HAVE you seen the TV advertisement in which Barclays Bank agree to help provide computer assistance to someone starting up a Walking Football League?

Did you think, ‘look how slow is that – nothing like real football’.

Well, walking football is now played at more than 400 locations and most participants have many years of ‘real football’ under their belts.

Walking football is a six-a-side version of the game for the over-50s and, as the name suggests, it is played at walking pace. Break into a run and you concede a free kick to the opposition.

Cirencester’s own team Phoenix Force have joined the inaugural Gloucestershire Walking Football League which played its first round of matches at Gloucester's Abbeydale Sports Centre in September.

The Gloucestershire FA league for 2015/16 has seven teams: Phoenix Force from Cirencester, Malmesbury Marauders, Brimscombe Inside Football, Stroud, Abbeymead Rovers (Gloucester), Bristol City A and Bristol City B.

The second round of matches took place at the Cirencester Indoor Arena on Wednesday. Full report next week.

Future tournaments will be held by Inside Football, Brimscombe on Sunday, February 28 (1pm-4.30pm) and the GFA headquarters in Almondsbury on Thursday May 19 (from 10am).

Phoenix Force now play in a brand new kit, provided by the Force Brewery in Love Lane.

The bespoke kit of all white with a blue, yellow and green trim mirrors the brewery’s colours.

Charles Malet of Force Brewery said: “I’m delighted to be in a position to be able to support Phoenix Force this season. I hadn’t thought that walking football would generate too much of a thirst. I was wrong.”