In Northampton, Sandra Riley waited 45 years for a football team, then helped build one

The first club Sandra Riley rang did not think walking football was a suitable game for women. The second was a men’s team with one woman in it, and said she would be welcome.

Riley, from Hardingstone on the edge of Northampton, grew up on football. Her father was a devoted fan, and when the two of them were not watching a match they were kicking a ball about in the park. Then she got older and the game ran out. There was nowhere for young women to play, she told NN Journal in 2021, when she was 56; if she was lucky, the lads at the local recreation ground let her join in.

In 2018 she saw a television feature about walking football and started making calls. She joined the men’s side. More women followed.

“I’ve dreamed of playing football since I was 11, now I can.” — Sandra Riley, to NN Journal

A team of 30

By 2021 Northampton Town Ladies Walking Football Team had 30 members. It was open to women from 35 to 70, with most players between 50 and 65. Two had been picked for England, one for the over-40s and one for the over-60s, and the club was organising Northamptonshire’s first women’s walking football tournament.

The rules are football’s, with three changes: no running, the ball stays below head height, and physical contact is kept to a minimum. Riley said the hard part at first is not running, and that it stays competitive. Even at walking pace, she said, players can cover five miles (8 km) going up and down the pitch.

When lockdown stopped training, the loss was more than exercise. Some members lived alone and were shielding; they went from three hours a week with the team to seeing no one.

“This is more than just a sports club, we look out for each other.” — Sandra Riley

Why this matters

Walking football began in the UK in 2011 and has grown fast. A Walking Football Association survey of 2,125 players, reported by Sports Gazette, found about 95 per cent were over 50. It also has a serious end: England’s over-50s men won the World Nations Cup in Spain in October 2025, beating Italy 1–0 in the final.

The research is early but encouraging. A 2015 study in BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine put ten men, average age 66, most with conditions such as high blood pressure, knee arthritis or type 2 diabetes, through one two-hour session a week for 12 weeks. Body fat fell from 30.3 to 27.5 per cent, time to exhaustion on a fitness test rose by 11 per cent, and all ten finished the programme. It was a small study with no control group, and blood pressure did not improve, so treat it as a promising sign, not proof.

The World Health Organization, which recommends 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a week, has backed the game for the social side as much as the physical. At an Age UK Norwich session in 2026, about 20 regulars play, then stay for tea. “It’s just like being a kid again,” one of them, Mark, told the charity.

How to get a game

• Find a session. In the UK, try your county FA, the Walking Football Association, your local Age UK or the community trust of your nearest professional club. In the US it is usually called walking soccer; ask your parks and recreation department.
• Say you are new. Every club has people who had not kicked a ball for decades, or ever. Myra, 61, a player in Sheffield, told Age UK she has seen complete beginners fall for it.
• Women-only, men-only or mixed. All three exist. If the first club is not right, ring another. Riley did.
• Mention your health. If you have a heart condition or a joint problem, check with your GP (family doctor) first and tell the coach.

Our guides to walking groups and clubs and to friendship and community after 50 list more ways in. Riley’s own summary: she is in football boots, doing what she always wanted to do.