Walking back to happiness

ANGUS walking footballers are limbering up for a return trip to Portugal to pit their talent against top Euro opposition.

The Carnoustie Panmure Walking Football Club players will be hoping to go a step further than their previous success in the Algarve.

They will set off from Carnoustie next week bound for the holiday resort of Vilamoura.

In 2017, their One Foot in the Algarve Tour saw the Angus lads finish fifth in a field of 32 teams.

They then followed it up a year later with their Still Game and Dribbling tour and performed well again, this time getting all the way to the final only to be pipped by a team of Portuguese-based expats.

This year, the hope is to live up to the tour title of Walking on Sunshine.

Club organiser Mags Muir said: “The format is a bit different this time and it’s more of a festival rather than an out-and-out competition – but we’re still looking forward to it and want to do well.

“We’re taking 14 players altogether and will have over-50s and over-60s teams.”

The fifth tournament at the Browns Sports Resort will involve 18 teams from Portugal, England, Scotland and Belgium.

Mags, who the players say is “the beating heart of the club”, said the sport is picking up again after the pandemic.

“We started up again last summer when the restrictions allowed us to play outside for a period,” she said.

“We usually play at Carnoustie Leisure Centre and we are back in there now.”

The club is for over-50s and meets at the leisure centre on Wednesdays from 6.15pm.

Mags Muir.