A former semi-professional footballer has again been celebrating international glory – this time on foreign soil.
Gary Groom helped England over-50s win the World Nations Cup in August 2023 at St George’s Park and also claimed The Walking Football Association National Finals crown with his local club, Bexley, that same year.
Semi-pro footballer celebrates walking football glory
And the ex-Gravesend & Northfleet and Erith & Belvedere utility man helped England to World Nations Cup glory once more in Spain last month.
Groom said: “We had a tough opener against Spain, the host nation, and at least half of their squad are expats.
“Some of them had played semi-professional football in England before so they had some good players. We started with a 2-2 draw and I got a good equaliser.
“It was 30-degree heat all week so that was tough. We had 10 games in four days!
“In the afternoon of the first day, we played Scotland. It was a bit cagey but we nicked the goals and won 3-0. So we had four points after the first day.
“The second morning, we beat Basque 5-0 and I got a goal. We beat Italy – Italy seemed to be one of our main rivals, as well as Spain in our group because there were two groups of eight.
“They had some drop-outs where, unfortunately, Nigeria and Rwanda didn’t get their visas in time.
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“So, they re-jigged the tournament to have two groups of eight and the top four from each went through.
“We played really well against Italy. They did nick a goal at the end but it was still a 3-1 win.
“We won every game in our group, except the Spain one that we drew, so that led us onto the Friday where you play three games on the same day – the quarter-final, the semi-final and the final.”
The knockout stages saw England again come up against two of their main rivals.
“In the quarter-final, we beat Wales 2-0 but absolutely battered them,” Groom explained.
“We kept hitting the post, their keeper was inspired and we must have had 15 to 18 chances, but we only won 2-0.
“It was Spain again in the semi-final. Of course, they were up for it on their home soil but we managed to see them off.
“We were 3-1 up with a minute to go and they got one at the end to make it look a lot closer.
“We then met Italy again in the final. I think all the teams were really shattered by this point! We dominated the game but only managed to get one goal – and just saw the game out.
“A fella called Mark Cavan, a lad from Fylde, got the winner.”
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While Groom had played with goalkeeper Mickey Orme, who first introduced him to walking football, for England over-50s in 2023, he was his nation’s sole Kent representative this time around.
He said: “Most of the squad were from all over England.
“We had a fella from Newcastle, a couple from the Blackburn and Bolton areas and some from the South West.
“I was the only one from the South East.
“Neil Brown has moved up an age and so has Mickey Orme, who also plays for Bexley.”
Playing that amount of matches in such a short space of time would be a challenge for many the other side of 50, especially as they contended with the heat they were faced with in Torrevieja.
“I was drained after it,” four-goal Groom said. “It took me a few days, once I’d got back to England, to get myself straight again.
“But I enjoy it – and that’s what it is all about. The manager, David Castle, was really inspirational…
READ MORE at source: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/sport/groom-s-england-reign-in-spain-332148/
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