A random conversation between myself and Taffvalerowdy a few days ago when Taff let on that as a youngster he went to the 1966 World Cup Final. This was too good an opportunity to miss - here's Taffs story 1966 World Cup Final:Taffvalerowdy Part 1: The Road to WembleyIt was the summer of ’66. I was a young lad growing up in South Wales doing what most young boys did. I played football. With my friends and classmates we played in the school yard, the street, the park. They could have been the Vetch, Villa Park or Wembley, we played them all! Nothing else was important. Even most of the FA Cup Final was missed as there was a more important match to be played on our street. A chance for Taff to catch up on the 1966 FA Cup Final! My thirst for football was quenched with visits to the Vetch Field. In the final throes of the 1965/66 season I saw a 1-1 draw with Peterborough and a few weeks later a 2-2 draw against Brighton in the final game of the season. The Swans finished 17th in the Third Division. Jack Taylor reffed one of them before going on to referee the FA Cup Final between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday. Little did I know at the time that he would go on to referee a World Cup Final! I was football mad. My hero was Ivor Allchurch and I remember getting his and Len's autographs on the beach at Caswell Bay a year or two later. In the wider world there were plenty of things going on. 1966 saw the first British credit card, the Severn Bridge opened, the tragic Aberfan disaster, Cooper floored Ali and there was the start of colour TV! In the world of music Jim Reeves topped the UK charts for five weeks with Distant Drums, but I was busy playing street football. 1966 was also World Cup year and there was added interest as England were the hosts. It was the closest Wales could ever get to a “home” World Cup. I followed the matches on a black and white TV and can remember England's first game versus Uruguay which ended in a 0-0 draw. I was aware that my parents had applied to the Football Association for match tickets and waited with anticipation for a trip to the hallowed turf of Wembley stadium. In the meantime I continued to play street football. England got their first win, a 2-0 defeat of Mexico before achieving the same result against France. England were now through the group stage and faced a quarter final against Argentina. That’s when IT happened. After another day at school and I wandered home. My father had something to tell me. We had tickets for the World Cup. I was delighted. But it wasn’t to any old cup match. It was to the Final, I WAS GOING TO THE WORLD CUP FINAL! Out in the street to play football I told all my friends. I couldn’t tell all my school friends as we had just broken up for the summerholidays. There was now one problem. Could England get to the Final? The quarter final against Argentina was a match that went into folklore for the wrong reasons. Alf Ramsey described the Argentinians as “animals” after a match of thuggery of the highest order. England got through 1-0 thanks to a late Geoff Hurst goal to set up a semi-final with Portugal. Watching on my little black and white TV it was a case of Bobby Charlton v Eusabio, with Charlton winning 2-1! So that was it. England were going to play West Germany in the 1966 World Cup Final at Wembley……AND I WAS GOING!
Great story and memories I'm sure. Truth be told , we didn't even have a tele . my memory of watching the game was across the road in my aunts house but it was all a blur for me
What a great story Taff, we actually just got our first colour TV just before the world cup, I will always remember the make, it was a Hitachi, and as a 11 year old kid was in dreamland with watching footy in colour for the first time, and the Beetles........ Great read lads, brings back memories of my footy in Skewen park.......
We used to call it the greyhound track, we did play there as kids, but there was often kids that got there before us, so we decided Skewen park was better, wasn't you was it?......
Good read Taff. The summer of '66 was an exciting one for me as it was my 11plus year and I was looking forward to going to Neath Grammar in Sept before before some others would join a couple of years later I remember watching the final, we had only got a TV about a year before. It was a small TV on the Red Dragon cable service or pipe as it was commonly called. Totally agree about street football taking priority, I remember that when there were more than 3 of us (we used to play 3 and in) we used to jump the wall of the crickert ground in Neath and have a game on the outfield before getting chased off when the groundsman turned up. II vividly remember we replayed the '66 final on the cricket ground as the grass was similar to Wembley well more so than the back lane between Leonard St and Harley St . I ended up being on the West German side!
Watched the game on our reddifusion black and white and even though i followed Swansea town i was into rugby more as a player. England won in the end but Germany threw it away with their better more talented players they had.....
I had a little World Cup Willy. Seriously - it was a plastic lion stood on a ball-bearing that you could move around. Well I was only 6.
I went to Neath Grammar in Sept 1969 - so our paths must have crossed. You would have been in Form Four when I was in Form One !
I was 8, but I missed the final because one of my friends had a birthday outing to Heathrow Airport to watch the planes landing. (That was a novelty in those days, especially if you lived in rural Wiltshire).
I arrived on the scene weeks before the final and have heard about it at every opportunity the english have had to mention it ever since !
School trips used to be Heathrow airport for that very reason ,up on the train and planning how to get to sit next to Julie LLoyd when travelling in the Severn tunnel , the expectation was much better than the reality every time . Sorry for going off topic
