The legendary Mishi Morath, RIP.

(Photo: Ollie Jarman / DHFC)

We were extremely sad to hear of the untimely death of Mishi Dulwich Morath. There are few people who can be regarded as a legend, but Mishi certainly was. A read through the myriad posts and threads on social network at news of his passing is proof of that. I have never met anyone else like Mishi, and I’m going to miss him immensely.

The very first conversation I ever had with Mishi was sometime in the mid-1990s. It was the final game of the season, which I happened to miss because I was at a friend’s wedding. With my football boots sneakily hidden in my bag, I was able to slip away for a couple of hours to Champion Hill to see if I could play in the Supporters versus Club match at 6pm.

When I arrived in the bar I introduced myself to Mishi, who was running the supporters’ team at the time, and asked if I could be included in the side. I was a bit taken aback when Mishi told me that he already had far too many players and there was no room for me. However, when he registered my disappointment he told me, to go down to the dressing room and get changed into the Hamlet kit and he might be able to find a few minutes for me near the end of the game.

Fortunately, as I ran out of the tunnel onto the pitch where the players were warming up, a loose ball came towards me and I struck a sweet shot into the top corner of the net at the Dog Kennel Hill end. “You’re starting!” said Mishi, and wrote my name in his pad. And thus began a connection between the two of us that lasted twenty five years.

Along with lots of low times supporting Dulwich Hamlet, we enjoyed some great times together. I’ll never forget that rainy evening in 1998 when Dulwich beat Newport Isle of Wight to make it through to the First round of the FA Cup for the first time in fifty years. At the final whistle I scaled the fence and ran onto the pitch in celebration to find a weeping Mishi overcome with emotion. I put my arm around him and gave him a big hug.

Another time we were at a game at Hendon and we noticed the perimeter wall behind the goal was wobbly, and an accident waiting to happen. When Dulwich were awarded a penalty, and Peter Garland fired it in, Mishi put an extra bit of weight onto the wall knocking a huge section over and saving people from a Leatherhead moment.

But he was always the same old Mishi, in love with everything Pink and Blue. Few have done more for Dulwich Hamlet over the past century and a quarter than Mishi Morath, and he was well known throughout non-league circles. When he attended a forum to save Hitchin Town’s Top Field ground, his fervent words in support of a rival club saw them put his picture on the cover of their next matchday programme!  

It was Mishi who founded the Hamlet Historian magazine. He had a real fascination with the history of the club, and enjoyed hearing about old things being revealed to a new generation. He was always a great encouragement to me after I took over the reins of his magazine, and I was always pleased when he supplied his inimitable articles or pointed me towards a good story.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. Sometimes we fell out with each other – he could be exasperating or charming in equal measures – but I had a great deal of time and respect for Mishi and unashamedly shed a few tears at news of his death.

To his brother Ferenc and the rest of his friends and loved ones we send our sincere love and condolences at this time of great loss.  

Jack McInroy

Eminent Victorians

The excellent Historical Kits website has updated its Eminent Victorian Clubs page to include Dulwich Hamlet. The illustration of the kit carries the date of 1896, three years after the foundation of the club.  

In the very early days the 'club colours' were red and blue, with playing kit a basic “white sweater and dark knickers.” By January 1896 the Hamlet were wearing its famous colours, the South London Press newspaper referring to them as‘the pink and blues’.  

The earliest Dulwich Hamlet team photograph we have dates from the 1900/01 season at the very end of the Victorian era. It shows the players wearing a buttoned-up shirt of pink and blue halves, which the 'historical kit' is clearly based on.. However, we cannot assume the style of the playing strip had been the same for the previous six or seven years.

As the twentieth century progressed Dulwich began to sport a variety of stripes and the occasional hoops, before finally settling on the bold blue stripe, pink sides and blue sleeves, which remained unchanged for four decades. See Gentlemen's Outfit for our own article about the many changes to the Dulwich Hamlet strip.

At the Historical Kits site you can check out all your other favourite teams.

Bill Kirby - Dulwich Hamlet's Most Senior Supporter

Photo: Orlando Gili / Huffington Post

Next month marks another centenary. Bill Kirby, Dulwich Hamlet’s oldest supporter will celebrate his ONE HUNDREDTH BIRTHDAY.

