Baggies fan pulls on his boots – again!
Peter, at an event in Manchester, with David Beckham
He’s football crazy! He’s football mad!
No wonder then that Birmingham Press Club director Peter Brookes has taken up the game himself. But it’s not rough and tumble Championship-style soccer for the West Bromwich Albion fan who used to be boss of Manchester United’s TV channel.
Peter has signed up to play walking football instead, alongside fellow-Black Country journalist Bob Haywood, who first joined the Hartshill Strollers Walking Football Club in Dudley in 2014. Bob, a former investigative journalist with the Birmingham Evening Mail and Sunday Mercury, said: “Walking football has become a big part of my life in retirement. I’m fit and healthy – and would recommend the game to anyone.
Bob Haywood - kitted out for action
“Before you start chuckling, it’s a darned sight more energetic, competitive and skilful than you might think,” he said.
Recently, the Strollers reached the national finals of the Over 60s and the Over 65s – a feat never achieved before – but were disappointed at failing to bring home the silverware.
Today, the club has more than 70 members aged between 50 and 86 and is one of a thousand clubs affiliated to the Walking Football Association in England. Around 35,000 men – and women – play on a regular basis in the UK and many professional football clubs are now involved in walking football, as are top stars of the past.
Walking football teams are normally six- or seven-a-side; running is supposedly banned as is robust tackling; the ball must stay below head height (so no heading); and neither attackers nor defenders are allowed into the penalty areas. Infringements lead to the awarding of a free kick – and, for repeat offending, a sin-binning, or even a sending off.
“The trick is to play to feet, pass in triangles, and always keep on the move. It is very energetic, highly skilful – and fiercely competitive. Well, it’s the way we play it!” said Bob.
Peter, who started out in journalism as a trainee reporter with West Midlands Press in 1977, went on to become news editor at TVam, Central ITV and Meridian TV before joining Manchester United TV as its managing director.
He said: "Bob persuaded me to turn up to a Hart's Hill Strollers training session and I'm now hooked. It's a great workout for those of us who used to play seriously but nowadays can't manage the speed aspects.
"Having said that, I can't keep up with the younger players for whom "walking" seems to be a questionable phrase! But, like Bob, I enjoy it enormously and it's a great way of trying to keep fit in later years."
