We’re coming up on two decades of Hammyend.com. When Nick and I sketched the plan for an international Fulham fans’ website in his Stockholm apartment in 2003, we didn’t think we’d last two years. One of our aims was to cover Fulham for the fans – professionally, passionately but with a frequency and professionalism sadly lacking from the local and national titles. Back then, Fulham had a professional women’s side that had completed a domestic double and competed in Europe. We committed to equality by aiming to cover the women’s game and highlighting female Fulham fans’ voices.
The work of covering the club we love is all-consuming and, since we don’t monetise our content, entirely unpaid. I’m very proud of our continuing commitment both to cover the fantastic Fulham FC Women side and offer regular columns from Fulham’s female fans. We’ve kept this website running mainly to honour the legacy of one of our earliest – and most enthusiastic backers – Danny Fullbrook. He was a champion of equality in journalism long before it was fashionable and we are very pleased with the progress of one of our own from Hammyend’s pages to the top of sports journalism.
A very young Lydia Campbell responded to our call for aspiring journalists as a teenager and has penned some of the best pieces we’ve published. Her interview with Rodney McAree remains one of the most popular stories in the site’s history and she organised a feature with one of her local clubs, Crusaders, before they hosted the Whites in the Europa League. Lydia’s contributions here are now few and far between – because she is a brilliant BBC employee – but we appreciate her continuing support.
One of the most emotional articles I’ve pressed publish on was one that my much-missed friend Milly Burnham on why she became a Fulham fan. More recently, we’ve had fantastic contributions from the brilliant Hayley Davinson and the irrepressible Chloe White. We were delighted to be joined on the Green Pole by the founders of the Fulham Lillies and promote the work of Her Game Too, especially the fabulous Fulham ambassador Amelia Armstrong. International Women’s Day is a brilliant reminder of why we need to keep going to achieve genuine equality – not least because the gender pay gap at Fulham FC increased last year – and Hammyend will be doing just that.
Let us know if you want to be involved. COYW!
Dan et al. This site is, in anyway you look at it, BRILLIANT. I only wish I was as a capable writer like what you is. Seriously many thanks for this site to all of you present and past. Please keep going.
I hesitate to criticise a woman on such a day as today but her is a headline form the BBC website;-
David Moyes: West Ham back manager but hope results ‘keep improving’, says Karren Brady.
Er you lost 4-0 last weekend. I think I know where things are going wrong