Since he was a boy of twelve Bill has faithfully followed the Hamlet through thick and thin. He is one of the few remaining people who witnessed the silky skills of the legendary Edgar Kail, the Hamlet’s most famous son.

In his youth Dulwich Hamlet was regarded as the finest amateur football club in the country. The glory days of the 1930s saw the Hamlet win the FA Amateur Cup three times in six years. Bill once told me the very first time he ever got drunk was as an underage youth – he was not yet eighteen – drinking shandy from the Amateur Cup after the 1937 victory over Leyton. It sounds like everyone associated with the Hamlet, players, officers and supporters managed to handle the famous trophy that evening in the Crown & Greyhound in Dulwich Village. That same trophy was brought to the pre-season match between Marine and Dulwich this summer (2019), but two men from the Football Association wearing white cotton gloves saw to it that no-one (except overzealous club president Jack Payne) got their greasy hands on it.

Along with a tremendous group of players there was also a stadium to match. Champion Hill boasted better facilities than many Football League grounds. Had the war not intervened there is no telling what greater things Dulwich Hamlet may have achieved.

During the Blitz when enemy planes were intent on reducing the capital to rubble, Gunner Bill Kirby operated an anti-aircraft gun on Hampstead Heath and Clapham Common.

Although Dulwich Hamlet was relatively successful in the late 1940s and 50s, by the mid-60s a decline had well and truly set in. On two occasions the club had to seek re-election to remain in the Isthmian League! However, things did improve. For the next four decades Bill saw his beloved team enjoy some great highs. But there were also some very lows including a handful of relegations. Bill continued to attend games both home and away, and could always be found in the boardroom collating, folding and stapling the matchday programmes with a small group of volunteers.

I remember some years ago I attended the Remembrance Day service at the Dulwich Hamlet War Memorial at Champion Hill. On that day Bill gave a very moving speech, calling to mind the great pre-war pairing of Reg Anderson and Bill Parr who lost their lives in the war. Bill, holding back the tears, pointed out that so many of his fellow Hamlet supporters and friends also paid the ultimate sacrifice in the war against Germany, and many others were killed in the Blitz, whilst he has lived to a good old age.

We do hope Bill, that along with your telegram from the Queen you may also see Dulwich progress beyond the first round of the FA Cup.

Jack McInroy  

Dulwich Hamlet: A Hundred Years in the FA Cup

A Hundred Years in the FA Cup

This month marks the centenary of Dulwich Hamlet’s very first appearance in the FA Cup, the world’s oldest and most illustrious football challenge cup competition. It coincides with the most important cup tie of the last twenty years when Dulwich entertain Carlisle United of the English Football League for a place in the second round.

At present both clubs are struggling in their respective divisions. Dulwich in fifteenth position in the National League South have played 15 and gained 17 points. Carlisle have played 17 games and gained 18 points and sit nineteenth in League Two. The game could go either way.

The 1919/20 season is rightly regarded as the greatest in the club’s history. For ever afterwards it has been known as the ‘Victory Season.’ That campaign saw Dulwich Hamlet triumph in the Isthmian League, the Surrey Senior Cup and the FA Amateur Cup, making them the top amateur side in the country. The London Charity Bowl was also won. In the other competitions Dulwich entered – the London Challenge Cup and the London Senior Cup – they were knocked out by Arsenal and Leytonstone respectively. The latter was at the semi-final stage.

In the FA Cup Dulwich Hamlet entered at the fourth qualifying round stage. Their opponents were local rivals Nunhead, also of the Isthmian League. Situated only a mile apart the two clubs had enjoyed a healthy rivalry for the previous two decades.

The tie was played at a fast pace at Champion Hill on Saturday 22 November 1919. The ground was then located on the site of the all-weather pitch adjacent to Dulwich Hamlet’s present stadium. It is hoped, planning permission granted, that the club move back there in the not too distant future.

Bill Davis and Sid Nicol

Inside left Sid Nicol scored the only goal of the game to take the club through to the next round. The match proved to be a dress rehearsal for the upcoming London Charity Cup Final which Dulwich won by the same score, Bill Davis on target in the final. On the four occasions the two clubs met that season Dulwich won three and drew one.

