Four years ago on 7th January 2016, six old lads aged between 55 and 86 turned up at Meadowbank Sports Centre to try the relatively new craze of walking football promoted by Edinburgh Leisure. This was an opportunity, initially for older males, who didn’t fancy going to the gym or jogging to start playing a sport they loved but at a pace and safety level suitable for their “advancing years”
Fairly quickly the numbers rose to over twenty playing both indoors and outdoors depending on the vagaries of the Scottish weather as word got out of the tremendous benefits this sport offered which included weight loss, improved physical and mental health and greatly increased social connectedness.
In December 2016, Edinburgh Leisure informed the group that they would no longer run the sessions however undeterred the players decided to take over the group and after a meeting with Edinburgh City FC, who at the time shared the same home, changed their name to Edinburgh City Walking Football.
The group continued at Meadowbank, gradually attracting more players (including a few females) until November 2017 when Meadowbank closed its doors. Like the senior club they had to find a new home and following a tough decision, that meant moving to the other side of the City, the group started to play out of the World of Football at the Chesser Corn Exchange, five miles away.
In the two years City Walking Football have been playing at World of Football, participation has gone through the roof with over 60 now regularly involved and on occasions four games of six/seven a side going on every Thursday between 11.00 and 12.30 followed by a great chat and banter over a cup of tea or coffee.
New players are always welcome and for more information check out www.edinburghwalkingfootball.weebly.com, Edinburgh City WF Facebook page or phone Colin on 0771 971 4932
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
