ABOUT US
Chesterfield Senior Spireites F.C. was created through a Football Foundation “Extra Time” grant, that was funded by the English Football League (EFL) Trust and Sport Relief. The club has grown from a few people struggling with three-a-side to over 110 members and some potential new ones trying us out. We are now a stand-alone not-for-profit club with an elected committee to run it. The current club was established in December 2013.
To read an article on how Walking Football was created and the development of the Senior Spireites Club click here.
All our playing sessions are limited to new members over 50 years of age.
We play every Monday and Friday morning. On a Monday the session is at LU Graves, Meadowhead, south Sheffield S8 8JR from 10:30 to 11:30 and on a Frdiay the session is currently being changed due to the closure of The Akademy in Dronfield. We will play at LU Graves on 19th June and Queens Park on 10th July. There will also be a special session at LU Graves from 1.30-2.30pm on 3rd July. Parking, changing facilities and showers are available at most venues and we get together afterwards for a sociable chat and a drink.
We also have an evening session on Tuesdays from 19:00 to 20:00 aimed at the younger end of our membership, who are still working during the day. The evening playing session on Tuesdays is currently full but we do have a waiting list for new members if they would like to play at this session in the future. Due to the closure of The Akademy in Dronfield, we will play at Tupton Hall School on 23rd June and Queens Park on 30th June.
If you are interested in joining us, contact info@chesterfieldwalkingfootball.co.uk or just turn up and check us out. The first session is FREE and then you pay a monthly membership fee of £10.
Hasland Walking Football Club, formed at the beginning of 2015, originally joined Senior Spireites as a satellite club in September 2015 for administrative reasons but although running as an independent session is now integrated into the club.
We play every Thursday from 10:00 to 11:00 on the outdoor Multi-Use Games Area next to the pavilion in Eastwood Park, Hasland. At Hasland it is a tarmac surface which requires care to be taken when playing, to avoid the risk of injury. The playing session at Hasland is currently full but we do have a waiting list for new members if they would like to play at this session in the future.
The Senior Spireites Committee for 2026/27 was confirmed at the AGM in March 2026 as:
Chair – Malc Perks
Treasurer – Paul Markwell
Secretary – Hugh Chaplain
Social Secretary – Rob Church
Kit Manager – Pete Jacques
Over 50's Rep - Darryl Davies
Hasland Rep – Roger Hancock
Dronfield Rep - Bob Berry
Web site manager – Darryl Davies
Chesterfield FC Community Trust Representative - Keith Jackson
Honorary Members - Neil Haddy and Ian Edmundson
Club President and Vice Presidents:
President - John Croot
Vice President - Eric Bagshaw
Vice President - Neil Haddy
Vice President - Roy Beresford
What is Walking Football? by Derek McGovern
Just as women can be divided into two groups (the beautiful and the majority), so men have two camps: those who play walking football and those who shudder at the very thought.
To a regular amateur player, 'walking football' is a more gruesome two-word phrase than 'I'm pregnant,' 'last orders,' and 'international break.' To a regular amateur player, it's the sporting equivalent of a catheter - a signal that you're no longer capable of one of the two greatest free pastimes known to mankind.
But those who play walking football know differently – and they'd tell you exactly that if only they could remember to.
When you're in your 60s and 70s your back is supposed to go out more than you do but every day of every week in Liverpool there are hundreds of men of that age - Generation Cocoon - playing football. And playing it well, except for the ones on my side.
Some of us who play every Thursday at Hillfoot in Liverpool, under the auspices of MSB Woolton, are convinced that the guy who regularly stalks the touchline is a Premier League scout and that his Age Concern lanyard is just a cover.
Top-level football has become almost intolerable because it's played mostly by cheating, diving gits but in walking football the players don't dive. They just have nasty falls.
In team news ahead of a Premier League weekend, we'll read that Liverpool have doubts over Gakpo (ankle), Van Dijk (hamstring), and Wirtz (calf). In walking football we're told of doubts over Carruthers (dementia), Smythe-Minor (double bypass) and Hardaker (dead).
There's a camaraderie in walking football that you won't find in younger age groups. In younger age groups, when a player trips over his own feet while trying to finish, it's undeniably funny. But in walking football, when you know a bad fall can easily lead to a hospital bed, it's even funnier.
And don't think for a moment that standards slip or rules are ignored. Every week at least half a dozen players give urine samples, though not deliberately.
In regular amateur football these days there's always a fear that a local nutter, thirsting for revenge, will interrupt a match with a sawn-off shotgun. That's not the case in walking football, where trained look-out men will easily spot the approach of someone angrily brandishing a musket.
In a year of playing at Hillfoot, the youngest opponent I've faced was 55 (we called him Junior). The oldest was 75 (we called him everything, he couldn't hear). You don't play football in your 60s and 70s unless you played it in your younger days and so the standards are surprisingly high. There are few muppets, except for whoever's on my side.
The main rule in walking football is that running is not allowed but this rule of course applies only to the other team.
At some stage everybody runs.
At some stage they'll recover.
Reminiscences of a Treasurer and sometimes player
Neil Haddy was one of the 4 original members of the Senior Spireites. 13 years on he recalls how the Club was started and some of it's achievements and milestones on the journey to now having over 100 members and playing 4 times a week. Click on the Download button for more details.
