Tangerines Women on Tour: Dorking Wanderers

Preparing for the 2026-27 season, we’re looking at the Women’s First Team’s opponents in the London & South-East Regional League Premier Division. The fifth stop of our whistle-stop tour is opening day opponents Dorking Wanderers.

An introduction to the club

The men’s club was established in 1999, playing in the Crawley & District League. After racing through local leagues, the club moved to Westhumble Playing Fields in readiness for promotion to the Sussex County League and continued to race through the pyramid, improving their facilities as they did so. Promoted into the Isthmian League in 2015, Wanderers reached Step 3 at the end of 2016-17 via the play-offs after missing out on the Championship on goal difference. Promotion to the Isthmian League Premier Division coincided with the move to a rebuilt Meadowbank Stadium and Wanderers went on a stunning run to win the title by a 22-point margin. They were promoted again at the end of 2021-22 and enjoyed two seasons in the National League before being relegated to National League South.

The Women’s team has had an equally meteoric rise. Formed in 2020, Wanderers Women had one curtailed season in the South-East Counties League before securing upward movement into Division One North of the London & South-East Regional League. Dorking were runners-up in the first season at Tier 6 and won the Capital Women’s Intermediate Cup. The following campaign, 2022-23 saw Dorking go one better, claiming the Division One North Championship and retaining the Capital Women’s Intermediate Cup, Brentford being runners-up in both competitions. Since earning promotion to the Premier Division, Wanderers have achieved three consecutive top-half finishes.

About the ground

Meadowbank Stadium is much older than the club which plays there, having been laid out on the site of a former rubbish dump as a home for the now-defunct Dorking FC. Having been completely redeveloped, Meadowbank reopened in 2018 with a 3G pitch, seating for 300 and covered standing areas. As Wanderers have progressed up the Pyramid, there have been additional upgrades and there are now 522 seats in an overall capacity of 3,000.

Ground-to-ground, the road journey is 28 miles and can be expected to take around three quarters of an hour. Dorking has three stations, all of which are withing walking distance of Meadowbank. National Rail Enquiries recommends taking a train to Clapham Junction, then changing for a service to Dorking (the main station – the others are Dorking West and Dorking Deepdene).

Have we played before?

Most previous meetings between the clubs have been in Cup competitions and last season was the first time Ashford Town (Middlesex) and Dorking Wanderers had met in League football. The previous results are below.