Our foreign friends...

Our good friend Nicolas Lucas, indeed occasional player for "The Rabblers" despite living in Belgium, keeps us all in touch with his home town team Union Royale Namur on the unofficial Hamlet messageboard.
A couple of days ago a poster called AnonSteve asked if there was sort of link between Namur & the Hamlet.
Nicolas relpied almost immediately:

"Yes from January yes!!!

There's a good link even a friendly link between Dulwich and Paris Saint Germain Belgium. And as chairman of PSG Belgium, I'm also a Namur fan, I though that that would be nice and sweet to meet the Namur fans. And to make this link permanent, we've decided to arrange a friendly game bewteen Namur and Dulwich.
So it's a new bridge in Belgium for Dulwich!!! "

After having read that I thought I would try to briefly document our foreign links, & the times we have played on foreign shores.

So here goes!

The Supporters' Team story began back in May 1989. But it wasn't until thirteen years later that we made our playing debut on mainland Europe. It wasn't for lack of trying, though in truth it was EXACTLY because of lack of trying! For a number of years prior to the inaugrial tour we often talked about going abroad, usually after a jar or two too many in the bar after a game!
But in late 2001 the letters were sent out, and a trip was finally organised to Amsterdam for May 2002. The logic being that it was an attractive place to visit, and easy to get to. If we couldn't raise enough interest to go there we wouldn't travel at all; and once that first journey was made then everyone would be sure to get the bug, and more would follow. How accurate that turned out to be!
So it was on Saturday 25th May a part of a foreign field became a part of England, as we stepped onto the pitch for the first of four matches in an open tournament, organised by a company called Eurosportring. We failed to qualify for the knockout stages, in fact we came bottom of our group. We lost all four games by the same score of 2-0, but in our defence, the two finalists of the entire competition of twenty teams, emerged from our 'group of death'.
The following year we stuck with Eurosportring, and entered another competition in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague. Again we came bottom of our group, in a larger competition with six groups, thus failing to qualify for the knockout competition the next day, which was no hardship for us! But we did manage to earn a draw with a Swiss outfit, with Paul Griffin going down in folklore as the scorer of our first ever European goal!
For 2004 we entered our last Eurosportring competition. We journeyed to the Adriatic coast of Italy, and played in Rimini As per usual we failed to make the knockout stages, but this was more than made up for the triumphant achievements of not only scoring more than one goal, but earning our first ever point abroad, and thus not being bottom!
Now time for a bit of a long-winded explanation of how a friendship was started...
In early 2004 I saw a report in the 'Independent on Sunday' that the ancient Stade de Colombes, in Paris, that was used for the 1924 Summer Olympics, was due for demolition. It was very run down, and only the main stand, with part of the terracing, was left standing. I had never been to Paris before, so decided I would finally visit the place, and see the old ground before it was demolished. It appeared that an old club Called Racing still used the ground, & so I picked one of the Sundays they were listed as being at home & made arrangements. I booked an overnight coach from Victoria for the Saturday night, having seen the Hamlet play that day, and would return overnight on the Sunday. And here came the fickle hand of fate. In between booking the brief trip & actually going there, the Racing match was switched to the Saturday! I checked the fixtures, and fellow Hamlet fan Roger Deason suggested I go to see Red Star, a former giant of French football many moons ago, now playing in the lowly Paris & district Division Honneur; a sort of regional level six, in the French footballing pyramid. I went there & loved it! An traditional old football stadium, with a band of noisy fans! I went into their club shop & bought a scarf & t-shirt, but the man there spoke no English. I kept to myself, but at half-time the club shop man came up to me with another chap, & introduced to me John Hanson. An Englishman, now settled over there, originally from the Worksop area! We got on straight away, and I said to him, half in jest, that if ever they got up a supporters' team then we would come over and play them!
And about a year later, in 2005, that's exactly what we did! We spent a weekend in Paris, and took part in our first ever full ninety minute match against foreign opposition. It was a cracking day, with the benefit of hindsight, as we had no idea at all how things would pan out. We could have been stuffed ten nil, all we wanted was a close game. And that is what we got, as we won by the odd goal in five! They then treated us to lunch in their clubhouse, before we retired to the bar over the road, and then watch their 'big boys' win in the evening. A truly emotional day!
