Wokingham & Emmbrook Football Club will be represented in the finals of a prestigious national football competition this weekend.
Players from the club’s Walking Football team travel north to Barnsley on Sunday, October 10 to compete against teams from around the country.
The Sumas already confirmed their status as South East Regional champions after they managed to retain their title with victory over Bexley at Emmbrook School last week, meaning that they qualify for the national competition this coming weekend.
The team, all aged over 50-years-old, are up against difficult competition from around England where they will face seven champions from other regions, including Everton, Blackburn and Norwich.
Wokingham & Emmbrook are no strangers to winning prestigious competitions and have an impressive set of accolades throughout the years. In 2020 they reached the semi-final stages of the same competition.
Mike Allpress, the captain and player/manager of Wokingham & Emmbrook’s cup team, said: “It’s an interesting version of football, and it is still evolving.”
Mike believes that one of the reasons behind Wokingham & Emmbrook’s great success in walking football is due to the camaraderie of the core of the team, many of whom have struck up a superb relationship on the pitch having played alongside each other for several years.
“Some of our team, including myself, have been playing in various teams together since we first played for the St. Crispin’s School team in 1976.”
Three of the team are also members of the South East regional England team – just one step away from the national team.
Such is the strength of walking football at Wokingham & Emmbrook, that the club fields two teams in the Thames Valley Walking Football League’s over-50’s Premiership.