On the morning of Saturday 22nd August, Hurst Pretenders’ players, volunteers, family and friends gathered at Hurst College for our 13-hour Walking Football Marathon .
The match kicked off at 7:30am in bright, late summer sunshine and continued non-stop throughout the day until the final whisle blew at 8:30pm, under floodlights and darkening skies. The ‘Blue’ squad and the ‘Green’ squad took each other on – with players rotating off and on in batches of 3 players per team, every 20 minutes throughout the day, to keep the challenge going. There was determination, teamwork, laughter and, as the hours passed, plenty of very, very tired bodies!
The day, however, was about much more than football. It was about bringing our club and local community together while raising money for our club and for Sussex Cancer Fund.
And what a result – we have raised over £10,000! This is a remarkable amount of money, and something everyone involved should be extremely proud of. The atmosphere from start to finish was fantastic; the effort, commitment and cameraderie, made it a truly brilliant day.
For those who are interested in the scoreline, the Green squad triumphed *89-56 at the final whistle.
*NB: The goals provided were at the larger end of the WFA specified dimensions range (3 – 5m W x 1.2 – 2m H) for walking football, which made goalkeeping somewhat challenging, and certainly contributed to the high goal tally!
It’s unofficial at this stage, but we believe we have set a new world record for a continuous walking football match, beating the (12 hour) figure set by Walking Football Brisbane in 2022, and seemingly matched by Moulton Masters (from Northampton) in July 2026.
A massive THANK YOU goes to every single person who played, volunteered, organised, donated, supported us, cheered us on or helped in any way. It was a tremendous effort and achievement.
Many thanks also to Mid Sussex Radio for spending the day with us to help publicise the event and our fundraising drive, and also to Hurst College for allowing us to use their very impressive facilities for the day.
