National Over 60s Final

Hartshill Strollers 2

Seaton Carew 1

HARTSHILL Strollers have emerged as national Over-60s champions at another illustrious event hosted by the South West's home of walking football, Cirencester Arena, writes Ron Boddy.

Hartshill beat Seaton Carew 2-1 in a closely contested final.

Seaton Carew had travelled by far the furthest to compete and arrived with a bare seven players as four first team regulars absent.

For their efforts they received a warm ovation from the other three teams who had qualified for the finals before a ball was kicked.

The first four matches all produced draws of 0-0 or 1-1.

The first outright winner came in the fifth match and saw Seaton Carew book themselves a place in the final at the expense of the home team Phoenix Force Cirencester.

The final league match pitted Herne Bay seniors against the relatively unknown quantity of Hartshill Strollers.

It was a closely-fought tie, with just the one goal falling to Hartshill.

Unfortunately for Herne Bay they could not continue the pre-eminence of their younger high-fliers who won the Over 50s final at this venue recently, so would have to contest the 3rd/4th play-off.

That match against Phoenix Force ended a draw and went to penalties. Both keepers pulled off good early spot kick saves but Cirencester grabbed a goal to take the advantage and see it through to the conclusion.

The final was a close, well-contested affair with both sides dominating in patches.

Hartshill scored first and looked like they would settle for that score-line when, with minutes to spare, Seaton galvanised their efforts and fired home an equaliser.

The game looked to be going to extra time but a determined effort from the Hartshill forward saw him round a last defender and fire home.

Seaton pressed with the remaining time and had the bulk of the possession but no chances fell their way.

Hartshill Strollers sealed victory to become the very first 60+ national champions.

Phoenix Force player Peter Mitchell said: “Despite having home advantage we didn’t quite produce our best form and as a result finished a creditable third, thanks to a great Bill Jordison goal in the play-off and good saves by John Batten in the shoot-out.

“As there were many entrants across the length and breadth of the country this was not a bad effort for a team formed only 18 months ago.”