Alan Snelling (OB 1960-67) writes to us with news that, although it has taken a while, he has been finally been selected for the England Football Squad:
Slow developer gets into Team – eventually!
During my time at BGS, England won the World Cup and there were great celebrations and, of course, dreams of playing for England were in everyone’s mind; however, in my final years at BGS, I never even managed to get into the football First Team XI.
The sports master (Mr. Booth) told me that there would need to be several injuries to current players for me to get into the team. As a result, I immediately adopted a new ‘direct contact’ style of playing football in weekday ‘House’ matches which nearly paid off as I became a ‘reserve’ for just one match. There then followed 25 enjoyable years of playing for Old Bordenians which I managed to do between overseas trips.
Family, career, and ageing – plus England’s miserable performance since winning that World Cup – put paid to those dreams of playing for England. But two years ago, a friend encouraged me to play football again. I joined the Kent over 65’s football team (real 11-a-side matches, not walking football.) It is hard and demands a fitness routine in order to survive.
In September 2024, I was selected for a trial for the official England over 75 team. There followed more trials in early 2025 and I am now pleased to report that I am a squad member for the team ! To get into the actual Team will require even more hard work, and this time I will not be trying to injure current team players!
England over 75’s are the current World Champions and there are tournaments in Japan and Thailand later this year.
Fingers crossed!
Alan
