Mac McKechnie was determined to get fit after a serious illness at 67. But when ‘walking football’ proved too fast, he decided to reinvent cricket to suit people up to the age of 100 – and beyond
fter a busy, varied career, Mac McKechnie was keen to prepare for retirement. Following a spell in the army, he had worked for a charity and in offender management, and enjoyed “seven very happy years as a magician and children’s entertainer”. At 66, he was contemplating life after finishing his “high-pressure” job managing mental health services in Wakefield. “I know a lot of people who become almost reclusive when they retire, because they’ve got nothing to do,” he says.
“That was OK,” he says, “until sepsis got me.” In 2018, McKechnie was hospitalised and became extremely ill. “Sepsis affects all of your organs – it’s not a good thing at all. To be honest, it was a close shave.” Weak, but starting to work on his recovery, McKechnie mulled over the consultant’s advice that he should lose some weight and get fitter. “I discounted ‘lose a bit of weight’ – they always say that! But I thought I could be a bit fitter, yeah.
McKechnie investigated what sports U3A offered and tried a “walking football” session. It was not a success, not least because the players weren’t actually walking. “They were running around like lunatics. When I picked myself up for the third time, I thought: ‘I wish that was my sport – cricket.’” McKechnie had played to a good level in the army and later in a local league.
When McKechnie had a concept sketched out, he canvassed interest from U3A members near him in Barnsley. “On a very cold, wet 5 January 2019”, when McKechnie was 68, walking cricket was born. “Obviously, I was nervous it wouldn’t work. We never knew how it would go until it started. But people just seemed to love it. It was an immediate hit.
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