, and humbling, as not only did they take us to several bars around town, we were invited to eat at their home. Wonderful people. Our most recent trip was to Paris in January, this time to play the Belgian PSG boys, where we played the game in the training grounds of the actual Paris Saint Germain club, which was outstanding! We saw them play that night at the Parc des Princes, but if I’m honest I enjoyed the local game at CA Paris more, for the camaraderie, & after that I particularly remember Phil Baker knocking a bottle of beer flying in a local bar, as he was in a ‘somewhat emotional state’, which reads as a euphemism for ‘pissed as a fart’! Rolls on Estonia for the next one. I’m going a week earlier, & heading to Warsaw, in Poland with Big Nose, before heading home afterwards from one of the other neighbouring Baltic states, maybe Riga, or somewhere like that.

And on that note, looking forward to our next trip abroad to the unchartered football fields of Tallinn we closed the interview. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I have conducting it!