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8 - Pre-Tournament John Cave: tickets the old-fashioned way

In 1966 the world of football was completely different to the 2013 version. Ok, players were no longer walking to the ground in order to train but the sport had yet to become the gruesome behemoth that it has now morphed into!

I had just moved from Leeds after College to start my first job in ‘that there London’ and had met, and married my wife and we were expecting our first child by the time that the 1966 World Cup rolled into town. We were living in a bedsit in West London, I was working at Heathrow on the construction of Terminal 3, and I was playing for a local side in Greenford, generally trying my best not to be home sick, especially as my home town football team - Leeds United - were now doing so well for the first time in history.

In the lead up to the tournament itself I had been to Wembley to watch England in their warm up games and was really proud that players such as Jack Charlton, Norman Hunter and Alan Peacock from my unfashionable, new kids on the block club were now being selected on a regular basis by Alf Ramsey – the taciturn England manager - so that there was a chance that Leeds United would now be represented on a global scale.

The FA announced details of how to buy the tickets for games and this fact alone describes how different things were then to as they are now. I suspect that the main way was just to apply to the various ticket agencies and then you were able to get a book of tickets either for a particular group of games or for one particular country, including the knock out stages. Another method was to walk up to Wembley Stadium itself where there was a wooden kiosk selling tickets for any of the games –including amazingly the Final itself. Obviously being young and also newly-wed money was an issue so I could not buy all those that I would have liked to. After much thought I decided to buy terrace tickets for the showpiece opening game against Uruguay at Wembley, England’s group game against France and the also one for the Final itself. It was as simple as that, there was no queuing involved and I could have chosen as many matches as I wanted to!! I remember that the price of the World Cup Final ticket was a lot of money for me - 10/6p – 52.5p in today’s money!!!

England had been awarded the 1948 Olympic Games and because the Second World War had left the country under rationing and war damaged, were widely known as the ‘Austerity Games’; so the award of 1966 World Cup tournament to London was the first global event that we had staged that could properly showcase our country to the world. The Beatles and Rolling Stones, Carnaby Street and mini-skirts and now the World Cup, caused the rest of the world to turn its attention to London. The swinging 60’s was in full swing (pun intended) as the expectation and excitement in the country, and especially in the capital, began to grow. The FA embarrassingly lost, and then found, the iconic trophy itself and Pickles the dog who found it achieved instant fame and became a staple answer in quiz questions for years to come.

The opening game of the Tournament was against Uruguay and frankly the long drawn out ceremony before the action stated was more exciting than the match itself. However it did not take away from me the feeling that by just attending I was a part, albeit small, of football history. Some 0-0 draws can be exciting tense affairs - but not this one, it was a total bore draw with both sides intent on not losing, thus protecting their favourite rankings to get through into the knock out stages.

In the remaining Group games Uruguay had only managed a draw against Mexico, whilst Roger Hunt’s 2 goals against France were sufficient to see England top the group and move into the quarter finals without too many problems.

The Quarter and Semi finals against Argentina and Portugal respectively were thrilling affairs that my wife and I watched on TV from our bedsit in Bedford Park. The Semi Final was very tense, especially knowing that I had a precious ticket for the Final itself and that England might actually feature!

John Cave

Memory added on January 25, 2016

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