There’s a special place in my life for sport and the sport I chose to set my life beat to is Hockey, for any yanks reading I mean the proper version that used to be on grass and now takes place on astroturf, not the silly game with over macho thugs pretending that fighting whilst covered in excessive body armour so nothing hurts and sliding around on ice.
I started playing hockey whilst still in school, my school didn’t do hockey for lads but I took it up on the advice of a neighbour, Mike Braithwaite (great hockey player and all round top guy!), I trained with Cardiff HC for a few weeks but swiftly moved to Whitchurch HC and eventually started getting picked for teams.
When I moved house to Penarth, a suburb of Cardiff, I moved to Penarth HC and made it to Captain the club under the helpful and watchful eye of the immortal Dave Pedwell, another amazing person who dedicated his life to promoting the game and improving the players around him, the sort of fella that should be recognised in the honours list!
I moved back to Whitchurch village in Cardiff and so, at the same time I moved back to Whitchuch HC to play at my highest level in my career.
My next house move took me to Bridport, at first for the first year I continued to play for Whitchurch HC but I moved to Bridport Hawks HC and again became captain and their highest scorer for a few seasons. Local newspapers called me “Goal King Walkden” not that I’m boasting.
My next house move took me to Weymouth, I trained with them once and was selected for the second team for my first game. Friday night before the game I took a phone call promoting me to the first team as someone had called in sick and i said ok, I’d played left back for quite a few seasons for Whitchurch so I knew I’d do ok. That was my position for then 4 seasons, until I got so old I couldn’t keep up with the rest of the people on the pitch.
I was Chairman of the club for 2 years then decided to call it a day…….so far….