And Marc White hopes the end to Dorking Wanderers annual injury crisis is in sight...

More than four years after the idea was first mooted, Dorking Wanderers look set to become the main tenants of Meadowbank Football Stadium.

Wanderers first made public their desire to buy the freehold to the council-owned sports facility in November 2022 – much to the displeasure of the Surrey FA, who were the main leaseholders of the site since its opening in the summer of 2018 and then sub-let to the National League South football club.

Wanderers have since come to an agreement with both parties that will see them take over as main leaseholders, while the Surrey FA, who at one point started an online campaign against the deal, will remain in the offices.

The four-year-long saga has had more twists and turns than the average soap opera but White believes that is finally at an end with all parties happy with the conclusion.

“We’re finally there. It’s all teed up,” Wanderers chairman and first team manager White said. “It’s been a long journey but we’re not expecting any further problems, and then there’s actually a completion aim of January 2027.

“It’s transformational for the club and we’re looking forward to improving the site but that will be at no detriment to the Surrey FA. It’s just purely that now we are essentially the anchor tenants. We are always there and we’ve got an invested interest in making that site as great as it can be.

“When this started, we had a poor relationship with the county FA that was determined by one individual that, thankfully, for the good of football, is no longer part of their organisation. It was just one person. Now we have got a brilliant relationship with them. It’s actually gone back to where it should be, because don’t forget, we are one of Surrey FA’s flagship football clubs. Us and Woking.”

So is White now allowed on the 3G pitch wearing his signature Gucci trainers?

“Exactly. I wear what I want,” he said. “When things were bad, it got to the point we had a letter where we were told if we connected a water pipe that we would be locked out the site, the day before a National League TV fixture against Chesterfield. We were told we would be evicted for just fixing a water pipe. It was really bad, but it was only one person.”

With plans to install 3G facilities at Westhumble and now the new lease at Meadowbank, things are going well behind the scenes at Wanderers.

And one thing White hopes the two sites will soon have in common is safe artificial surfaces that are a pleasure to play football on.

“The thing with 3G pitches is that nobody actually knows what a good one is but everyone knows what a bad one is,” White said. “Over the past ten years I feel like I’ve become a bit of an expert on these pitches. There’s a lot of, on paper, brilliant artificial pitches, that two and a half years in are like a dartboard, like bristles. But for the first two years, they’re brilliant. And then you’ve got other people trying to long-out their pitches – like Meadowbank – eight or nine years with mountains of rubber and they’re dangerous.

“There is no option for a safe, hard-wearing, artificial pitch that is going to last long-term. So I think, with that in mind, at the moment, the safest option is less quality, more often,” White added.

“We’ve been to some like Maidstone United and a few others where the carpets, as they call them, aren’t extortionately priced. They play brilliantly. They’re not rubber lead, and maybe in two or three years they’re not ideal, but you can put another one down at that price.

“I think we will be looking to do similar at Westhumble.”

And Meadowbank?

“Yes, definitely,” White said. “I think in the close season next year [summer 2027] we will definitely be looking to replace the carpet with a safer one.

“We would just hope that the injuries stop at that point. With a better surface, we’d like to hope the only injuries we would get are just the ordinary ones. Not the crazy 20 injuries at a time.”