Walking Football - Tackles Men's Loneliness

Paul Waine · Post by **Paul Waine** » Fri Dec 23, 2022 11:15 am

It's Christmas time, everyone. Earlier this week The Times featured Walking Football as one of the beneficiaries of Christmas Charity appeal.

No, I'm not seeking donations. Thought it is an interesting article to share.

CHRISTMAS APPEAL

The walking football team that has loneliness on the run

A charity supported by The Times and The Sunday Times Christmas Appeal proves that you don’t need the speed of Mbappé to get a boost from the beautiful game

Extracts below from article.

Full article at link: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/89ab ... 4fac41f770

It would be pushing it to say that one could easily confuse MK Walkers for the England squad.

For one thing, the practice match between the blues and purples has to stop midway through for a jersey change — because some of the older members are struggling to distinguish the similar colours in the fog.

For another, when there is a breakout down the wing it is by a sexagenarian striker, striding with that distinctive speed-walking hip waggle that looks a little like you are trying to shake out sandpaper from between your bum.

But then, unlike many pre-tournament England matches, it is at least interesting. And, more importantly, it gets several dozen older gentlemen out of their house on a Thursday night.

“If you ask most of the guys, a lot will say that as you get older you don’t become a loner, but you tend to lose friends,” says Keith Elkington, the team manager. The Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), the suicide prevention charity supported by The Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal, funds MK Walkers in the hope of redressing that.

“That’s the beauty of football,” says John McHale, 54. “If you’ve ever played football, maybe in the Sunday league, you get that camaraderie on the pitch, then the dressing room banter, then you come back and go to the pub afterwards. When you get to a certain age, you lose that, that’s all gone. But we have it again.”

So, thanks to walking football, do many others.