For the fifth qualifying round of the FA Cup Dulwich received Thorneycrofts, a shipbuilding works team from Southampton. The home side were expected to win comfortably but the cup often throws up some strange results. The match, played on Saturday 6 December 1919, was the Hamlet’s seventh home fixture in succession! The previous game saw Dulwich put eight past the Casuals in an Isthmian League match and perhaps they had become a little bit too complacent.

Thirty minutes into the tie the visitors went one nil up after bombarding the home box, then went further ahead in the second half. Shipway (fittingly) reduced the arrears but a late penalty saw Thorneycrofts progress to the sixth qualifying round. They eventually lost to Burnley at Turf Moor in a first round replay following their draw at The Dell. 

No other side scored three goals past Dulwich that season. By contrast in ten of their matches Dulwich registered five goals or more. Redhill were overcome 8-2 in the Surrey Cup and Wimbledon crushed 9-2 in the Amateur Cup.

The FA Cup has seen countless memorable cup ties. One of the most dramatic took place at Champion Hill in November 1922 when Saint Albans City lost 8-7 in a replay. The Hamlet front three were in fine form, the legendary Edgar Kail and Bill Davis recorded hat-tricks and Sid Nicol a brace. One must feel for Wilfred Minter the Saints’ centre forward who chalked up all seven of his team’s goals. His record for scoring the most goals in a match and still finishing on the losing side remains intact almost a century later.

I doubt the game on Friday 8 November 2019 will be as extraordinary as that match. All I’m hoping for is a win.  I’ll take a scrappy game and a Carlisle United own goal any day if it means Dulwich Hamlet progress to the furthest they have ever been in the this greatest of competitions. All the very best to the boys in Pink and Blue. Come on the Hamlet, let’s make history.

Jack McInroy

Dulwich Hamlet Will Be Televised

Dulwich Hamlet are through to the first round of the FA Cup for the fourteenth time in the club’s history. Quite some achievement for a non-league side. Yet the previous two occasions the Hamlet reached this stage of the competition was 21 years ago (v Southport) and 71 years ago (v Northampton Town).

Between the two world wars, the Hamlet were one of the most successful amateur clubs in the country, and therefore often exempt until the final qualifying rounds or the first round proper. First round opponents were Southend United (twice), Ilford, Merthyr Town, Plymouth Argyle, Newport County (twice), Swindon (twice), Torquay United (twice) and Aldershot.  

This season Dulwich will have the opportunity to progress to the second round when they take on Carlisle United currently sitting four places from the foot of League Two. The cup-tie to be played at Champion Hill has an added bit of spice by being televised live on BBC2 on Friday 8 November.

It will not be the first time that television cameras have broadcast live from Champion Hill On Saturday 22 October 1949, Dulwich Hamlet played out a remarkable 4-4 draw with Isthmian League rivals Leytonstone in front of a 12,000 crowd and several BBC cameras. It was the early days of television – there was no commercial television for a few more years – and only one channel in Britain transmitting to less than 350,000 homes. In those days the screen was as small as an iPad but with a much inferior resolution.

The game was also notable for being the first time Dulwich Hamlet wore numbers on their backs. Pat Connett, wearing the number 10 shirt, complained to his teammates that it was unfair that he had to carry a bit more weight than the rest of them!

December 1950 saw the cameras return to see Dulwich Hamlet beat Wimbledon 3-1. And then five seasons later in January 1955 Hendon were visitors to Champion Hill for a London Senior Cup tie. Hendon won 4-2 after extra time, which must have messed up the Saturday afternoon television schedule somewhat. The BBC commentator that day was Kenneth Wolstenholme, who gained greater fame in the sixties through Match of the Day and the 1966 World Cup Final.

Dulwich Hamlet received £100 from the BBC for allowing the cameras in against Hendon. Compare that with the forthcoming FA Cup tie with Carlisle United where the club will receive £75,000. An enormous amount that will hopefully be put to good use as the club seeks to climb English football’s pyramid.

