September 1999. Wimbledon are sinking towards Premier League relegation, with rumours of a relocation refusing to go away. One weary Dons supporter, Marc White, decides to do something else with his Saturdays. “I thought: ‘Why not start something with a few friends, have a bit of a laugh?’” With that, Dorking Wanderers are born.
They join the now-defunct Crawley & District League, playing home games at Big Field, a windswept council pitch that costs £50 per game to hire. They have no supporters and no grand designs. “We were 14 lads, all paying a fiver each,” White says. “For Saturday football, there’s no lower level. And that’s how it started.”
Twenty years on, White is sitting in the main stand at Meadowbank, the team’s gleaming stadium. The club he owns and manages are in the National League South, two promotions from the Football League. “We’ve had 11 promotions in 19 years,” a British record, he says. “It’s like real-life Championship Manager.”
The meteoric rise began with a sideways move, into the four-tier West Sussex League in 2000. Within five years, they had reached the top division – and hit their first roadblock. “The first seven games that year, we lost all seven,” says White. “We were stone bottom of the league, and I realised I couldn’t keep playing. We got out of jail that year and won the league the next season. Now, I’ve got four coaches, three physios, a scouting team behind me.”
The modern-day Dorking Wanderers have been built “hand to mouth, brick by brick”, according to White. “As you move through the leagues, you have to keep building infrastructure. It started back at Big Field. We got promoted, so we had to put a rope round the pitch! That becomes a fixed barrier, then paths, floodlights, seats … now we’re in a 3,000-capacity stadium.”
It was Dorking’s second home, at nearby Westhumble, that fostered a surge through the Sussex County League – but also the most challenging stage of the club’s development. “It was literally just a field,” White says. “There was no power, no water, nothing there.”
Sandwiched between “millionaires’ row” and protected countryside, developing the ground was “a nightmare. Every fence post, every seat, had to be signed off. I went to meetings, and people were angry. One guy said our floodlights were ruining his stargazing. But this is what goes into running a non-league club.”
Struggling to find a way forward, White turned to some famous names for help. “I’m friends with Calum Best, and we went up to Old Trafford for the PSG game. David Beckham had just got involved with Salford, so we had a chat. He said Gary Neville had a lot of the same problems trying to set up a training ground in Stretford.”
White’s ambitious project has, like Salford’s, attracted envious glances from rivals, but White stresses there are “no sugar daddies” behind the scenes. He says he has used his background in business to build an extensive network of local sponsors who are prepared to invest in the squad.
“The first player we paid money for was Jason Prior from Havant, who cost £15,000. We needed a prolific centre-forward, a finisher – and that was something our partners actually paid for. Was he worth it? Yeah, he’s unbelievable.”
White’s current squad are not a collection of expensive new recruits; midfielder Jerome Beckles has been with the club for 10 years. White says the club’s financial stability is “a virtuous circle. If we’re winning, more people watch us, we become more commercially attractive, we earn more and invest in the playing side.”
In 2016 the club gatecrashed the Isthmian League, but were still hemmed in at Westhumble. Back then, Meadowbank was a very different place. With the town’s original team, Dorking FC, falling into financial disarray, the stadium became run-down, and the local council locked the gates. In the cut-throat world of non-league, the town wasn’t big enough for both teams.
“We were down the road doing well, and Dorking FC gave up the ghost a bit,” he says. “We amalgamated, although really only a couple of their guys joined with us, and then we moved in here.” The relocation was part of Surrey FA’s decision to redevelop Meadowbank as its new headquarters. “We were the beneficiaries of Dorking’s demise,” White admits, “but the gates were locked a long time before we got here.”
In their first season at the redeveloped stadium, Wanderers ran away with the Isthmian Premier League to earn their 11th promotion. Crowds now average more than 1,000 at the modern, town-centre venue that boasts a bar and fan zone.
White’s primary goal is ensuring the club are a stable presence at the heart of the town. “When I drive through Dorking now, I see dads with their kids in the shirts. It’s become a real hub of the community.” Behind him, a soccer school for local kids makes full use of the artificial pitch.
“There are 1,150 kids enrolled in our youth schemes, starting from four years old,” White says. “My old teammates’ kids are signed up. We’re proud of that. We mustn’t ever sell out, and put success above sustainability. We’ve been offered all sorts of money, partners who say: ‘Just tell us who you want to sign.’ But we don’t want to push our way into League Two and then it all crashes down.”
Dorking look comfortable at their new level, but White insists there is plenty of work to do. “Our aim this season is to stay up, but I’ve been saying that since we started!” As ever, there is plenty of red tape to unravel. “Just to stay in this league, we need to build another stand behind the goal. If we get into the play-offs, we have to get even more seating.”
White also accepts promotion to the National League would mean switching to full-time status. “That would be the biggest game-changer of all,” he says, casting a glance across the ground. “If we do get into the play-offs, we’d have to sit down and work out how we could do it. But that’s been the case so many times.”
White’s success has not gone unnoticed by bigger clubs. “I’ve had two or three clubs coming in for me, from as high up as League Two. I’d like to get to that level, but only with Dorking Wanderers.” From a fantasy 20 years ago, that feels like a tangible target. Does White ever have a day off?
“The success isn’t down to me,” he says. “But it’s had a massive impact on my life. It’s taken over. My business would do a lot better if I wasn’t always here. But everyone has their interests, their passions. And this is mine.”
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