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Walking Football Team Champions in France

It wasn’t quite 500 miles walked for the two Argyle Community Trust walking football teams in France but the overseas tournament was proclaimed a success as the Argyle A team were crowned champions.

The two teams departed home shores on Friday 13 September to take part in two tournaments on the Saturday and Sunday.

Both sides had to face each other in the 6-a-side competition as well as BFM Cleguerec, Bourgbarre and even some familiar faces in the form of Torquay and Bristol.

Walking football is a variant of association football that is aimed at keeping people aged over 50 involved with football if, due to a lack of mobility or for other reason, they are not able to play the traditional game.

The A team are no strangers to winning silverware and proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with, the results speaking for themselves as they remained unbeaten all weekend:

11 games played, scoring 45 goals and conceded only 2 with player Colin Purdy scored 4 hatricks over the 2 days.

DAY 2 Results

PAFC A 3 0 PAFC B
PAFC A 2 0 Torquay
PAFC A 8 0 BFM Cleguerec
PAFC A 3 1 Bristol
PAFC A 7 0 Bourgbarre

 

Day one was structured so the 6 teams in the league all played a round robin, with the top team winning the tournament. Day two offered a knock out style tournament where Argyle A was fighting for the trophy.

The semi final saw them in a westcountry showdown against Torquay A ending 1-0 and seeing the greens through to the final against Erge Vras where a single goal by Ian Nicholls claimed victory for the Argyle side, he said:

“A massive well done to all the lads taking part, we go as a squad and share the successes as well as the challenges. Unfortunately the B team did not reach the standards they are capable of achieving and finished 5th on the first day and got the wooden spoon on the second day.

“Overall it was a fantastic experience to be able to travel abroad and compete as a team, and funny how this all started from just going along to a session for a kick about.”

If you’re interested about starting Walking Football come along to a session, open to both men and women for either casual or competitive play:

Mondays, Manadon Sports Hub, PL5 3JG, 5-6pm casual, 6-7pm competitive play

Wednesdays, Manadon Sports Hub, PL5 3JG 10-11am

Each session is £3.50 with ElderTree discount available on the Wednesdays

To find out more and how to get involved email: ben.kerswell@pafc.co.uk

Argyle Community Trust Walking Football Team

Tournament Squad List:

Ian Nicholls

Alan McIlhiney

Colin Purdy

Dave Pook

James Collins

Paul Taylor

 

Malcolm Legg

Tom Potts

Roy Smith

Tim Francis

Peter Addison

Faramarz Salimizadeh (Fred)

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