Located at Blackmore Millennium Park, 166 Nine Ashes Road, CM4 0QR right at the heart of the community is Blackmore Village Hall and Blackmore Sports & Social Club. This amenity, the envy of many other villages, boasts excellent recreational facilities. These include rugby, football and cricket pitches with changing rooms but also a state of the art flood lit tennis court and a 3G Astroturf Multi Use Games Area with 5 aside and Walking Football size goals. This indeed was the birth place of Blackmore Athletic Football Club.

It was back in 2015 that driven local resident Malcolm Hurford had the vision to utilise this facility. He felt age was only a number and too many had hung up their boots too early, and the answer for veterans was Walking Football as a way of carrying on playing the beautiful game and to also boost one’s fitness and social life at the excellent on site Sports and Social Club.

Eleven years on, Walking Football across the United Kingdom has advanced into one of the fastest growing sports for over 40’s woman and over 50’s men both in participation and spectatorship with the formation of hundreds of clubs, leagues and tournaments most of whom are affiliated to the Football Association following their playing rules. We are proud that we were one of the trailblazers in Essex and South East England.

From our early humble beginnings, we evolved with the formation of Blackmore Athletic Walking Football Club run by a hardworking and knowledgeable committee. Monday evenings are set aside for friendly matches amongst the group with two sessions for signed up subscription paying members: 6.30 to 7.30 pm for over 60’s and 7.30 to 8.30 pm for over 50’s. We are delighted that so many of our founder members are still playing with the same degree of enthusiasm.

With Health & Safety paramount, the club require all members to complete a health questionnaire and have at every training session and match, defibrillators and dedicated CPR and first aid trained volunteers.

In addition to Monday nights, our well run club has also participated in several friendly and formal oversees tournaments especially in Spain and Portugal taking away up to 30 players and supporters.

In 2022 we felt the time was right to join the FA affiliated and Essex County Football Association endorsed Essex Walking Football League by entering both over 50’s and 60’s teams. We will also be entering an over 65’s team for 2026.

In 2023 our 60’s team were crowned champions of Division 2 thus achieving promotion to Division 1 for season 2024. After a season of consolidation, in 2025 our 60’s team won the highly competitive Tuesday league with the highest goals scored and the fewest conceded and also finished runners up in the Challenge Cup missing out in a tense penalty shoot- out.

In season 2024 our 50’s team won the equally challenging first division league that similar to the 60’s league boasts big name teams with bigger squads and ex-pro’s including; Chelmsford, Southend, Colchester, Norwich, Romford, Grays and Billericay etc.

We are proud that a small village team holds our own in such illustrious company and that our success has given rise to England International Walking Football recognition with some of our players being called up to their training boot camps.

With cause for celebration, we held our annual Christmas Dinner and Presentation evening last December with the league winner’s trophy and medals presented to our glorious 60’s team who also received Challenge Cup runners up medals. Player of The Year 2025 trophies were also awarded to winners Peter Cole and Andy O’Hara for the early and late sessions respectively.

Blackmore Athletic currently play in the Essex Walking Football League. The EWFL was developed from scratch by a group of active Essex Walking Football Clubs from all corners of the County and was created with the help and expert guidance of the team at Essex County FA. The League was formed in November 2016.

The EWFL is a not-for-profit community-based organisation and is dependent upon donations from our clubs and other sources of revenue to be able to pay for our administrative expenses, tournaments and events. Our Officers and Committee members are volunteers and they give up their time freely.

The EWFL believes that Walking Football is a social and recreational sport.

Their aims and objectives are:

• The promotion of walking football in Essex.
• To support the development of the Essex Walking Football League, within Essex and the five London Boroughs of Essex i.e. Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest.
• To provide competitive opportunities with no contact between its players.
• Not to promote a ‘win at all costs’ attitude. We will cultivate an all inclusive environment in, which players can enjoy themselves.
• To help others to become more mobile and physically fit and to expand their social circles.

 

Below is a selection of photos from our Instagram feed. Click on a photo to enlarge.