Jack McInroy

24 October 2019

Hussein Hegazi Illustrated Talk

On this day fifty eight years ago (8 October 1961) the great Egyptian footballer Hussein Hegazi passed away in Cairo.

Hussein Hegazi 1912.

Hegazi - one of the first Africans to play in English football - was the star of the Dulwich Hamlet team from 1911 to 1914. On returning to his native land on the eve of the First World War he continued his astonishing career to become one of the most important figures in the Egyptian game.

As part of this month's Walworth History Festival I will be giving an illustrated talk about Hussein Hegazi.

And if you are wondering what the link is between Walworth and Hegazi. ...well, Walworth is that part of South London where I reside and Hegazi is the subject of my recent book: Hussein Hegazi, Dulwich Hamlet's Egyptian King.

This event takes place on Wednesday 16th October 2019 at 7:00pm at the Art Academy Newington, 155 Walworth Road, SE17 1RS (Formerly Newington Library).

All are welcome to come along to the talk and pick up a signed copy of the book, priced at £8.00.

Jack McInroy

Ralph Morris - Rest in Peace

We are very sad to report that Ralph Morris, the 1950s full back for Dulwich Hamlet departed this life on Monday evening. Only yesterday we published a piece on the Hamlet Historian blog how Ralph was soon to be honoured by leading the Hamlet team out in a forthcoming match. At 91 he would have been the oldest mascot to ever do so.

Regrettably, Ralph had a fall a few days ago which resulted in a very painful broken hip. An operation followed but being extremely frail he did not recover. Ralph passed away on Monday evening.

Ralph was really looking forward to his day out at Champion Hill as the matchday mascot, returning to the club for which he made over one hundred appearances. It is such a pity he passed away before his wish could be fulfilled. This was something which filled much of his thoughts in his last few weeks.

Clare Keeble who was instrumental in organising what was to be Ralph’s special day assures us that the Morris family are still eager to attend the match, at which Ralph’s life will be commemorated in some way. A minute’s silence will be held before kick-off. Our deepest condolences to the Morris family and friends.

Jack McInroy

Ralph Morris - Senior Mascot

Ralph Morris - Senior Mascot

Several generations have passed since Ralph Morris played his final game for Dulwich Hamlet. Now in his ninety second year, the former footballer resides in a care home in Haslemere, Surrey.  But unlike many nonagenarians he is not content to see out his long life sitting in an armchair in comfortable surroundings. Ralph is still looking to fulfil his ambitions!

Staff at the Brownscombe House Nursing Home contacted Dulwich Hamlet who kindly arranged for Ralph to be the matchday mascot at a forthcoming game. It has now been confirmed that the match against Havant & Waterlooville on 19 October will see Ralph Morris make his return …66 years after his final appearance in pink and blue.

Ralph last stepped onto the Champion Hill turf as a player in October 1953 having played more than a century of games for the Hamlet in the previous four years. A serious knee injury cut his career desperately short at the age of 25, when he was on the brink of an international call up for England Amateurs. Sadly Ralph was never to play again.

In August this year the former right back expressed his longing desire, despite being wheelchair bound, to return to Dulwich and once again tread the hallowed Champion Hill turf. “The one thing still on my bucket list is to return to Dulwich Hamlet. I have so many fond memories of my time playing there and just wish it could have continued for longer. To go back, meet the current team and watch a game with my family would be such a special experience for me.”

Ralph, who juggled his amateur football career with his job as a travel agency rep. played alongside the Reverend Ron Cowley, the Hamlet defender and Baptist minister. Indeed it was the Rev. Cowley who married Ralph and his bride Evelyn Augotoski one Saturday morning in March 1953. While the happy couple went off on their honeymoon the minister made his way back from Beckenham, where the wedding took place, to appear for Dulwich Hamlet in the afternoon.

Ralph will be presented with a Dulwich Hamlet No.2 shirt and lead out the team, undoubtedly the most senior person to ever do so. When he enters the pitch he may recall the two goals he scored for the club, one of which was from the halfway line. We trust Ralph will receive a similar ovation as he did when he scored his most famous goal.

