Walking Football and me

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Jan Knott (Chairman and over-60s goalkeeper)

I’m 75 and I play walking football at least twice a week - in goal. That must tell you something positive about our version of the Beautiful Game. I played regular football until I was 30, but running my own specialist travel company, which involved innumerable flights to far-away places with strange-sounding names, meant holding down a place in a football team was impossible. I retired in July 2015 and, less than a month later, my wife saw an article about walking football in the Kentish Gazette; she insisted I contact the founder of the club.

Armed with the very strong prejudice that this was a game for geriatrics shuffling around in carpet slippers, I emailed him and, on Friday August 28th , I turned up to a session with a cheap pair of goalkeepers gloves and little hope that this would be for me. How wrong was my prejudice! The ages and abilities were mixed, but the football was skilful, competitive and great fun. This was certainly for me … until I woke up the next morning! Not one muscle in my body functioned normally; in fact, opening my eyes was the only movement that didn’t hurt!

This was certainly not for me … until I woke up, fully recovered, on the following Friday, bought some proper football kit and boots for the first time in decades, and set out on a magical journey that has now lasted 10 years.

In that time it has been my privilege to make many new friends, and to be heavily involved in the running of the club. I have worked closely with our amazingly generous sponsor, Dave Thompson of Marine Travel, and I have now assembled a fine Club Management Team, all possessing the dynamic, creative, and proactive qualities so essential for the Club to progress. On the field, others will judge my efforts between the sticks, but I am proud to have represented the Club nearly 120 times in competitive league, cup, and tournament games, home and abroad. I mentioned all those flights earlier - they were to great events and spectacular destinations - but walking football easily equals them as one of the best things I’ve done in my life. 

GARETH GAINARD (Over-50s Team Captain)

I suppose I need to start with the place that football has in my life. I was a young boy back in

the early 80’s, supporting Bristol City with my Dad and Grandad - a generation of lifelong

fans – and they taught me to love the game. There was the smell, the atmosphere, the meaning to thousands of diehard fans when you win, and the sullen look on faces when you lose. Walking back with a spring in your step to whatever mode of transport took you to your Mecca for those few hours of heart-wrenching elation and excitement but, more often than not, trudging back in disappointment.

However, I actually always preferred playing to watching, and really enjoyed the anticipation

of a game on a Saturday and Sunday, playing local football from the age of 15 at a decent

level. I made lifelong friends, even those I’ve not seen for 30 years, yet still we share a bond -

team mates forever. I retired at 30 due to promotion in my working life, never to play a competitive match again. Or so I thought!! Thanks to a close friend, the introduction was made to walking football a couple of years back, and the excitement of buying new boots all these years later was a feeling I never

thought I would experience again! Likewise, the anticipation of six o’clock on a Friday

night, the banter and laughter that comes with being part of a team again, the chance to lace

up my boots and set foot on a football pitch, and that rush of adrenaline when the ball hits the

back of the net! There is a great feeling of well-being, both physically and mentally, and the release of any

stresses which are forgotten for that moment in time. So, to answer the question - what does walking football mean to me? Well, it makes me feel like a kid again!

PHIL HORSTRUP (Vice Chairman)

Walking football for me has been in so many senses a new lease of life. The game that I loved and played in my teens and in my 20s and 30s has transformed itself into something entirely familiar but at the same time wholly and joyfully new. I never thought back in my youth that I would enjoy football as much as I do today. That I do is down to a number of things. First, it’s being able to use what you have learned whilst playing the full speed game back in the day; making decisions using your knowledge and experience to plot a way through a game in a way that perhaps you might not have been able to do when you were younger. But second, and perhaps most important, is the sense of community that walking football brings. By this I mean not just being with other people as that is something that can take place in any situation and in any given place. Rather, by community, I mean being part of a group of people who not only share a common interest - a love of the beautiful game - but who also bring with them a lifetime of experiences that can help them understand others and in turn be understood. 

Walking football, and Canterbury Mariners in particular, is about so much more than just kicking a ball around on a Friday evening (as much as that is a wonderful thing!); It’s about being able to support friends who may have been through, or indeed still be experiencing, difficulties in their own lives and about trying to help make their journey a happier one.

Walking football is also about learning; learning to be a better player and learning to be a better person. I know that Canterbury Mariners has helped me to do both and for that I will always be grateful.

JONATHAN BUTCHER

It was February 2015, when I was recovering from damaged ankle ligaments and a broken

leg, that I saw a local press article by the Kent FA and Active Life about Walking Football. I

was feeling pretty sorry for myself and had lost touch with any social life I may have had, so

I contacted them to find out more. I explained that I was not 50 until May, and had not played any competitive football since the age of 13, but thought it could be good rehab for my injury. They were very helpful and put me in touch with Canterbury Walking Football. After a few weeks thinking about it, I mustered up enough courage to go along and give it a go. Although I was totally out of my comfort zone, it really was one of the best things I had ever done. It has helped me get fitter and improved my football (possibly – I’ll let others decide on that statement!). Having now played for seven years, I particularly like the fact that everyone is welcoming and encouraging, that all abilities are able to play together and the rules, generally, are a real leveller. I have made some very good friends and there is a real feeling that people do look out for each other. This is probably because we have already lived the majority of our lives

and have all experienced different things along the way which shape the way we are.

Everybody has some baggage, good, bad or indifferent, so playing football is a chance to forget it all and enjoy yourself for 60 or 90 minutes. I can feel pretty miserable before going to football on a Friday evening yet, after playing, I find myself driving home in a much better frame of mind, looking forward to the weekend. It’s therapy that also keeps you fit! I am probably not the most competitive person and only really play for enjoyment, whereas some will be far more competitive than me, but that is not the point as far as I’m concerned. It’s all about the good it does to mind and body.

CEDRIC RUSSELL

I have loved football all my life, starting with the proud moment I put on my primary school

football kit for the first time – and winning the Chadwick Cup for Primary schools in the

Folkestone District at the age of 11 – many years ago! At the age of 17 my careers officer gave me the choice of working down the Snowdown coal mine, or a job in London! So off I went to London and began work in Tottenham Hale a mere 30-minute walk from White Hart Lane - the home of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur

Football Club. Watching my hero Jimmy Greaves every week was pure heaven, and I have

been a Spurs supporter ever since.  Returning to Folkestone I played for several teams in the Ashford and Folkestone District Leagues but stopped playing in 1981 with 3 children now taking priority!

I retired from work in 2012, and moved to Canterbury two years later to help our daughter

and our growing number of grandchildren! I came across the Canterbury Walking Football website in 2016 and I couldn’t believe there was a way I could start playing the beautiful game again! Therefore, after 35 years of not playing, I turned up to play walking football for the first time and absolutely loved it. More importantly, I met a fantastic group of people who have since become firm friends for life. The Club made me feel so welcome and the wide age range and mixed abilities make it so much fun to play.

Having had a heart attack and cardiac stent surgery in 2011, I was looking for a way to keep

healthy and Walking Football proved to be the perfect solution helping my fitness grow week

by week. There is much talk and awareness about men’s mental health problems nowadays. Walking

Football has undoubtably helped improve my mental health. Meeting a group of likeminded

players every week and getting together socially is fantastic! My mental health deteriorated

significantly during the Covid pandemic lockdown periods. Thankfully we eventually got

together to start training again, and my mental health improved dramatically.

I could never have imagined that, at the age of 75, I would receive a Kent FA Cup Runners

Up medal in 2021, and the look on my grandkids faces when I showed it to them was

unforgettable! So, thank you all my friends at Canterbury Mariners Walking Football Club for playing such

an important role in my life, health and mental wellbeing.