Walking Football All-Stars will attempt to avenge a crushing defeat against Bermuda College when the two sides square off on Thursday in only the second walking football match to be played on the island.

The game, which is being played in conjunction with Bermuda College’s Spring Spirit Week of activities at Paget campus, features All-Stars seeking revenge after a heavy 9-3 loss against their rivals last year.

Their players are determined to set the record straight heading into the exhibition contest, which kicks off at Bermuda College Gymnasium at 1pm.

“Bermuda College won last year so All-Stars are looking for revenge,” Leroy “Curly” Wilson, founder of Curly’s Walking Football Club, told The Royal Gazette.

“But Bermuda College intends to retain the champion status they convincingly earned last year.”

The All-Stars team features former Devonshire Colts and Boulevard players Johnny Robinson and Mitchelle Trott, while former Dandy Town player Joey Weeks will lace up for the All-Stars.

“The players have been working hard and are really excited for this match and about playing against one another,” Wilson added.

“It is CWFC’s vision to make this match or a match of this kind an annual event at the college, and we encourage Bermuda College faculty and staff to come out and support the Bermuda College’s bid to retain their title as champions.”

Dennis Brown, the former Somerset Trojans and Bermuda captain, also plays in the CWFC programme but will be serving on the sideline as Bermuda College’s coach.

“It should be a good battle because the select team players have really improved since last year,” Brown said.

All-Stars are coached by Wilson, who will be serving solely as the referee on this occasion.

“I am the coach of All-Stars but I will be just the referee,” Wilson said.

“I told my players that it’s more about a showcase and not about going out there trying to beat one another up, which is going to happen. So that’s why we have to have a referee that controls things because this game is different.

The contest features two 3- minute halves of three-touch football with players not allowed to run.

“It’s no running and if you run it’s a foul,” Wilson said. “There are a lot of cautions because you have a red, yellow and a blue card so there are a lot of timeouts.

“It’s more like basketball and the game itself never stops because you’re playing off the walls and things like that. It’s not like where you’re on the field and have kick ins.”

Wilson was delighted to have staged the first walking football match on the island last year and is encouraged to see numbers steadily growing in the sport he introduced to the island in 2018.

“It feels really good to have made history last year because that was my goal,” he said.

“I had talked to Clyde Best when we were in England one time and said ‘when I go back home I am going to start this walking football’, so he was happy about it.

“We started off small, it was like maybe six players for about six months and then started to grow. Covid came and scrapped everything for two years but now we have gone from six players to at least 30 players.”

A parade will kick off proceedings at Bermuda College Gym at 12:45pm, with food and refreshments to be served at the end of the exhibition contest.