Meet the Warwickshire walking footballers who play for much more than just the sport

A PUB garden might not be where you would expect to see members of a football club on a Friday evening, but for a walking football side in Alcester this is one of several weekly social events a number of people have come to enjoy.

Sitting around a table on what was a pleasant night, Alcester Town Walking Football Club is made up of players of many ages both male and female. They had completed a Friday night session, which was a six-a-side match that ended in a draw. From the moment I arrived pitch side, the positive and friendly atmosphere from the players was evident.

As the time approached 6pm in the pub, I noticed several players with their phones out on Whatsapp. I was told that this was to ensure they didn’t miss out on being selected for their next session, which is capped at 14 due to the size of the pitch they play on at Greig Leisure Centre in the town.

Once the poll went live, I watched the numbers shoot up to over a dozen in barely a minute. There are over 80 players involved with the walking football club, and places are at a premium. This
summed up the popularity of the club, which is one that the players love being part of. I had the pleasure of talking to several of them in The Turk’s Head pub following a session.

Alcester Walking Football Club meets for sessions several times throughout the week. These are twice on a Wednesday, Friday afternoons and Sunday mornings at the leisure centre. In the summer, the club takes to the grass at Alcester Town Football Club.

Formed in early 2024, the club’s first session had just six players and, as a result of the low numbers, two members of staff from the Greig Leisure Centre were asked to join in order to make a four-a-side match.

Alan Griffiths is a club founder and president. Surrounded by players in the pub garden, he told the Herald about some of the key differences in the walking version of football, including one rule he discovered the hard way.

“You can’t tackle from behind or the side at all, even if someone is standing there with his legs open, and you poke the ball away, and don’t touch him, it’s a foul because you’re behind,” he said.

“You can’t head the ball. I scored a diving header in a tournament, and it would have won us the tournament. I was about maybe two feet off the ground, and I headed it and thought, ‘I’ve got this, and I dived, headed it into the net, and the ref went, illegal use of the head. I didn’t know this rule.

“There’s a little one called the golden triangle, where you pass it over to the goalkeeper, and unless it touches somebody else, you cannot pass it straight back, which encour-ages you to improve your skills.

Martin Berliner received an MBE for his dedication and contribution to the Jewish community. Now retired, he is a proud member of the club.

Martin told the Herald about what the club focuses on, and how it doesn’t pay too much attention to what players can’t do.

“Colin [Page] came along and scored a goal in his first game, and somebody said to us afterwards, He’ll talk about that all week’. He’ll tend to tell you, from his health point of view, how powerful
that is.

“So we underplay what you can’t do, and overplay what you can do. That’s the idea.”

Martin referred to players who aren’t fit enough to play or who have picked up injuries, and that the club has created a social con-nection even they don’t want to miss.

“It’s actually really interesting and even some players who are injured come, because they don’t want to miss their social activity. One man was waiting for us last week to give his phone number to
somebody and we added him to the WhatsApp group and we do a poll each week to say the first so many are in the match.”

Colin was injured for this session, telling the Herald that he had pulled his hamstring. This didn’t stop him from coming to watch, however.

He said: “I was desperate to play football. I’m the oldest one here at 76 and I came along to watch the Wednesday session and I thought, ‘I can do this’. What I didn’t realise is that you have to be a bit fitter, because walking football is quite strenuous in a way. Socially it’s brilliant too, meeting all of these new people, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

“I’ve only been to four Wednesday sessions but it feels like I’ve known the people I see here for a much longer time. It’s good as there is a Whatsapp group for the session times and getting that
organised, and then there’s one for the banter. There are Villa fans and Fulham fans such as myself, and the banter there is great.

Following his start at the club, Colin offered the following advice: “I would advise anyone who is going to do this to stretch beforehand, as that’s how I pulled my hamstring. When I’m back, I want
to push myself to do a Wednesday and a Sunday session. If I can do that I’ll be very pleased. I feel settled for the first time in years, this group means so much to me.”

Andy Hitton looked back on his first walking football session, and he too praised the inclusive nature of the walking football club.

He said: “Seven or eight people were there, all of a certain age. There were a couple of guys there who were really very old, but they wanted to actually play, which is great. And that’s the whole point about this club, it’s all about inclusivity. It’s all about getting people to actually take on the sport and recon-nect with the sport that everyone loves.”

Two of the women who have been leading the way for the club are Tina Worthy and Bridget Richards. After a women’s team won their first match 3-0 earlier this month, there is a determination to
see it continue to grow. The women’s team have a free session at the Greig Leisure Centre at 2pm on Saturday 29th March.

“We’ve got some brilliant players and a lot of really enthusiastic players as well,” Tina said. “I think we saw some women coming along to some of the practice sessions, watching, maybe joining in and
then thought, ‘Oh not really’. I think it can be a bit daunting if you haven't played very much or perhaps don’t have much confidence in your ability.”

The ambitions for the women’s section of the club are clear, as Tina added: “What we really want to do is to build up the women’s group, and then form a team as part of that, but enable more women to feel a bit more confident about playing. We would then perhaps continue with the mixed teams because that's fun as well.”

Bridget said: “I’ve really enjoyed playing the mixed. I used to play football years ago and then I stopped at the age of 42 a long time ago. For me it’s been nice to come back into football, walking foot-
ball, with the men and really not feel any pressure.”

Julie Tomlin-Pollit also played in the inaugural women’s match, and she went home elated afterwards.

She said: “After our friendly I, not just because we won, went home on such a high because of that bond that we built that day and the atmosphere and everything and the support from the men, we had so many men come and watch from the club. You just can’t get better than that.”