AND DID THOSE FEET IN ANCIENT TIMES....

Yesterday was the anniversary of England winning the World Cup in 1966. Where were you? I was in John Bartlett's house in Rectory Close during the game and jumped out of his sitting room window on to his lawn in celebration after the game. My dad was in our house, two doors down and we phoned each other when ever a goal was scored. It was hot, sunny and a great afternoon for us “mid teenagers”.

It's been a long haul since then, but with a fair wind and looking at the draw we may qualify for the next one. Hooray.

Alf Ramsey was the man who changed English fortunes and he got his team, as he predicted openly and some say arrogantly, to the final and won it. He was a curious individual, no mean player and clearly somebody who was tough but loyal to his players. Ramsey was picked by the FA to run the England team having had success with modest Ipswich Town, taking them to the First Division Championship (in those days the top division) the year after they won the Second Division title in 1961. He was on a roll so the FA hope this would inspire the national team.

He was a small, unfashionable figure who became national team leader in May 1963. He ran his team as he would a league side and stood no nonsense from the star players. The likes of Greaves and Moore had a reputation of play boys!

He also favoured team men rather than individuals and hence it was Jimmy Greaves who got the chop during the finals in England. Greaves was suffering from an injury also which gave Ramsey a good excuse to bring in a team man like Geoff Hurst. The West Ham link was obviously a major factor in the team's success.

So it was his wingless wonders with an engine room of Charlton, Stiles, Ball and Peters that won the cup.

Preparing for the finals, the team was holed up for 18 days at Lilleshall, an FA facility in the Shropshire countryside. They played non-contact games like table tennis, their one break of freedom was at a local golf club where Ramsey bought them all halves of beer, bedtime was 9pm sharp and there were endless cowboy films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid which they never saw the end of because the projector broke down. Geoff Hurst admitted in the 1990 that he never knew the ending of the film until then!

They changed room partners almost daily, so no cliques developed, they learned how to clip their toenails and look after their feet and endured a rigorous training regime.

It paid off!