Forward the Friendship: Dulwich Hamlet x Athletic Club

Words: Tom Reed

Images: Sam Wainwright

Although a relatively young sport, football in Europe is older than we’d like to admit.

It glistens with every dull hair that catches sunlight as we chase the rays in Spring soccer grounds, when air temperatures fail to reflect March brightness, the sun evading us like form so often can, on the pitch.

My father, coming up to his 80th year, recalls a time he came back from a football match at school, which they’d won a stonking 12-0, for his grandfather to enquire “was that Association?”

The connection between Dulwich Hamlet of South London and Athletic Club from Bilbao in the Basque Country goes back over a hundred years and drinks in the social history of the game and the days when the English Association sport had spread with trade and industry and score lines that were hard to distinguish from the other code of rugby.

On Saturday, a contingent of Athletic Club supporters made the trip to Champion Hill East Dulwich, to take in the Hamlet’s match against Oxford City on Non-League Day, with the origins of the the trip being one to savour like a slow wait to sail on the quayside at Getxo.

©Sam Wainwright/ Terrace Edition. Athletic club en route to Dulwich Hamlet.

Back in 1921, with the Great War still grinding the teeth of those left behind, a dashing outfit from Dulwich Hamlet FC went on tour to the port city of Bilbao.

It was the sensible place to go, having strong links to England via that sea entrance and the mining industry which saw specialists in digging up metals work between the two countries, stopping for a small glass of wine or 12 and a game of football.

This was a time of reinforced toe caps and lace up shirts and big name players, when man was trying to redeem himself from the bloodshed of Flanders by doing good things with the ball.

Athletic Club were already building a legacy with the building of “The Cathedral” San Mamés in 1913, said to be rivalled only by the pitch at Chelsea for greenery, and even though the Lions of the North might not win absolutely everything, they were going to be remembered.

The dashing Rafael Moreno “Pichichi”, for whom the Spanish top scorer award is named, a player as likely to romance the crowd as to score a hat-full. There was Belauste and Chomin; all players that could stand beside the people in the stands and the streets but were just better with ball to feet.

But Dulwich were a very good side, Amateur Cup holders in fact and a club that had gone to Amsterdam and beaten Ajax in 1913. They weren’t going to endure the arduous 36 hour train train journey to Bilbao to just roll over.

Dulwich Hamlet went to Bilbao with a team of fine names themselves, the skilful England international Edgar Kail and the the reliable moustachioed captain Dick Jonas who went on to be Club Secretary.

This team of Edgars and Dicks turned over Athletic Club twice in short succession in their own back yard.

Yet, despite land and sea and several leagues separating the two clubs, they have never forgotten each other and it speaks of the shared sporting and community conscience that Saturday’s trip was made in such good spirit.

Both clubs, although being deeply rooted in their localities, are international in ethos, with a care for the football eco-system in which they exist.

Indeed, Athletic Club were there to see Non-League Day in action, the event that celebrates life outside the top three tiers of English football, as they are soon to organise their own Basque version.

“We have been studying Europe’s good traditions for many years, mainly from the UK and we saw Non-League Day and we said ‘we have to bring that to the Basque Country’. This year it won’t be at the same time as in England, it will be in September but we hope next year it will be at the same time as here. To be with the soul of the people is amazing” said Athletic Club Vice President Jon Ruigómez Matxin, about as unassuming a board member of one of the giants of European football as you’ll ever meet.

Meanwhile, Non-League Day founder James Doe was impressed with the tie-in between the two clubs and enthused about the prospect of his concept spreading to the Basque Country “It was really amazing to see Dulwich host Athletic on Non-League Day. Seeing such a big club take an interest in the event would have seemed completely unthinkable when I set it up in 2010. I'm incredibly excited to see what Athletic can come up with in September. The thought and effort they put into supporting our day in the UK was impressive so I'm sure they'll come up with something special then too.”

Not only is the upcoming Basque Non-League Day an example of people from that corner of the continent borrowing the best stuff from English sport but it is a good thing for the club that picks exclusively Basque players for its elevens at San Mamés.

Not every player who turns out for Athletic Club will come from the city itself but might turn out for one of the 166 clubs in its network.

So Athletic have a responsibility to ensure that football flourishes in the whole region where the red and white has an influence and the member-owned club, one of a select group in Spain with Barca, Real and Osasuna, know that if they lose that anchor with their community, all the trophies and the achievements of Pichichi and co will be in vain.

Dulwich Hamlet, despite being possibles for relegation from the National League South this season are just a very good club at welcoming people and even though they have a reputation for being political, don’t have much of a code of conduct other that just to be kind really.

They made a real fuss of the party from Bilbao with a reception and a talk on the history of that 1921 match and a not too subtle request for a rematch which would be a boon for Dulwich Hamlet in terms of publicity but for both, in sporting bonds.

The Athletic Club fans got the bus from London Bridge with their scarves saying “All Iron” in English but chanted all in one breath as “Aliron” and tales of “The Butcher” Andoni Goikoetxea being a nice guy and craning their necks as the bus drove past another type of lion at the Den, Millwall.

As they filed past the blossoming streets of East Dulwich with warmth on their backs, there was a sense of completing the circle and after pints of Peckham pale ale there were smiles, laughter and all the things that bind us as football lovers, just as they did in 1921

A healthy quota of non-league dogs trotted about, Tom Cullen stopped for a chat about when he took over the Hamlet to save it from going to the wall and a toe to toe match went to and fro on the pitch behind the people. There was a “No Pasaran” flag alongside the Ikurrina.

Ibai Spillane, a young man with a good a Basque/Irish name as you’ll find, has come down to meet the Mr Pentland Club fan group for Athletic based in London.

His eyes light up when he talks about his pukka 90s Kappa Athletic Club shirt and his mother Jasone, who raised the Navan native from the Emerald Isle to be red and white through the centre.

The aformentioned Jonas with the moustache, a Dulwich clubman to the core, never took to professional football back in the day, saying ”The professional footballer takes the game as a job of work and immediately afterwards has no further interest with the club and its doings, merely hanging up his towel and going home. Members of amateur clubs on the other hand, do not consider the actual game as the best part of it, but take great joy in the social side connected with it.”

After the match, which ended in a 2-2 draw and a valuable point for the Hamlet, the hosts graciously played the Athletic anthem for their visitors in the club bar. Despite it being their Non-League Day, Dulwich Hamlet were keen to share the experience with those scarf twirling Athletic fans singing along, with a few tears in their eyes

Football is about not forgetting where you come from and this friendship looks set to endure, like the history of these two great clubs, who don’t just hang up their towels and go home after 90 minutes.

©Sam Wainwright/ Terrace Edition. Dulwich Hamlet FC.

Lovely moment when we played the @Athletic_en @AthleticClub anthem in the @DulwichHamletFC club house for our visitors tonight.

When are we going to Bilbao? 👀 @nonleaguedayuk @TerraceEdition #DHFC💖💙 pic.twitter.com/6qDSdB8G5n
— Tom Cullen (@YesTom) March 25, 2023