Wakefield Walking Football

It’s a notable birthday today for a very well known and recognised member at WWFC - Michelle Walker.
Michelle is an accomplished player who has appeared for every team in the club and still remains a top defender and an integral part of the Strollers 65+ team. She played for the Wanderers 65+ last year and also turned out for the60+ teams a number of times. She remains a regular attendee at both the social and the competitive Thursday night sessions where she occasionally still scores some of her long range spectacular goals.
A longtime and key member so I am sure that all will join me in wishing Michelle many happy returns.
Front row - middle

Belated birthday greetings to Ged Exley who turned 60 yesterday and my apologies to him as I completely forgot his notable birthday….
I do know he is away in Spain at the moment and sat by a pool with a long drink….🍺
Ged has been a member for a few years and makes occasional appearances at the social sessions as and when his work schedule permits. He gets down to a few Thursday night competitive sessions and is a very tidy player who is good on the ball and is always looking to get involved in the game.
He very generously provided a number of new footballs to us last year that had been acquired by his business - a super bloke and I am sure all will join me in sending him best wishes

Really good turn out at The BlackHorse this afternoon…
Graham had spoken to the weather gods and it was baking hot for the 30+ sat outside watching the world go by.
Thanks to Ami and the staff at The Black Horse for the OAP discount - enabled me to have the 6th pot before I departed and left most still deep in discussion…
I was involved in, and overheard, some terrific conversations. Topics ranged from
- What the furthest you have hitch hiked (GL)
- Did you ever go train spotting to Horbury Junction or Crewe (GL)
- Did you drink in The Dolphin (JR)
- Who did you sleep with on Tour. (KM)
- Have you been woken up on a park bench by the Police (JR)
- Have you ever had an argument with a team mate (GT)
- Why can’t I score from the penalty spot (JohnMcC)
- Would you like to nibble my little sausage (GW).
There were some garish outfits on display, plenty of craic and good to see Joe, DaveL and DavidM with their better halves down to join in . Also good to see RichS down in his school cap to bring the average age down a year…..
Cracking session - hopefully PhillB has a “session photo” to share later…

Here comes the sun, little darlings... together with today's UT Report. Graham J updates as follows:

Football in the morning and drinking beer in the afternoon sun. Ahhhh. I can suddenly hear that Mike Reid song in my head now...'Perfect Day'! So as not to miss out on this afternoon's Black Horse 'sesh', today's quickly put together UT Report is a bit shorter than usual. Apologies all...and particular apologies to the WIS (Wakefield Insomniacs Society) readers who have previously used my epic Reports as a sleep aid... If it's any consolation to them - and Insomniacs in general - there's now only 4 sleeps to go until Christmas Day... 😆.

We had 16 players and thanks to Chris H who organised and picked the following 7 a side teams with a rolling sub (goalscorers noted in brackets):
Oranges: Tony W (2), Dan G(1), Stevie G, 'Naughty Gary', 'Skinny', Dean H, Glenn T , Steve A.
Greens: 'Corporal Jones' (4), Dave 'Cake/Goal Maker' Baker ( 3), Lord Toepoke (3) Mick D (2), Rich 'Golden' Sands (1), Gary L , Ken J, John 'Riot' Myatt.
Game 1 ended 8 v 3 to Greens so the sides were tweaked with Naughty Gary going to Greens swapping for Dave Cake/Goal Maker who joined Oranges. This made things much closer though Greens came out on top again 4 v 3 in game 2. Well done Greens and a big mention for Mick Dooley. I think this might be his debut and despite scoring an early OG, dusted himself down brilliantly to get POTM. Some stupendous saves, particularly the point blank one from Skinny, a couple of well taken goals outfield and a very accomplished all round performance. Well done mate. 👏
At this point it's been drawn to my attention that the song 'Perfect Day' was in fact sung by Lou Reed....not Mike Reid as I originally thought. Apologies to both the thousands of Lou Reed fans out there ..and also sorry to the dozens of Mike Reid fans too. 🤫😉
I've also been told that WIS are threatening to take me to court about the 'Insomniac 4 Christmas Sleeps' joke. They'll let me off only on condition I make the Report longer than intended to aid some of their members sleep issues. So the following is a few interesting facts you may not know about a few of our UT regulars:
1. Dave Baker 'the Cake Maker'...has never actually baked as much as a Cornflake Bun in his whole life. Shame on you Dave!
2. JJ and Steve A aren't really Scousers. Neither have ever said 'Eh, eh, calm down la'... eaten scouse ( though wouldn't that be cannabilism anyway?).. or nicked a car stereo. Rubbish boys, I expected better!
3. When Glenn T wears his glasses, you'll never see him and Fred Dibnah in the same room...ever! But also see point 5 below *
4. Chris Humphries is on course to beat his own personal record of shouting out...'It's your own time yer wasting' (when the UT players are invariably mucking around pre kick off). According to the National Office of Statistics, he's shouted it 40 times already during 2026 ( averaging 2.58 times per session).
5. * See point 3. In part , this is due to Fred Dibnah - sadly- being dead for the last 30 years. Top bloke was our Fred...sometimes literally! Just like Glenn T is of course. 😄

