I had booked 4 tickets for the Royal Tournament at Earls Court for the evening. Realising later that it was Cup final day. So I rang my aunt who lived in Ascot to see if we could watch the match at her place, she agreed.
My wife worked in a local bank and had to work on Saturday morning. Of all the bad luck there was a discrepancy in the figures so all staff had to stay on to get it sorted, which they did, but caused a delay of over an hour and half, before we set off with our 2 friends. We listened to the first half in my little Mini, driving like a lunatic to Ascot. We arrived just as the half time whistle was blown. We sat to have a slap up meal moving into the lounge to watch the remainder of the game. When it was all over we headed for Earls Court, parking the car in Hyde Park underground car park.
Field Marshall Lord Montgomery took the salute to the strains of World Cup Willie, played by one of the Guards Regimental Bands. After collecting the car we tried to make our way home, only to get caught up in heavy traffic caused by people singing and dancing in the streets. We abandoned the car in a driveway between two office blocks and joined the throng dancing singing and hugging everyone around, even German supporters. We ended up in Trafalgar Square until the early hours then made our way home. It began to rain heavily, as we drove up a steep hill the rain got through the radiator intake, causing the engine to misfire and the water to wet the distributor. I had to turn the car around to get the engine running smoothly, we finished climbing the hill backwards.
Getting home around 05.30am, very tired, very excited unable to sleep we had a bacon and egg breakfast and then went to bed.
Graham Saunders
Memory added on August 26, 2016
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