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The football World Cup started in 1930 with the first competition held in Uruguay and won by Uruguay. Four years later the competition was held in Italy and won by Italy (I see a theme developing here) but in 1938 the competition was held in France, won by Italy again and France ruined my theme by not even getting into the last four.
Nothing happened again till 1950 when the competition restarted in Brazil, was won by Uruguay but Brazil were runners-up. The 1954 competition was held in Switzerland, who followed the earlier French example of getting nowhere and it was won by West Germany. Germany was divided in two at the time with the eastern part being part of the Soviet bloc of nations, behind Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain. In 1958 Sweden hosted the tournament, Brazil won but Sweden came second and in 1962 Brazil won again with the matches played in Chile who duly finished third.
The host for 1966 was England and there was much hope that we might, for the first time, reach the semi-final stage. Early matches were staged at grounds all over England. England did even better than reaching the semi-finals, they won their semi-final match against Portugal and, on 30 July 1966, England met West Germany before a crowd of 96,924 at Wembley Stadium. Not only were there nearly 100,000 people watching at the ground but another 32.3 million people watched it live on TV. This is still the highest ever audience for a TV programme. Everyone wanted to see England win and I am sure that hardly any home in Britain did not have its TV on that Saturday afternoon.
My sister and I were part of that mass, sitting, for good luck and superstition, with a small World Cup Willie mascot on the arm of the chair. It had been there for all England's other matches. Eventually, after extra time and moments of high drama, England won 4-2. Since then, England have only reached the last four on one other occasion in Italy in 1990. The manager then was Sir Bobby Robson who had managed Ipswich Town for 13 years before becoming England manager. The manager in 1966 was Sir Alf Ramsey who had managed Ipswich Town for 8 years before becoming England manager. Just saying.
My parents, who didn't like football much, went out shopping that Saturday afternoon in Harrow. The shops were very empty, they said, when they got back.
Forward to 1967AD
