Dorking Wanderers F.C.
Dorking Wanderers Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Dorking, Surrey, England. Affiliated to the Surrey County Football Association,[2] they are currently members of the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, and play at Meadowbank.
The club was formed in 1999 and initially played in the Crawley & District League.[3] After their first season in the Crawley League they switched to Division Four of the West Sussex League, winning the division at the first attempt.[4] In 2001–02 the club finished as Division Three runners-up, earning a third consecutive promotion. After winning Division Two in 2003–04 they were promoted to Division One, and a third-place finish in Division One in 2005–06 saw them promoted to the Premier Division.[4]
In 2006–07 Wanderers won the West Sussex League’s Premier Division, clinching the title with a victory on the last day of the season.[4] As a result, the club were promoted to Division Three of the Sussex County League.[5] They went on to win Division Three in 2010–11, earning promotion to Division Two. A third-place finish in Division Two the following season was enough to see them promoted to Division One.[5] However, the league initially denied them entry to the division as their ground was not deemed to meet the necessary requirements.[6] However the club appealed against this decision to the Football Association, who over-ruled the decision after an independent ground grading visit confirmed that the ground reached the mandatory standards for Division One football.[7] Although the team initially struggled in Division One, finishing third-from-bottom in 2012–13, they finished second in 2014–15, earning promotion to Division One South of the Isthmian League.[5]
In Wanderers’ first season in the Isthmian League they finished as runners-up in Division One South, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, going on to lose 2–1 to Faversham Town in the semi-finals.[5] The following season saw them finish second again; in the play-offs they beat Hastings United on penalties in the semi-final after a 1–1 draw, and then won again on penalties against Corinthian-Casuals in the final following a 0–0 draw, earning promotion to the Premier Division. In 2018–19 the club won the Premier Division by a margin of 22 points, earning promotion to the National League South for their first time in history. Following the curtailment of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they were placed seventh in the league table (decided on a points-per-game basis), qualifying for the promotion play-offs. After beating Bath City 2–1 in the quarter-finals, the club lost 3–2 to Weymouth in the semi-finals. The 2020–21 season was made null and void following a vote by member clubs of the national league, Dorking were sitting top of the league at the point the season was ended.
