Colm O'Regan: I love the mindlessness of five-a-side football
Colm O'Regan: I have NEVER worried while playing five-a-side'
It’s good to be back. It’s an exclusive club. The location is known but the line up changes from week to week and the final list is a mystery till the very end. There’s very limited capacity. But at the allotted time, we turn up. In our best gear. Or whatever is dry. All of us are ready. For shouting, panting, some grappling. The cage is opened. In we go. Not the MMA, no there’s no eight-hour podcast, protein supplement, have-I-told-you-about-my-whiskey vibe here. And it’s not One Of Those Clubs. I’m not gyrating in a cage suspended above the dance floor, an embodiment of the patrons’ unspeakable fever dreams.
It’s just five-a-side football on astroturf. On footpaths people are running but in cages there are others. A drone flying across the dark winter sky would see hundreds of these small glowing patches of green. Filled with people in various stages of fitness, darting around, summoned by email list or WhatsApp group.
