CityLife

England 1966 World Cup Winners Theatre Show

England 1966 World Cup Winners 
Bridgewater Hall 
May 3, 2010

In the run-up to the 2010 World Cup, eight of England’s 1966 winning team were reunited last night to relive past glory. For those of us old enough to remember the thrill of that famous victory, the mere sight of these men walking onto the stage was enough to uplift us.

Forty four years on, those youthful footballers still bear the aura of national pride. Introduced by the irrepressible Jimmy Greaves, the most prolific goalscorer in our history, with 464 goals in 657 games (three goals in every four games for England), “the lads”, as he called them, treated the audience to tales of yore.

The roll-call resonates – Gordon Banks, George Cohen, Ray Wilson, Nobby Stiles, Jack Charlton, Roger Hunt, Sir Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. And they paid heartfelt tributes to the missing three – inspirational caption Bobby Moore and the youngest member of the team at 20, Alan Ball, both deceased, and, of course, Sir Bobby Charlton, otherwise engaged.

Billed somewhat misguidedly as a “theatre show”, this was more like an informal, off-the-cuff old boys’ reunion, albeit with a devoted audience just pleased to be there. Anecdotes were shared and jokes told (a warning about bad language would not have been out of place).

The heroes genially recalled some of the highlights of the Final and the discipline of the times (certainly no WAGs in those days). Manchester United’s Nobby Stiles paid particular tribute to England’s talismanic gentleman-manager, Sir Alf Ramsey. “We’d have died for him,” he said. “Without him we would never have won the World Cup.”

My own claim to fame is that I went to the same school (Farnworth Grammar) as that other local hero, Alan Ball, as did Kenneth Wolstenholme, whose commentary – “They think it’s all over – it is now” – lives on.

Who was the best player they’d ever played against? They nominated Pele, Di Stefano, Cliff Jones, John Charles and Maradonna.

As to England’s chances in the 2010 World Cup, Jack Charlton, bemoaning the number of foreign players in the Premier League and the lack of opportunity for young English players, said: “If we don’t win this year, we never will again.”

Dare we look forward to 2050, when the likes of Wayne Rooney & Co, bald, bespectacled and overweight, take to the stage to recall another famous England World Cup victory?

Tweet