England over-50s’ victorious team with Gary Groom, front row, far left, in Spain<\/p>\n
And the ex-Gravesend & Northfleet and Erith & Belvedere utility man helped England to World Nations Cup glory once more in Spain last month.<\/p>\n
Groom said: \u201cWe had a tough opener against Spain, the host nation, and at least half of their squad are expats.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was 30-degree heat all week so that was tough. We had 10 games in four days!<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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.<\/p>\n
Gary Groom with the trophy<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had some drop-outs where, unfortunately, Nigeria and Rwanda didn\u2019t get their visas in time.<\/p>\n
“So, they re-jigged the tournament to have two groups of eight and the top four from each went through.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played really well against Italy. They did nick a goal at the end but it was still a 3-1 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Groom, left, with his brother – Dartford’s kitman – Terry Groom<\/p>\n
The knockout stages saw England again come up against two of their main rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the quarter-final, we beat Wales 2-0 but absolutely battered them,\u201d Groom explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe kept hitting the post, their keeper was inspired and we must have had 15 to 18 chances, but we only won 2-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were 3-1 up with a minute to go and they got one at the end to make it look a lot closer.<\/p>\n
Gary Groom, centre, is flanked by son Jack Groom and wife Kim Groom in Spain<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cA fella called Mark Cavan, a lad from Fylde, got the winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s sole Kent representative this time around.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cMost of the squad were from all over England.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a fella from Newcastle, a couple from the Blackburn and Bolton areas and some from the South West.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the only one from the South East.<\/p>\n
“Neil Brown has moved up an age and so has Mickey Orme, who also plays for Bexley.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was drained after it,” four-goal Groom said. \u201cIt took me a few days, once I\u2019d got back to England, to get myself straight again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I enjoy it – and that\u2019s what it is all about. The manager, David Castle, was really inspirational.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has organised all of our get-togethers over the last year in Solihull, that\u2019s the best place for everyone to meet up, and got us sponsors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not all paid for by any means. The squad really gelled this time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it was because we were away or because we were all staying in the same hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Groom was also able to watch brother Terry Groom – Dartford\u2019s first-team kitman – play for a separate England team when he wasn\u2019t in action himself as Terry battles prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was an England \u2018Kicking Cancer\u2019 team,\u201d said Gary. \u201cIf you were picked, you could play for them. They were out there in an ambassadorial role and had a couple of friendly games.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother, Terry, was on that team. I watched a bit of his [friendlies] – but I was quite focused.<\/p>\n
“We had to have team meetings so I didn\u2019t get to watch him a lot. But it was nice to be out there with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also an England Parkinson\u2019s team and I believe they have been out there, as well, and they\u2019re trying to include everyone.<\/p>\n
“This is the first-ever time there has been a women\u2019s walking football competition and there have been three age-groups in that.\u201d<\/p>\n
While 59-year-old Groom will soon be eligible to move up to an older age-group, it doesn\u2019t mean he will.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI turn 60 towards the end of November.<\/p>\n
“But you haven\u2019t got to move to the over-60s. It can be a decision between you and your manager about whether you think you need to go up into the next age-group.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has assured me he wants to keep me for the next one. But I know that\u2019s still two years off so I\u2019ll see how my body reacts.<\/p>\n
\u201cTouch wood, I\u2019ll stay as fit as I have done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former semi-professional footballer has again been celebrating international glory – this time on foreign soil. Gary Groom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[179318,179317,2000,299,94,78296,78297,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-562951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-bexley-and-bromley-sport","9":"tag-ebbsfleet-football","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-gravesham-sport","14":"tag-non-league","15":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}