Sixty years on from Wembley glory
It is 60 years since the greatest moment in our footballing history - and one man can remember it like it was yesterday.
Hat-trick hero Sir Geoff Hurst says he is still stopped everywhere he goes with people keen to share their memories of the World Cup final - July 30, 1966 - when his life changed forever.
They remember Kenneth Wolstenholme's iconic commentary line:
"Some people are on the pitch! They think it's all over... it is now!"
Fans, the families of the '66 heroes, and legends of the game have told the Mirror of their memories of the epic encounter against our old rivals.
Sir Geoff met with fans from that era who are now living in Hendon Hall, a residential home, at a Budweiser event in London. Hendon Hall was the hotel where the England team stayed before the final back in '66.
Sir Geoff, 84, told the Mirror:
"I still get stopped all the time by fans who tell me what they were doing on the day we won the World Cup. I have such great admiration and feeling for those who remember the game and the day. I meet people on a regular basis and see how significant the day was. "It is an honour to meet the fans who were at Wembley on the day. You realise, even now, what a huge part it played in their lives and how they remember it."
Jack and Bobby Charlton were feted with an open top limousine ride when they returned to their hometown, Ashington, Northumberland. Their dad Bob was working a shift down the pit for both the quarter-final against Argentina and the semi-final against Portugal. For the final, the Mirror paid for Bob and his wife Cissie - the football-loving mum of the Charltons - to travel to Wembley to see the match. But their late brother Gordon, a merchant seaman, listened the final on a ship in Singapore.
Manchester Utd legend Nobby Stiles was convinced he was going to be dropped for the game, before Sir Alf Ramsey assured him that he was in the team. His wife Kay, who still lives in the family home in Manchester, was worried about him missing out right up until the day before the final.
Nobby's son John, 62, of Doncaster, said his dad saw a sign held up by fans saying 'Nobby for Prime Minister' on the way to Wembley, which team mate Alan Ball pointed out to him.
He recalled:
"He told my mum that he was convinced he was going to be dropped. The TV pundits were all saying that he should be dropped after the Argentina game. He thought the country was against him. "Then at training Sir Alf came up to him, and Dad was convinced he was going to be dropped. But he just said: "You are playing tomorrow.' He later discovered the FA had called him in and told him to drop my dad, but he refused and said he would resign. "On the way to Wembley, Alan Ball nudged him and about 100 Cockneys held a sign that read, 'Nobby for Prime Minister'. So he felt 10ft tall when Alan pointed that sign out to him."
John added:
"Wherever dad went on the after-dinner speaking circuit, people wanted to tell him what they were doing on the day that he danced with the World Cup trophy. They would say 'do you know where I was?', as if my dad was supposed to know. But he never left without signing an autograph or posing for a picture for the fans who wanted to meet him."
Peter Laurence, now a resident in Hendon Hall, was on a Dover to Calais ferry listening to the final on a transistor radio.
He recalled:
"We were driving to southern Italy. I never thought that they were going to get to the final and Geoff said: 'You bloody coward!' I was very peeved when they got there."
England scored the winner as they got into port in Calais.
"We jumped up and down like dervishes, got into a local hostelry where we proceeded to get hammered and we met some Germans. We put our arms around each other. It was the German equivalent of entente cordiale."