So thanks to all for contributing to an enjoyable session played in a very good spirit. Particular thanks to Chris H for organising/keeping scores and those who shared Reffing duties, namely 'Golden' Sands, Lordy ( and timekeeping), 'Naughty Gary', Stevie G, John 'Riot' with Graham J.
Finally, the last 'Guess the Mugshot' competition was a struggle. Bren, Golden Sands and Lordy all hazarded guesses at Burkio, Rich Sands and Glenn T. All unfortunately wrong guesses, the bonny lad in that picture was in fact ...Graham J. Yes, what went wrong when he got older! 🤔 The prize of the reconditioned Fondu Set remains unclaimed therefore. 😆.
Have a great weekend all and I'll see anyone going to the Black Horse a bit later this aft.

Plans for next week
We will have the usual sessions next week including on Bank Holiday Monday 25 May
Mon, Wed, Fri - 3 touch “turn up and play” 09:45 for 10 start
Mon, Fri - unlimited “turn up and play “ 11:00 for 11:15 start
Tuesday evening 50+ sessions with teams selected by DavidO & GlynA.
Thursday evening NOD will be sorting out 2 Select 60+ teams
Competition teams
On Wednesday 27th May the 70+ are over at Heywood and Geoff has the following squad Geoff, George,
GlennT, Dave Margrave, Ken, NOD and PeterI
On Wednesday 27th the 60+ squad are playing at Goals Leeds in the WFA National Cup and DavidO has the following squad Killey, John Mc, Mark P, GlennB, GrahamA, TonyB and DO
On Thursday 28th the 65+ Strollers are over at Heywood and NOD has the following squad PeterI, DavidM, ChrisH, Michelle, PhillB, TonyW & TonyB

A really good session at WFC with 8 teams in action over 4 pitches with 6@6 and 2@5 and thanks to AndyL who swapped sides to help us keep the games balanced.
Thanks to RichS, Mick, Eamonn and JohnMc who all assisted as player referees and we had another new member join in Tony Williams who passed over his £10 and had a cracking series of games for the reds.
Great to see GlynA and JohnMc down after yesterdays exploits at Heywood - one of the best team performances that we have achieved with 15/15 points and no goals conceded.
Kevin Aveyard was back down for his second appearance and it was good to see DavidB and PeterE playing - the Ossett lads are all reunited..
SteveA impressed as did GrahamJ, PjilJ, Riz and TonyC. Big DaveH held the ball well with MickD, KenJ, TonyW and Mally all getting plenty of touches.
Jan and Lindsay were looking for a man for Sunday and I think RichardK has volunteered and good strong performances from PaulW, Andre and JohnMcN. Bernard and Rookey did what they usually do with DaveB butchering a number of chances while Fred tucked away a nice goal after a number of decent efforts hit the post.
Top session to end the week and am sure all built up a thirst for a few scoops at The Black Horse this afternoon…

Kevin Williams is a respected referee and a roving reporter - he refereed our first game today at Heywood and also found time to complete the GMWF summary of the action and league table. It makes excellent reading…..

Another really good, competitive and close session that saw the Reds produce a top performance to defeat a strong Whites team with NOD the referee.
Whites MarkC, ChrisH, PhillB, Pip, JohnA, StanB and Ian R
Reds JohnD, Michelle, TonyW, KevinM, BarryH, SteveZ, GrahamW
The boards were out of bounds and the first 10 minutes saw both teams struggle to retain possession but IanR produced a bit of quality and managed to clip a fine shot past JohnD to put the whites 1-0 ahead.
The next 10 saw both sides start to move the ball with some skill and precision with KevinM and TonyW both starting to impress for the Reds while PhillB and Pip were both busy for the Whites. IanR was up against Michelle in a good battle while Graham was starting his own personal foul tally….!
It remained 1-0 up to half time as both sides had chances with Mark and JohnD both making smart saves - TonyW who had played well had a chance on the stroke of half time to equalise but blasted the ball over the crossbar and JohnA saw a penalty saved by JohnD when whites looked to extend the score.
The second half started with a bang as Graham scored 2 long range goals with Mark unsighted for the first and diving over the second and the momentum swung to the reds who took a 2-1 lead.
BarryH was improving as the game went on and he fed a nice ball to TonyW who made it 3-1 and with SteveZ and Michelle taking control in front of JohnD the whites were struggling to get clear chances.
The final 10 saw the reds play “keep ball” and KevinM and Barry both saw plenty of the ball and SteveZ wandered out of defence to crack home the fourth goal with 3 minutes remaining. Whites were awarded a second penalty for repeat offences with GW the main culprit and PhillB knocked it past JohnD and the game ended 4-2 to the Reds.
Reds really impressed with a decent keeper and Michelle and SteveZ both solid and organised and Whites had a similar approach with ChrisH and Phill providing cover for MarkC but the reds certainly moved the ball more quickly and took their chances with more accuracy.