Jack McInroy

Haydn Hill

One thing that was typical of the old Dulwich Hamlet players from yesteryear was a reluctance to harp on about their colourful careers, especially to their own children. Several sons of past Hamlet greats have told me that their dads rarely mentioned their footballing days. One of these is Robin Hill, son of HHC Hill, the Dulwich goalkeeper of the 1930s. I corresponded with Robin some years ago when he was considering selling some of his late father’s mementos. “Dad was very reticent about his career and did not speak much about it, possibly because I never inherited his skill or ability.” Having said that, Robin had a very good knowledge of his father’s playing days and was very proud of his achievements.

Haydn Hill joined Dulwich on trial in December 1936, just a few months after competing for Great Britain in the Berlin Olympic Games. The British football team were knocked out in the 2nd Round by Poland.

Despite this disappointment on the field, Hill always said that his greatest triumph on that trip was to have stood on Ribbentrop’s foot at a reception. Joachim Von Ribbentrop was Hitler’s Foreign Minister and was hanged for his war crimes following the Nuremburg trials.

Twelve months before arriving at Dulwich Haydn Hill was playing in the English First Division, where he made a handful of appearances for Sheffield Wednesday between April and December 1935. Wednesday won the FA Cup that year and Hill was the understudy to Jack Brown. Were it not for Brown’s recovery from injury just days before the final, Hill would have been in the line-up at Wembley.

It took just three games in the Hamlet Reserves before he secured the goalkeeper’s position in the first team, making his debut in January 1937. He quickly began to display all the brilliance which had gained him five Amateur Caps while with Sheffield University, Sheffield Wednesday, Yorkshire Amateurs and Corinthian. He soon became a great favourite at Champion Hill.

Hill added a further three England caps during his spell at Dulwich, including the England v Scotland international at Champion Hill in March 1937. This match, in front of his own supporters, took place just weeks before the Hamlet’s fourth Amateur Cup Final victory, and must have been a very proud moment.

The programme for the England Scotland game states that Hill was the first Hamlet player transferred from another Isthmian club – he had played once only for the Casuals in an emergency.

After his eighteen games for Dulwich in the second half of the 1936/37 season, Hill made a further sixty odd appearances for the club in the years leading up to the war. His honours included winners’ medals in the FA Amateur Cup and the London Senior Cup. He was then elected by his fellow players to captain the side for the short-lived 1039/40 season.

Oddly, he kept goal in a solitary appearance for Weymouth FC in September 1937 in a Western League Championship match against Swindon Town Reserves.

Haydn Hill was also quite adept facing a cricket ball. After the war he was opening bat for Weymouth Cricket Club – where he eventually rose to the position of President – and he also made a small number of Minor Counties Championship appearances for Dorset between 1948 and 1952.

By the 1960s Hill was assisting Frank O'Farrell, the manager of Weymouth FC, then of the Southern League, and was joint manager of the club’s Colts side. When O’Farrell left for Torquay United in 1965 Hill went with him continuing in a training and scouting role.

Hill’s day job was as a schoolmaster teaching mathematics at Weymouth Grammar School, where he finished his career as Senior Master. But it seems he was always ready to put aside his slide rule and Pythagoras’s Theorem for a match. Robin Hill told me, “He spent a lot of his spare time involved with teaching schoolkids football skills, and was, I think, Chairman of the Conference of English Schools FA. They ran week long coaching courses at Skegness in the Easter holidays. One name I remember that came through was Liverpool’s Steve Heighway.”

Haydn Hill passed away on 3 November 1992, having suffered a heart attack.

Note: Haydn Hill’s first name is often spelled in a variety of ways, but the correct way is the same as that of the classical music composer.

Original article from HH19 Autumn 2007

Copyright © Jack McInroy

Hamlet legends on paper

Have you ever been writing or typing something whilst conducting a conversation, only to realise that you have accidentally written some of the words the other person said instead of what you intended to write?

I think that is what may have happened in this loose sheet from a 1930s autograph book currently available on Ebay.

