01/06/2026
What a day: blistering heat, brilliant teamwork, and absolutely no running (well, OK, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad)!
Saturday morning’s walking football event at Ruston's Sports and Barckicked off the Club’s 2-day Stuart Waters-Manning Memorial Tournament, and delivered on all fronts across two well-contested competitions.
Here’s the run-down:
⚽ The Women’s Competition
Give it up for Lincoln's Ladies! Stepping onto the pitch for their very first tournament, they understandably had a few pre-match butterflies. But thanks to some top-tier coaching and borderline-fanatical support from Ryan, those nerves soon evaporated. They settled in, grew in confidence, and battled like seasoned pros.
The Invictus Inclusive Ladies found themselves short a couple of players on the day, but did that stop them? Not a chance. Armed with a rotating "rent-a-player" courtesy of Lincoln City Foundation, they put in a monumental shift. The heat definitely put them at a disadvantage, but the way this makeshift squad pulled together to work for each other was nothing short of inspiring. Hold your heads high, ladies!
Hats off, too, to the Leverington Lionesses, who grabbed the runner-up spot after dropping only two games all day. Amazingly, this team was formed less than a year ago and includes players with a whole range of footballing abilities. Led by their coach, Dan, they showed fantastic team spirit throughout. A brilliant performance!
And that leaves us with the winners of the ladies' competition: a huge congratulations to Lincoln City Foundation 🏆 They didn't just win all their games; they threw away the keys to their goal. Zero goals conceded. An absolute brick wall of a performance! Well done, ladies!
🏃♂️ The Over 50s v the Nowhere Near 50s Competition
With just days to go, two Over 50s teams had pulled out, leaving Invictus 50s and Ruskington 50s staring at a very short fixture list. Enter the heroes of the hour: two of our open-age Pan disability teams who valiantly stepped into the breach: Invictus Reds and Invictus Black!
If you thought the Pan players would struggle with the whole "no running" rule, you were sorely mistaken. Despite some having never played the walking version of football, they adapted in a flash. The attitude and the respect they showed, not just to the officials, their older opponents and each other, but also to the game, was an example to us all.
They made the 50s teams work for every single blade of grass (yes, the real thing, not 3G). None of the games were a walk in the park, and the tournament was decided by the finest of margins, ultimately coming down to the last game.
In the dying moments of the tournament, Invictus Reds managed to clutch a vital win, while Invictus 50s could only muster a draw.
That meant Invictus Reds finished with a point more than Invictus 50s, which saw them crowned the victors—a crushing blow to Invictus 50s. To rub salt in the wound, as they posed for photos with their winners and runners-up trophies, Lincoln (leading the Reds) was overheard bragging to Invictus 50s captain, Trevor, "Mine’s bigger than yours!" Seriously, Lincoln—there’s a time and a place...
Moving swiftly on...Officiating walking football is no easy gig. So, well done to our whistle-blowers for the day: Marcus, Shirl, Richard, Trevor, and Steve, who oversaw proceedings with calm authority.
A huge thank you to everyone who played, coached, loaned players, ref'd, and stepped in at the last minute to make it a fantastic morning of walking football!
https://www.lincolninvictus.co.uk/
