A page recognising Greendown Veterans Football Club. What we do, some pictures and how to find us.
History. The Greendown Vets Football Club was founded in November 1995 [sic Peter Bailey]. Membership began for players old enough to remember when England won the World Cup – i.e. born before July 30th 1966, but as the years have gone on and memories have faded, this restriction has been relaxed to include younger players. We are available for fixtures and happy to entertain local or even international opponents.
We held several tournaments from 1998 to 2002 – Why not try the quiz from the 1998 event.
We play every Thursday evening all year at Greendown School, starting at 8:00pm for 90 minutes.
Benchy. We play indoor 5-a-side football with a difference. Greendown school do not provide goals with nets. Rather than use the painted lines on the walls as goals we use the 3.4m balance benches instead. We found it was surprisingly difficult to hit the face of a bench on it’s side. We saw that it was a possible tactic to simply try and hit the bench from anywhere on the pitch, so a player is only allowed to score from within the traditional semi-circle goalkeeper area.
But, we have no goalkeepers, and any-one (or two or three!) can stand in front of the bench to stop a goal being scored. In practice it is always possible to score, and we have not needed to impose formal rules preventing lying down in front of the bench. Together, these rules place an emphass on skill, there is no argument about who has the next turn as a goalkeeper, and although we debate did the ball hit the face of the bench, or was the player in the area we have very few problems. The ball is dead and is given to the defence if it gets lodged behind the bench. It is not a goal if the ball bounces on top of the bench or hits the side and returns at a less than 90 degree angle, but a shot clipping the top of the bench is a goal. A ‘one-step only’ penalty is awarded for infringements in the area, at which point a goalkeeper is elected. The ball can travel above head height. Should the ball hit a hand or arm anyone can shout ‘handball’, at which point a committee meeting is held as play continues, votes taken, and in true Corinthian spirit, the claimant ignored until they stop bleating. We would love to hear if anyone else plays similar rules, but we sincerely recommend BENCHY to any group of indoor footballers.
The Benchy World Cup
We have been holding yearly charity matches around Sport Relief time.
The winners are official Benchy World Cup champions. Well done to the tangerines ‘over the top’ Ollie, ‘patriarcial’ PeterC, ‘bigger than the rest of us’ Biz, ‘moody’ MattM & Lee ‘spot’ Palmer in 2018. With 14 attending, most of whom congregated at the Village Inn post tournament to send PeterB in to yet another boots-up retirement, £140 goes to our charity Papyrus with £20 going to Village Inn’s NeoNatal Raffle.
2025 Benchy World Cup. ‘resultgate’, but the winners as always are the charity we support, with 2024 here
Names#1: Pete,Dave,Steve,Andy,Mike,Ollie,PeteR,Andy
PeterC,Jules,PeterB,Andy,Bob,Lee
Does anyone remember ‘the biggest loser’ we tried to play a game and see who has put on weight?
The Bob Bright Award. As a tribute to one of our number, who died unexpectedly in 2015 we honour one of our members who have contributed to the culture of the club and represent the Corinthian ideals of the founder. Past Winners below
- 2016 Ant McMahon
- 2017 Tony Meacock
- 2018 Pete(R) Cejer – yes, we are both Peter not Pete !
- 2019 Dec Kelly
- 2020 Pete(R) Bailey
- 2021 Chris Lawniczak (we known it’s Christian not Christopher)
- 2022 Ollie ‘cowabunga’ Stobbs
- 2023 Martin FFS Wicks
- 2025 Peter Bailey – Legend
Famous Friends. That’ll be Roger and his daughter Jaz
Finances. The match fee rose to £6 in 2018, and £7 in 2023. £10 yearly membership is payable in January.
Golf. A traditional golf day was held on the Thursday of the Open Championship. The 2010 winner was Mike Hadland. 2012 winner Chris Lawniczak
Contact Peter on 07798-707999, pcejer@gmail.com. In 2024 we are on our third administrator at the school which began with Mandy, then Tracy and now Vicki who look after us, on 758848. Greendown School is now called Lydiard Park Academy 874224.
2023 sees teams picked by ChatGPT, there is a very active FPL group all keen to dissect/forecast the Premier League. We are even looking at proposals for a club crest.
Back to June 1998 of course