For our 2005 summer tour we ventured, once again, to pastures new. This time to Liege, in Belgium. But not an 'open tournament'. This was a supporters' one, organised by RFC Liege, who had specifically invited us over. It seems that Dulwich Hamlet are a very important part of their history, as one of their early members was previously a Dulwich Hamlet man! Sadly his name has been lost 'in the mists of time'. We did not win the competition, but winning mattered not, as it was the Johan Felix Memorial Tournament. Johan being one of their loyal fans, who had been tragically murdered. We made a good impression though, and were proud reciprients of the Fair Play award.
In this competition, 'guesting' for the Anderlecht supporters' team, was a certain Mr. Nicolas Lucas, from Namur, also in Belgium. He got talking to us all, & it turned out he was the Chairman of the Belgian Branch of the Paris Saint Germain Supporters' Club. And thus started, what has become a long & loyal friendship with him, and his partner Danuta.
In the early part of the 2005/06 season Nicolas brought over a team from his PSG Belgian group, and we took thenm on in a match at Belair Park, where we ran out narrow victors, our first ever match on home soil against a foreign team.
For the summer of 2006 we returned to Belgium. This timeto the Namur region, entering two teams in the Belgian PSG five-a-side competition. Whilst both teams failed to progress far, it will be remembered on the footballing field, for Mark Hutton getting on the scoresheet for the B side, against the host club, CS Onhaye, of the Belgian fifth division. Our oldest ever European tour goalscorer at the then age of 56!
In early 2007 we had another thrilling encounter with the Belgian PSG boys, where honours were shared in a 2-2 draw. We were honoured with the venue being the actual training ground of the Paris Saint Germain club, on the outskirts of Paris! After much merriment in the afternoon we saw their 'big team' at the Parc des Prince stadium, for another wonderful day in Paris.
Our summer trip for 2007 was to be our furthest yet. To Tallin, the beautiful capital of Estonia, in the former Soviet Union. "The Rabblers" have actually been in existence longer than the current nation, as Estonia only regained its independence on 20th August 1991!
But before we travelled there we were honoured to stage our first ever Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' International Tournament, where three teams competed for the inaugrial 'Pa' Wilson Cup. Our guests were PSG Belgium, and JK Jalgpallihaigla, who are the supporters' team of the Estonian National Team; who we had never met before, & to be honest, were somewhat amazed that they accepted our invitation to England!
The whole shebang was staged at our actual Champion Hill Stadium, with grateful thanks to the Managing Director of Dulwich Hamlet, Mr. Nick McCormack, for allowing us full use of all the ground facilities free of charge!
It was a wonderful event, and it mattered not that we came third. (out of three!) It would have been rude to win your own tournament after all! In a cracking final the Belgians came from behind to overcome our Baltic visitors by seven goals to five!
And then in July last year we made our most recent trip abroad. To Estonia, as stated. Where we were made so welcome, it's hard to believe we'd only met each other for a few hours previously, back in London SE22 for our tournament a couple of months before. We finally went down by a ten goals to six margin, with Larry Marsh going down in Dulwich Hamlet Supporters' Team history, not just for scoring ALL SIX of our goals, but becoming the first ever "Rabbler" to bag a double hat-trick in a match!
And so,now to future trips....
Larry Marsh & Andy tucker have ably organised tours since the one to RFC Liege in May 2005. And at the end of this month they will lead us into Belgium once more. This time to take on our counterparts from UR Namur, newly promoted to the Belgian Second Division in the summer. The match will be on the morning of the 26th, and we will cheer on their 'big boys' in the evening. So it will be a town we have been to before, but with new opponents. And with Nicolas Lucas once again being the point of contact we are sure of a warm welcome & a great time!
This will be the last game with Andy & Larry at the helm of our team, and after this they will step down to be 'mere players'. The baton is handed over to Mick O'Shaughnessy & Mark Hutton. Tentative summer plans are being put together to go back to Tallin, for another game against JK Jalgpallihaigla, in late July. But we are also hoping to have a match on the same wekend in either Riga, the capital of Latvia; or in Helsinki, a boat trip away in Finland.
As they always say...watch this space!