This round of fixtures was originally scheduled for March, but after the tragic events of February, it was postponed to mid-May. So a later than planned end to the season, and it was a hot one!
Because the round was re-arranged, it now clashed with a Prostate Cancer charity tournament in Dorchester the previous day. Perhaps the rearranged date and charity tournament clash contributed to Eastleigh and Verwood missing this, the last round of the 2024/25 Dorset Walking Football League?
Due to various reasons, the distribution of matches at Littledown was a bit uneven, and on a really hot day too. Some teams had just three fixtures, while some had four and Dexters Storm had five! To make life even more difficult, Storms top goalscorer, Luke, had picked up an injury at the charity tournament the previous day and was watching from the sidelines!
In happier team news, we had three players making their 50s debuts – Alan Martin, Simon Cooke and Martin Ball. All of whom had strong tournaments and will be big assets to the club next season.
DSWFC Matchday Squads
Thunder ⚡: Mark Cope (GK) | Darren Snell (c) | Darren Wheeler | Alan Martin | Simon Cooke | Gary Craig | Martin Ball | Ian Potter
Storm 🌪: Billy Bulloch (GK) | Paul Gillis (c) | Simon Baker | Simon Allen | Chris Short | Nick Webb | Andy Madden
Tournament Story: Dexters Storm
Storm started the day with a strong performance against the league runners-up, Dorchester. We held them to 0-0 and even caused them some problems. As the end of the match drew close, our walking discipline finally let us down when a fourth non-walking offence saw us concede a penalty and the match 1-0. An encouraging performance, but a deflating outcome. But at least we learned our lesson about walking… didn’t we?!
Were we guilty of complacency, or maybe we were hungover after the disappointing final throes of the opening match? Whatever the reason, our performance against Sherborne in match two was poor. They took their chances well and kept the work rate up to see us off 2-0.
Our third match of the day was the final match of the season for Weymouth. Again, we just didn’t turn up and our confidence was badly affected by the first two results. We went down 3-0 without even a whimper really – very disappointing.
After a much needed 30 minute break, we had our work cut out against the newly crowned league champions, Bournemouth. It seemed the break had done us no good at all and we were taken apart 4-0 by a high-flying, confident side. Four losses, no goals and ten conceded – today was not going well, and next up… Dexters Thunder!
Tournament Story: Dexters Thunder
Thunder’s day started with a confidence building performance against Amesbury. Alan (Martin) scored a goal in his debut match for Dexters and a highly creditable 1-1 draw was looking possible. However, Amesbury found a way through and a 2-1 defeat was an unfortunate outcome to a really great performance.
The squad Thunder took to this tournament was probably its strongest so far (there was also a debut for Martin Ball), which is what made the 6-0 humbling by Bournemouth something of a shame. However, in isolation, the league champions beating a team who would concede over 50 goals in the season was hardly a surprise. The less said about this result the better!
Prior to the tournament the match against Sherborne was definitely one that had been marked as a potential three points. As it turned out, Sherborne had one of their most successful days of the season, picking up nine points, including the win against Storm earlier in the day and this 1-0 win against Thunder. After this match, Thunder had some time to recover ahead of their clash against Storm.
Tournament Story: Thunder vs Storm
Of course, this is the first season Dexter’s entered two 50s teams into the Dorset Walking Football League. This was the third meeting of Thunder & Storm this season. The previous two meetings had ended in relatively comfortable wins for Storm. This time though, Thunder were fielding their strongest squad of the season so far…
Match report: Thunder vs Storm
Our two teams entered the very final fixture of the season in different frames of mind. Although results hadn’t gone Thunder’s way they’d been competitive and had a strong lineup. While on the other hand, Storm’s confidence was possibly at its lowest ebb all season after a particularly poor day.
In the previous two meetings of the season, Storm had secured comfortable wins of 4-0 and 3-0. But this match, was to be quite different.
Thunder scored their first goal against their compadres in the opening half when Gary (Craig) sidestepped his marker before placing his shot past Billy (Bulloch) in goal. The first half was an open affair with Storm’s Simon Allen spurning a brace of one-on-one’s with Mark in Thunder’s goal.
The second half was also wide open, with players from both sides taking liberties with how fast they were travelling. Clearly Storm hadn’t learnt their lesson from the opening match of the day, and it would be their undoing in this one as well!
But before that, Thunder managed to rack up four non-walking offences, which allowed Nick (Webb) the opportunity to level from the spot. But just minutes later hero became villain when Nick himself was punished for running – the fourth in this match for Storm, which handed a gilt edged opportunity to Thunder to go ahead once again.
Gary duly despatched the spotkick, beating Billy for the second time and registering his third goal of the season. Thunder got the result their performance in this match, commitment on the day and improvement over the last half of the season deserved.
The result also lifted Thunder off the foot of the league table.
Dexter’s Tournament Results
| Dexters Thunder ⚡ | W1-D0-L3 |
|---|---|
| Amesbury | 1-2 |
| Bournemouth | 0-6 |
| Sherborne | 0-1 |
| Dexters Storm | 2-1 |
| Dexters Storm 🌪 | W0-D0-L5 |
|---|---|
| Dorchester | 0-1 |
| Sherborne | 0-2 |
| Weymouth | 0-3 |
| Bournemouth | 0-4 |
| Dexters Thunder | 1-2 |
DSWFC 50s: Player Stats
In the 2024/25 league season, 26 players represented DSWFC at league tournaments. Of those, five players attended all six events: Simons Allen and Baker, Billy Bulloch in goal for Storm, and the two captains, Paul Gillis and Darren Snell. The top scorer between the two squads was Luke Hitchen with ten from four tournaments (all for Storm).
| Player | Tournaments | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| Allen, Simon | 6 | 1 |
| Bacall, Dave | 1 | |
| Baker,Simon | 6 | |
| Ball, Martin | 1 | |
| Bulloch, Billy | 6 | |
| Cooke, Simon | 1 | |
| Cope, Mark | 4 | |
| Craig, Gary | 2 | 3 |
| Gillis, Paul | 6 | |
| Gorridge, Neil | 3 | |
| Hitchen, Luke | 4 | 10 |
| Kahraman, Cengiz | 1 | |
| Kay, Mark | 5 | 3 |
| Kelly, Mark | 3 | |
| Lodge, Dave | 3 | 1 |
| Madden, Andy | 5 | |
| Martin, Alan | 1 | 1 |
| Potter, Ian | 5 | |
| Ryan, Mike | 3 | |
| Short, Chris | 5 | |
| Shute, Andy | 4 | |
| Snell, Darren | 6 | 4 |
| Webb, Nick | 2 | 1 |
| Wheeler, Darren | 4 | |
| Whittingham, Andy | 1 | |
| Wilson, Andy | 1 |
League Overview
Why not take a look at the league tables, including all results and history for the 50s, 60s and 65s (since the 2022/23 season).
Future dates
DSWFC plan to send both 50s teams to the Dorset Walking Football League Cup on Sunday 8 June at our own ground, County Ground, Hamworthy (kick-off at midday).
Get in touch
The physical and mental health benefits of regular exercise are well known. If you’re interested in playing football in a friendly, safety first environment, get in touch with Dexter Sports Walking Football Club now…
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