The sheet contains the names of nine of the triumphant Dulwich Hamlet team who won the FA Amateur Cup in 1932. The match, played at West Ham United’s Boleyn ground, saw a rampant Hamlet side destroy Marine of Liverpool by seven goals to one. It was a record equaling score in the final. Six of the Dulwich strikes arrived in a fertile twenty minute spell just after the hour mark. Jack Moseley scored four of the goals, George Goodliffe one, and the legendary Edgar Kail bagged a brace.

The autograph collector, who probably attained the signatures of the Hamlet players after the game, put little boxes round the individual autographs and neatly noted some of their playing positions.

The two columns of names consist of WG Goodliffe, LB Morrish, HS Robbins, E Kail, T Hamer, AJ Hugo, CF Murray, AS Aitken, BE Osmond and AH Hamer. The eagle eyed will notice that R Miles and HC Moseley are missing – one of them has obviously been removed from the bottom left corner. Oddly, club captain Hamer’s name is recorded twice and in different hands. 

As I mentioned at the top of the article, my guess is that either Miles or Moseley wrote Hamer’s name instead of their own. In my scenario the player is about to sign the sheet when the collector asks, “Who was the best player today?” “Taffy Hamer” he replies. And as the words leave his lips he automatically signs ‘T Hamer’ by mistake. I say this because it is without question that Hamer would have put his actual initials in keeping with everyone else. Also, the Welshman never ever referred to himself as Taffy, and it is known that he was not fond of the nickname.

Of this great set of players Edgar Kail retired at the close of the following season, Jack Moseley immediately joined Millwall, while Cecil Murray, Horrie Robbins, Jack Hugo and Leslie Morrish each collected a further two Amateur Cup winners medals in 1934 and 1937. George Goodliffe was a member of the family business that later owned the Champion Hill ground and did so much to keep Dulwich Hamlet alive during the darker post-war days. 

Brief cinema footage of the Marine v Dulwich Hamlet match can be seen here.

The two teams are set to meet again. Dulwich Hamlet have been given the great honour to play a friendly match against Marine this summer as part of the Merseyside club’s 125 anniversary celebrations. The match will take place on Saturday 13 July 2019 in Crosby.

John Everitt - RIP

We were saddened to learn of the death of former Dulwich Hamlet inside forward John Everitt, who passed away on Saturday 20 April. Our sincere condolences to family and friends.

He joined Dulwich Hamlet straight from school and was still in his mid-teens when he made his debut during the 1950/51 season. And what a start it was, a 5-1 victory over Corinthian-Casuals and the young Everitt boy with two of the goals.

He was also a member of the Dulwich Hamlet team that faced Corinthian-Casuals in the semi-final of the FA Amateur Cup in March 1956. Fifty coaches ferried thousands of Hamlet fans to Stamford Bridge but Dulwich lost the tie 3-1.

Everitt, one of a number of Hamlet men who worked for the Goodliffe family’s New Century Cleaners and Office Cleaning Services, made over 300 appearances for the club scoring 177 goals including seven hat-tricks. One of his greatest goals was a volley from the halfway line!

He also represented London FA, Surrey FA, the Isthmian League and the Army.

The funeral takes place today at Hither Green Crematorium.

Six decades separate these two pictures of John Everitt (right) and Ron Eastland.

Hussein Hegazi: Dulwich Hamlet’s Egyptian King

Hussein Hegazi: Dulwich Hamlet’s Egyptian King is a new book about the club’s very first African player. Hegazi began his three year career at Champion Hill in 1911 and made a huge impact on all those who saw or played with the footballing wizard.

Before the Egyptian returned to Cairo in 1914 he made a handful of appearances for some of England’s best known amateur sides gaining a Cambridge ‘Blue’ in the  process. Hegazi went on to have a fascinating career in his homeland.

The 144 page book illustrated with some rare photographs, will be available from Wednesday 27 March 2019 priced at only £8.00,

That evening also sees the Football and War seminar staged at Champion Hill from 7:00pm. It is a great honour for Dulwich Hamlet FC to hold this annual event – the first time it will be held outside of Wolverhampton University – so it will be nice to see a large crowd.

The evening’s speakers will include our own Roger Deason and Steve Hunnisett. Entry is free and the clubhouse bar will be open.

Details and directions Dulwich Hamlet Football Club, Edgar Kail Way, London, SE22 8BD.