A BOROUGH walking football team required the services of a plane to take part in their latest fixture as a squad of 11 travelled to Alicante to take part in an international tournament.
Beechcroft Walking Football Club were invited to take part in the Alicante-based tournament and faced rivals including Mansfield Senior Reds, Monte Mentals, Moraira and Al Gorfa during their four night stay.
Despite not fielding a specialist goalkeeper, due to unavailability, Beechcroft first had to adapt to the larger goals, the lack of an exclusive goalkeeping area and the rule that the keeper can run.
Beechcroft lost their opening fixture 3-1 to Moraira – only a goal from striker Alan Guest denying the ‘home’ side a clean sheet.
A 51-year-old ex-police officer provided Beechcroft with a near impossible task as they suffered a 5-0 defeat in their second fixture before drawing their third game 2-2 against Monte Mentals.
Although the Solihull squad picked up the same amount of points on day two, they showed signs of significant improvement.
A 3-0 loss to Mansfield was followed by a 1-1 draw against Monte before a close fought 3-2 loss at the hands of Al Gorfa.
Incredibly, despite several members of the team picking up injuries, Beechcroft managed to walk away with a win from the tournament at the last gasp – defeating Monte Mentals 3-2, who sportingly offered lifts to the Beechcroft players back to the airport after.
There are already talks of an over 60s tournament taking place next year, which would provide Beechcroft with a significant chance of picking up some silverware.
