The Club held its annual internal Dave Knight Cup Tournament close to the date of the very first walking football session organised by the Leyton Orient Trust ten years ago last month.

The event was attended by members and coaches who have been involved with the sessions over last 10 years. A record 68 members reported for duty. They were placed in eight teams, with two groups of four to decide positions for the final game.

The competition was won by Steve Eades’ France team, being one of the few teams that seemed to be able to score goals. The day was dominated by goalkeepers and 0-0 draws. In one group, there were six games and only one goal and that was a penalty for four ‘not walking’ infringements.

Each captain was asked to nominate their player of the day.

The winners were:

Wales – Chris Williams
Scotland – Linda Thomas
England – Mike Freeman
Ireland – Mike O’Brien
Spain – Ray Russo
France – Derek Myers
Italy – Clare Kavanagh
Germany – David James

The games were excellently controlled by four Essex League referees, Richard Coleman, Robin Ogilvie, Dave Axcell and Greg Pogonowski. Alan Taylor and Mary Kau controlled the session with excellent record and time keeping.

Three former players starred, Kevin Walsh, Junior and Howard Gould. It was good to see former players attend with Gary Martin. Jo Ahlstrom, Dennis Barefield and Bob Rule all showing up to support the day.

From the original photo of the very first session; Dennis Barefield, Derek Myers, Keith Everett and David Yude still attend sessions. Two of the coaches from that session, Howard Gould and Junior also attended the tournament.

Finally, the Club had a message from Phill Smith, who set up the first sessions back in 2015: “Please do pass on my best wishes to everyone – it was great to still see lots of familiar names on the list still playing from when we originally set the programme up 10 years ago. It is fantastic to see the programme going from strength to strength and hopefully I can pop down to see you all at a later date.”

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Image used © 2025 Trevor Ridley