Fans from far and wide are continuing to join the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust, as we continue to receive widespread publicity, like the recent colour spread in the ‘Observer’ magazine a few weekends ago, as well as our recent appeal to help the people stranded in temporary camps over in Calais. One of those who has signed up is Jenny Lennon-Wood and a special gift from the Trust will wend its way to her all the way down in Somerset, as she was the member who took us over the three hundred mark. This is the highest our membership has ever been since the Supporters Trust was established way back in 2002..and it’s still growing! Perhaps we should run a sweepstake on when our 400th recruit is reached? The figure today now stands at 342.

Jenny lives in Minehead, and has done so for many years, but she is originally a local girl, and she goes back quite a way being born on the first of April 1948…but she’s no fool in signing up to the Trust! You might recognise her manor from her early years. Her parents (Bill & Irene Long) were local, living in a flat in Worlingham Road, East Dulwich (near Goose Green). They moved to Clive Road, West Dulwich when she was about 3 and her schooldays were spent at Langbourne primary school, also in West Dulwich, and then to St Martin in the Fields High School (Tulse Hill) when she was 11.

We asked her how long it was since she’d been away from the Dulwich area: “When I married, at the end of the ’60s, I lived in West Norwood then Coulsdon. In the ’80s, after a divorce, I moved to South Croydon and, on retirement, moved with my second husband to Minehead in 2004.” You may be wondering how the ‘modern’ Dulwich Hamlet & the Supporters Trust caught her attention? “Just out of interest, I read the article in the ‘Observer’ magazine. As I read about the club, I felt more and more in tune with its ethos. When I saw that the fans call themselves “the Rabble” I was totally hooked!” Jenny went on to tell us that, although not involved from afar, she was proud of what our fans were achieving & told us “I’ve been a socialist, anti-racist and trades union activist throughout my whole working life. I’m delighted to know that so many Dulwich Hamlet supporters are left wing, anti-UKIP and oppose discrimination. Also that the team has played a match against Stonewall FC.”

By her own admission, she hasn’t been the most passionate of a football fan down the years, but that has changed: “My son-in-law (a West Ham supporter) revived my interest in football; my daughter supports Crystal Palace so a few sparks fly! Really, we all loathe the way big money has destroyed “the peoples’ game”. I’ve always wanted my own reason to support a particular club. Now I’m really keen to help the DHST secure ownership of the club my dad took me to support all those years ago.”

As it was a quite a while since she was a local girl, we tried to tease a few memories out of her. “Sorry – my memories are really vague as I was barely a teenager, so it’s ages ago. Just a great feeling of going to matches with my dad, atmosphere of excitement, being part of the crowd of supporters, learning what to shout out encouragement. This would have been at the old stadium in Champion Hill but I think my dad would have been a supporter in the ’30s when there were really huge crowds. He was good at sports himself and played football but his real skills were in cricket, particularly as a bowler. He met my mum at the Cox’s Walk cricket and tennis clubs – so that’s where we scattered their ashes.” Small recollections of a long time ago indeed.

We asked Jenny if she had any other, more general local memories, which she could share with some of our older members. And that she did! “Picnics, rowing boats and rhododendrons in Dulwich Park; scary masks and ancient musical instruments in Horniman Museum; feeding the ducks on a pond in Dulwich Village; waving to the ‘Golden Arrow’ as it steamed under a local bridge; climbing on the dinosaurs in Crystal Palace Park; walks along what I called “the chicken path” – hens, lovely dog roses, willow herb & later discovering this was actually a bomb site!; poems and pints in the ‘Dog’, which was the ‘Crown and Greyhound’ pub in the Village of course; swimming and sunbathing at Brockwell Park lido; sleuthing ‘suspicious characters’ around the streets with my mates after reading Emil and the Detectives; drinking in the ‘Alleyns Head’ unrecognised by family friends in my long blonde wig and John Lennon specs…………………….enough already! It’s quite a time ago now!”

Wow! What can you say after that trip down memory lane! I’m sure you’ll all agree that Jenny’s more than worthy of our three hundredth member accolade. And who knows, in the not too distant future we may see her make an appearance back on the terraces of SE22! We’d love you to come back to London for a game and meet us all.