England hero Sir Geoff Hurst reflects on sadness of World Cup 1966 triumph
Farewell tours were once the province of rock stars without a new album in the pipeline.
But as Sir Geoff Hurst, the last man standing from England’s 1966 World Cup winners, rebooted his stage show, there was a profound sense of valediction.
One by one, the lights have gone out on the dashboard of Sir Alf Ramsey’s Boys of 66. Following the death of Sir Bobby Charlton last October, now Hurst alone can perpetuate the legend of our finest hour as a sporting nation.
His 24-date show is more than a speaking tour of provincial theatres: It’s an appointment with history, and with the flame of an English football torch-bearer for 58 years. At 82, Hurst’s one-liners are still in good order and he is in robust health - although he was forced to cut short his opening night in Frome last month.
“It wasn’t a four-act drama, it was just a nosebleed,” he said backstage before a sell-out show in Chesham relaunched his tour. “It was a damn nuisance but I’m OK, I’m fine.” If Sir Geoff has become more aware of his own mortality since Charlton’s ascent to the celestial dressing room, he doesn’t advertise it.
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“You only have to look at Bobby’s record - 750 games for Manchester United, 250 goals from midfield, one in three, 106 England caps, 49 goals, one in two - to appreciate he was an astonishing player, absolutely unbelievable,” said Hurst.
“He was entitled to be fairly big-headed, but he was the exact opposite - a gentleman off the field. We spent many hours together when the lads from 1966 met up for golf days. He was a great ambassador for football and for the country.”
Hurst poses for a picture with Mirror Football's Mike Walters (The Daily Mirror)Does Hurst miss his band of brothers? “It’s very sad, when I look at photographs of the team now, knowing they are no longer around and it’s significant that England still haven’t won another World Cup since we did it. We’re getting close now under Gareth Southgate - a semi-final in 2018, the Euros final, and it’s much better than we’ve seen for a long time.
“But until England win it again, it’s nice that people want to keep the story of 1966 alive. So, yes, I miss the lads. Our reunions used to re-establish the bond we had at the World Cup - we would meet up for a couple of days, the lads played golf, our wives went shopping and then we’d sit down to dinner.
“That carried on for a long time after we’d finished playing, maybe 16 or 17 years, and they were great times. We took it in turns to organise those get-togethers - I think Martin Peters and I started it down at Foxhills in Surrey, and the last one was off Junction 13 of the M6, where Ron Flowers (former Wolves midfielder and England 1966 squad member) hosted it near Stafford. But with dwindling numbers, sadly those days came to an end.”
Sir Bobby Charlton, marked by Franz Beckenbauer, in 1966 World Cup final (Popperfoto via Getty Images)One of Hurst’s charity partners on his farewell tour is the Alzheimers Society, a poignant alliance because several of his compadres from ’66 were ushered towards the sunset in the shadows of dementia-related illness. “It’s such a horrible illness because it’s a nightmare for the families and loved ones around the people who are diagnosed with it,” said Hurst.
“My wife Judith and Martin’s wife Kathy have known each other 60 years and still speak almost every day, but knowing what Kathy was going through in the last few years of his life brought it home to me how dreadful it is. Am I angry with Alzheimers? I wouldn’t say angry, but increasingly there is evidence of a connection between heading a football and the onset of Alzheimers.
“There’s a guy in Scotland whose research says footballers are three-and-a-half times more likely to develop a dementia-related illness than the man in the street. Are we doing enough to tackle it? It’s a complicated and devastating issue, but a lot of people are on to it now.”
Kylian Mbappe collects his World Cup runners-up medal in 2022 (Getty Images)Hurst remains the only player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final for the winning side. “I bet Kylian Mbappe would have swapped his hat-trick against Argentina (in the 2022 final) for another winner’s medal,” said the West Ham legend, who was cheered by his old club’s first trophy in 43 years in the Europa Conference League last summer.
The Three Lions hero remains optimistic about England’s chances at Euro 2024, saying: “We’ve got the best bunch of young players we’ve had for a long time and they are maturing. It will be a bitter disappointment if we don’t at least get very close to the final. Anything less than that would be such an anti-climax.”
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And if the genie of the lamp granted an old soldier one wish to change a single aspect of modern football? “After a lifetime in and around the game, that’s easy because it’s only three letters - VAR.
The Three Lions hero remains optimistic about England’s chances at Euro 2024 (The Daily Mirror)“Goal-line technology is fine because it’s black or white, yes or no, and it works. But with VAR, players can’t celebrate, fans can’t celebrate and the officials are making more mistakes now than there were before.
“How does it make the game more enjoyable if people sat in front of a bank of screens are looking for obscure ways to disallow goals that nobody else has spotted? Football is about glory, it’s about scoring goals, and yet we now have a system which is loaded towards cancelling them. That can’t be right.”
You tell ‘em, Sir Geoff.
An Evening With Sir Geoff Hurst Theatre Tour 2024: for full list of dates visit www.geoffhurst.com
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