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Dorset walking football club celebrates ten-year anniversary

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Dexter Sports over 50s team at the County round of the FA Walking Football Cup. (Photograph: Paul Kybert)

One of Dorset’s oldest walking football clubs celebrated it’s ten-year anniversary, as the slower paced version of the sport continues to grow across the county.

Founded in 2015, Dexter Sports Walking Football Club is one of the oldest walking football clubs in Dorset, and celebrated the occasion earlier this year.

Home to over-50s, 60s and 65s teams, the club uses walking football to bring exercise in a fun and sociable way, with weekly training sessions for their four sides.

Over-50s player, Darren Snell, said: “It gives me enjoyment playing it.

“I mean training two hours on a Friday; we also train on a Monday night now as well.

“So, you’ve obviously got fitness benefits.”

But walking football provides more than physical health benefits, with it allowing people to better their mental health.

Player-manager for the Over-60s team, John Gray, said: “For me, it’s about the mental health side.

“It’s very good because you can get out.”

Since its invention in 2011, approximately 80 countries play the more accessible version of the game, with there being over 100,000 people who take part in England, according to the Walking Football Association (WFA).

For many, the rise in popularity of walking football can be put down to people looking to get outside after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grassroots Director at the WFA, Stuart Langworthy, said: “Since COVID, I would say the growth has been enormous.

“In particular, there’s been the growth of the women’s game, which we are getting new affiliations every single week.”

He added: “I really missed the walking football during COVID.

“Coming back after COVID, it was very refreshing to hear other guys saying the same, that they found it hard coping in COVID without mixing with people.”

The growth of the game in Dorset coincides with the success which England’s walking football sides saw at the World Nations Cup at the end of October.

England won in multiple age and gender groups, including the Women’s over 40s and 60s, and the Men’s over 50s, 60s and 70s.

Langworthy, also Men’s over 60s manager, said: “The impact of winning the Worlds Cups has been massive impact on the game and on us as an organisation.

“It shows that we’re serious about what we do.”