Clive Wilkes has taken up the whistle again… and there’s not been a VAR in sight!

But before anyone gets too carried away, the one-time top referee, sadly, has not been able to roll back the years and take charge of matches in the Premier League.

Instead, if you want to see the now 63-year-old running a game of football as it should be run, you need to get yourself down to the leisure centre in Newent.

Strictly speaking, it’s walking football, and not football that Wilkes has been officiating games in and there’s certainly been none of the pressure that he experienced during a 19-year career at the highest levels of the game that saw him referee more than 770 games in the Football League and Premier League.

“They’ve been playing walking football at the leisure centre for about 18 months,” said Wilkes, who lives in Corse. “I started playing there about a year ago, but then I injured my knee in March when I was out on a training run and I had to have a cartilage operation in December.”

But Wilkes, who is president of the North Gloucestershire Football League, wanted to stay involved and a ‘little’ knee problem wasn’t going to stop him enjoying a sport that he’d only recently discovered.

“When I first heard about walking football I did chuckle,” admitted Wilkes, “but there’s more to it than meets the eye.

“Although you’re walking, you’re stretching all the time.

“And you have to play the ball to feet, you can’t play it in front of someone.

“When I first played, the most difficult thing was to stop yourself running!”

The reffing has come more easily to him, of course.

“I try to encourage he players to pass and move, and play with the ball on the ground,” he said.

The games at Freedom Leisure Newent in Watery Lane attract about 15 people and are played for fun.

“Most of the chaps are in their 50s or 60s but we’ve got one player who is 19 and another who is 73,” said Wilkes.

“We tend to play five-a-side and it’s really good for them. They play 10 minutes on and five minutes off but when they come off they’re dripping!”

After hanging up his whistle in 2003, Wilkes refereed a handful of charity games but this is the first time he has taken charge of games for the first time for the best part of 14 years. So how has he enjoyed it?

“Very much,” he said. “Mind you, some of these old boys have still got the old competitiveness. You can soon tell if someone was a good player or if they were a stopper.

“It can get a bit physical even though it’s meant to be non-physical.”

Wilkes doesn’t carry any yellow – or red! – cards but added: “There have been a couple of deliberate trips, I think I’ll have to introduce a sin bin!”