Walking Football Research

Hi everyone! My name’s Gareth Thomas and I’m a researcher based at the Cardiff University School of Social Sciences (https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/52078-). I am about to start a study looking how people became involved in walking football, what they think about it and why they do it, and what the benefits and shortcomings (if any) are. I am looking for people based in the UK to take part in a one-off interview and have permission from Ken Davies to contact you (thank you, Ken).

Interviews are audio-recorded and expected to last about 30-40 minutes. It can be carried out online (Zoom or equivalent) or in-person, if you live near the Cardiff area. You will have over 24 hours to consider participation, you can withdraw from the interview or study at any time up until an agreed deadline, you can stop the audio-recorder at any time, and you can avoid answering certain questions. Participation should be at no financial cost to you. Your decision of whether to take part or not will also have no impact on your participation in walking football. Participation is entirely voluntary! I can provide more information on data protection and what happens to the produced data too. 

Please message me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gareth.martin.1088/) or email me (at thomasg23@cf.ac.uk) if you are interested in taking part. I’m happy to answer any other questions that you have. Thanks for reading this post and I hope you choose to take part!

All the best, 

Gareth 

We received this exciting opportunity this week and want to open it up to the whole of Cornwall's Walking Football community...

Dear Cornwall Walking Football,

Thank you for taking the time to read this email, we would value your support, let me explain why.

Headline: The FA has recently commissioned Firstfruits Services Ltd to carry out a Walking Football Competition Review. Our role as an independent party is to develop key learnings and recommendations aligned to the below objectives.

The main objectives of this review are:

To better understand the competition delivery landscape (i.e. the key stakeholders and the roles they play)

To understand the optimal structure to deliver high quality competition at a local, regional and national level.

We would value your input and support:

We’re hoping to speak to key stakeholders in the Walking Football community, specifically those who are involved in organising regional and national competitions. We would value some time with you. 

luke@firstfruits-services.com

Click Here to complete a survey or contact Luke at the email above. 

Click here to view the revised laws of the game 

To all our female players....

The WFA are holding trials in the 40s 50s and 60s age groups (this means for anyone aged 40+) for regional and national levels. The trials will be at Weston super mare on January 22nd. 

If you're interested please contact your club to have your name put forward or contact Tim directly on timrichens@thewfa.co.uk

For full details please read the email below, which we received from the WFA today....

"The Southern Region of the WFA has been offered a facility that they can use for our first training day and I would like the over 40s, 50s and 60s ladies squad to attend and accordingly have selected several existing players for the day, and it will form part of the regional selection trialling exercise also, and that it where I want clubs in the region to come in.

Just so you know we have a vision within the WFA that players at club level have two options – play club football and keep enjoying it. however, we know that there are aspirational clubs and players who want to “challenge themselves to do better” – both are valid in my opinion!

So, we are only interested in those that can, and want, to progress to a higher standard. If you have players who meet this criterion would you ben kind enough to pass on their name, position and email address in order that I can invite them to the training day please?

The vision sees players that want representative football to try to get into the regional squads (there are three over the country – North, Midlands and South), once you get into your regional side you will then be “on the radar” of the national manager and could earn international call ups!!

The training event is being held on Saturday, 22nd of January at Weston Super Mare FC (on AstroTurf) and I want all players there for 1pm, the session will be for the women's 40s, 50s & 60s – who will be coached as a group and in age-based teams and the session will be match play too). We have the facility until 6pm so it may be an opportunity to travel in groups (to save money), but some players are already choosing to stay over (team bonding) for the evening.

This is a genuine opportunity for players who want to progress (possibly to national level) to meet that aspiration, but the standard will be high so please only recommend payers who genuinely will represent your club well on a regional (and national) level.

Let me know if you have any players who can make it please and I will send a formal invite.

Once I get conformation of attendance availability I will announce the attendee listing, so players can share travel if required."

The first Over 65s Cornwall Representative Walking Football side made their debut at Plymouth Goals on Sunday 12th December playing representative sides from both Devon and Plymouth Argyle in a round robin friendly. At the end of the four games played Cornwall came out top with one win and 3 draws.  The Cornwall players being drawn from Newquay, St Austell, Troon, Saints St Austell and Dobwalls Walking Football Clubs following a series of trials earlier in the year.

This project to promote Walking Football in Cornwall and supported by St. Austell Town Council, Tregorrick Leisure Centre and JJ Jones Builders is now going to be extended to include players in age groups 60 to 65, 65 to70 and 70 plus.

Trials for all 3 sides will be conducted in Spring 2022 and anyone wishing to be considered for inclusion should email saintssawfc@gmail.com 

Please can you let Kev know as soon as possible if you would like to take part in the above Festival which will be played on grass at Lanivat FC to FA Walking Football Rules( This festival is open to all FA affiliated WF Teams) 

 Teams of 6 can be mixed male /female with up to 3 rolling subsWhile the festival is open to all ages However for the more elderly Gentleman there will also be an over 60s Section. -

 Please let me know how many teams you would like to enter (£5 Per Team ) and what section you would like to play in ie Under or  Over 60's Weather will dictate footwear but if dry - moulded soles as opposed to studs

cfawfcks@gmail.com

The WFA are promoting three leagues (+50's, 60's and 65's) in EXETER  starting in October. T

The over 50's and 60's league games will be played on Sundays and the over 65's league games will be played on Wednesdays.

All kick off times are 12pm.

The games will be played bi-monthly as follows:

DATES FOR EXETER TOURNAMENTS:

SUN SEP 12TH + 60'S

SUN SEP 19TH + 50'S

SUN OCT 3RD +70'S

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SUN NOV 14TH + 50'S

SUN NOV 21ST + 60'S

SUN NOV 28TH + 70'S

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  SUN JAN 9TH +50'S

 SUN JAN 16TH +60'S

SUN JAN 23RD +70'S

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 SUN MAR 6TH +50'S

 SUN MAR 20TH + 60'S

 SUN MAR 27TH + 70'S

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 SUN MAY 8TH + 50'S

 SUN MAY 15TH + 60'S

 SUN MAY 22ND +70'S

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There will be a minimum of 4 teams in each league and a maximum of 8 teams.

Each team will play 3 or 4 games each meet.

To enter a team contact Danny on 07854 944686