I remember that day very well. I was a teenager and went with my parents to a wedding (of a family friend) that afternoon. Of course when they booked the wedding they had no idea that England would be in the final of the World Cup that day. They were not football followers.
The wedding service in church (in Richmond, Surrey) began at precisely 3pm! In the church some of the male guests held small transistor radios on their laps with a single earpiece leading from their radio, but because they had ear-pieces the rest of us were not really aware of what they were doing. My mother, who was a stickler for good manners and doing 'The proper thing' was absolutely horrified but could say or do nothing except glare at the men concerned.
However the reception was even worse. It was held in the church hall, and was an informal buffet. So no seating plan of course. So during the reception more and more men gathered together in one corner of the hall. Someone had found a decent sized radio and these men took no part in the reception from then on. Cutting the cake.......only watched by the women and a few men (my dad included) who were too scared of their wives to join the others in the corner. The speeches ...... hardly heard over the groans and cheers from the men in the corner. And when England won the cheers and toasts were all to the footballers!
Never forgotten that wedding and the ignored bride and bridegroom!
Ann Taylor
Memory added on August 29, 2016
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