A NEW six-a-side football league has started for players of all ages and abilities on Monday nights.

Tavistock Leisure Leagues will take place at Tavistock College’s all weather pitches on Monday nights and is partly designed to help get men who may have stopped playing back into the game and improve their fitness.

A study conducted at Copenhagen University showed that a game of small sided football was more beneficial for competitors than a session in the gym. The Danish study, led by Professor Peter Krustrup, found that two groups of men performed equally well on a variety of fitness tests, even though one group had been training in the gym while the other had been doing battle on the five-a-side pitch.

The league kicked off on Monday night, with the first games designed to allow teams to teams acclimatise with the rules and let league organisers grade each team’s ability.