Page 14 - CHUFC vs Dorking Wanderers Res

DOrkIng

WanDerers

Dorking’s Football History for health and safety reasons in 2013.
It’s a story combining nearly 200 Meanwhile, Dorking Wanderers FC had
years of rich local heritage with a been established in 1999. Founder mem-
remarkable modern day commu- bers Marc White, Peter Buckland, Mark
nity success story. Lewington, Ian Davidson, Lee Spickett
Football was first played in Dorking in and Penny Gregg entered a fledgling
the 1830s. The game was played in the team into the Crawley & District League,
street with the East and West of the town with home games played at Big Field
competing against each other in the an- in Brockham. The club remained at its
nual Shrove Tuesday game. village location for eight years until, af-

An iconic, picturesque location ter several promotions it relocated to its
current Westhumble home. This was a
The first senior club, called Dorking FC, monumental project, which saw a huge
was formed in1880 and became founder off the field effort transform the once
members of Surrey FA. Football in Dork- derelict site into a new, senior standard
ing became quite literally central to the football ground.
town in 1953, when a new stadium was The promotions kept coming
built at Meadowbank - an iconic, pic-
turesque location just behind the High The promotions kept coming and, in
Street. Among many memorable occa- 2015, the club finished runners-up in
sions in the Corinthian and Athenian the Sussex County League, securing pro-
Leagues, the stadium’s high point came motion to the Ryman League. The club
in 1992 when a record-breaking crowd gained promotion to the Bostik Premier
saw the latest version of Dorking FC take League at the end of the 2016-17 season,
on Peter Shilton’s Plymouth Argyle in the after play-off victories over Hastings
first round proper of the FA Cup. Unfor- and Corinthian Casuals. After a season
tunately, there was to be no happy end- of consolidation in the Bostik Premier
ing as, not only did the visitors secure a League, the club returned to its ancestral
narrow 3-2 win, but Meadowbank never seat at Meadowbank, with a multi-mil-
witnessed such heady days again. Two lion pound stadium in July 2018. The
decades of under-investment and decline move delivered a new, state-of-the-art
saw a dilapidated Meadowbank stadi- town centre home for Dorking Wander-
um, once the pride of Dorking, closed ers, and acted as the catalyst for a mag-