{"id":718726,"date":"2026-07-30T08:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718726\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T08:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T08:14:17","slug":"englands-1966-world-cup-heroes-were-fun-humble-and-unlike-todays-stars-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/718726\/","title":{"rendered":"England\u2019s 1966 World Cup heroes were fun, humble and unlike today\u2019s stars | England"},"content":{"rendered":"

With each passing World Cup<\/a> I am reminded of the times I spent in the company of those wonderful \u201cBoys of 66\u201d. What a privilege it was getting to know them in a much simpler era when, unlike today\u2019s mollycoddled stars, household names remained unaffected by money and fame.<\/p>\n

Where were you on 30 July 1966, the day England<\/a> won the World Cup? I was at my nan and grandad\u2019s house. They had a minute television which seemed no bigger than a matchbox. Intermittently the picture, which was in black and white, would roll around the screen. It was infuriating. My grandad talked about needing to get the \u201chorizontal hold fixed\u201d (unless you are of a certain age you will need to Google that). I was nine years old.<\/p>\n

Thirty years (of hurt) on from that final, there was a knock at my front door. It was a surreal experience to see Geoff Hurst standing on my doorstep and even more bizarre as he went to one end of my front room and stood behind the settee. I went to the other end and sat on a chair.<\/p>\n

Geoff, England\u2019s World Cup hat-\u200atrick hero, had come to my house to rehearse his after-dinner speech. The settee acted as a makeshift top table. I was the only member of his audience.<\/p>\n

His performance began. \u201cI was at Paddington station one day and a chap came running up to me and said, \u2018Geoff, Geoff, I\u2019ve been waiting 20 years to meet you, I know exactly where I was that day in 1966 when you scored your hat-trick.\u2019 \u2018Where was that?\u2019 asked Geoff. \u2018Pentonville prison,\u2019 replied the man. \u2018We were so happy we smashed the cell up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Geoff Hurst, shown speaking at an FA gala dinner in 2013, is a natural performer. Photograph: WPA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

I had written some of Geoff\u2019s script and I helped him with his presentation, but he quickly became a natural performer.<\/p>\n

Another of Geoff\u2019s stories provides a fascinating insight into how the manager, Alf Ramsey<\/a>, made sure his players never became complacent. In one England match Hurst played in, after the World Cup final, the players returned to the team hotel. They said their goodbyes and Hurst turned to Ramsey and said: \u201cSee you next time Alf.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps, Geoff, perhaps,\u201d replied Ramsey. Geoff said it was a comment that really made him think that, despite scoring a hat-trick, his place wasn\u2019t guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Ramsey\u2019s starting salary as England manager was \u00a34,500 a year rising to a maximum of \u00a35,000. He also asked the Football Association to help him buy a house.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, and for many years afterwards, there was a huge circuit of sporting dinners. They were often in the north of England and held at the traditional working men\u2019s clubs. Many of the 1966 England team were regular performers. Unlike today\u2019s Premier League stars, who earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a month the \u201cBoys of 66\u201d supplemented their income by performing on the circuit, which is where I got to know them.<\/p>\n

Bobby Charlton raises the Jules Rimet trophy in the air after the 1966 final at Wembley. Photograph: Hulton Archive\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sometimes they would do their own routines, on other occasions I would interview them and tee them up for their anecdotes. On stage one night I said to Jack Charlton: \u201cJack, how\u2019s your brother Bobby?\u201d Bobby could sometimes be very serious and he didn\u2019t smile very often. \u201cNot great\u201d replied Jack. \u201cOh, why\u2019s that?\u201d I enquired. \u201cWell, he\u2019s now been banned from his local pub, the landlord said he didn\u2019t want him there during the happy hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those England players were involved in English sport\u2019s greatest day but you would never have known. They didn\u2019t act like unapproachable superstars. If I left a message on their home answerphone they would call straight back. It was so different to the majority of football personalities I tried to interview in later years for the BBC.<\/p>\n

Some of the events I worked at with the 1966 team were for amateur football clubs. We would be part of the entertainment alongside a tribute act, or a local comedian. The evening would sometimes start with a game of bingo. One dinner was very different. I was asked by the Institute of Directors to host a show and book as many of the England team as possible for a corporate lunch in London. I waited in the green room and they started filling in. It was like being in a dream and I imagined I was in the Wembley dressing room. In they trooped: George Cohen, Ray Wilson, Nobby Stiles, Hurst, Roger Hunt, Alan Ball, Martin Peters, Bobby and Jack Charlton, and for good measure BBC TV\u2019s Kenneth Wolstenholme, who delivered the greatest commentary line in the history of sports broadcasting.<\/p>\n

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Stiles was a great raconteur. One of his favourite anecdotes was based around the game England played against Argentina in the quarter-final. Before the match, Nobby, the hard man of the team, was taken to one side by Ramsey. \u201cNobby, Argentina\u2019s best player is Antonio Ratt\u00edn, I want you to mark Ratt\u00edn,\u201d said Ramsey. After a perfectly timed pause Nobby delivered the punchline: \u201cAlf, do you want me to mark him for the match or for his entire life?\u201d<\/p>\n

England\u2019s manager Alf Ramsey (left) celebrates his team\u2019s 4-2 victory over West Germany with the captain, Bobby Moore, and Nobby Stiles. Photograph: Keystone\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was a story that brought the house down.<\/p>\n

In 1982 I was asked by Ian Thomas, my editor at BBC Radio Sport, to meet Ramsey at Liverpool Street station. Ramsey had been booked by the BBC to give his reaction to the draw for the 1982 World Cup finals. He immediately reminded me of Captain Mainwaring from Dad\u2019s Army. He spoke with a posh voice, in clipped tones, and came across as a very serious man. I was just 24 years old, and I couldn\u2019t believe my luck.<\/p>\n

These were very different times. I still find it incredible that, on the morning of the 1966 final, Peters told me that, \u201ctime seemed to be dragging\u201d so some of the players went shopping on Hendon\u2019s high street. And after England\u2019s win at Wembley the FA arranged an evening banquet for the players but, astonishingly, their wives were not invited. The players were very angry and when the dinner finished Hurst told me that he and several of the other players and their wives headed to Danny La Rue\u2019s cabaret club.<\/p>\n

How times have changed and how lucky was I knowing the 1966 team? They were humble and really fun to be with and I still find it incredible that I spent so many great times with them.<\/p>\n

Garry Richardson presents a special 1966 World Cup anniversary programme on Boom Radio on 30 July <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With each passing World Cup I am reminded of the times I spent in the company of those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-718726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=718726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}