At this time I was stationed at RAF Leconfield. Situated a few miles outside of Beverley, it was a muli-purpose unit. They had a Lightening Squadron. They were the lead base for the NE coast Helicopter Air Sea Rescue operations. They had a Maintenance Unit. Whenever there was a plane crash, a large convoy would disappear off to the crash site. And like many, active RAF Units, they had an annual OPEN DAY. Good PR when you stick lightening jets close to habitation. Helps to cut down the noise complaints, but not by much!! All leave was cancelled for this day. Best bib & tucker and smile, no matter how daft the questions asked were. This year the event was set for 30th of July. I arrived at the unit in January, but there was already grumbles about the date. However, since we had no chance of winning I wasn't too bothered. IN any case the CO was an Irishman and a Rugby Fan, so the only person who MIGHT have got this changed wasn't going to. I tried to 'borrow' the TV from the telephonist's room. No joy. Miserable bitches. I did dig an old one out of a storeroom and using the Telephonists Aerial found out that it worked, up to a point. Nice girls after all. But even if they had agreed to us moving it, it was too short. More rummaging and I came up with a very old H aerial with cable attached. It didn't take long to realise why this had been ditched. Then our Flight Sergeant, the most 'spit and polish' person I ever met in the RAF, left the Office. He came back about an hour later with HIS TV and HIS aerial. The two of us got onto the roof and with some ingenuity from him, we got it secured. (Flat roofs with a small 3 foot wall round). We had pictures. Come the day we had the TV in a corner where it wouldn't be spotted from outside. We had tried to keep all this to ourselves. We failed of course. During the couse of the Game it was amazing the numbers who had conjured up plausible reasons for visiting our office. Now, looking back there is a tendency to think that the whole population, apart from those not at Wembley, were glued to their TV sets. Not so. The crowds at RAF Leconfield were, apparently, well up to average. But we were one of the few small parts of this unit to see all of the match. About a month later, Flt Sgt Spit & Polish was made up to Warrant Officer. I always wondered if there just might have been a connection.
Brilliant story mate, mine isn't. I was 11 and football mad unlike my family so went to a neighbours, uninvited, to watch with them. They had flags outside, which was rare then, so I thought it would be a good place to be ... ... it was, they had loads of food and pop, I was sick as a dog when I got outside
Yes if you were Gay you were happy and the world cup Lion mascot could be called Wille...gentler times perhaps.
I was at work that day and later remember going to the pictures ( kids call it the cinema now) to see the film Goal which was basically a rerun of the final in Technicolor, it was fantastic as coloured Tele wasn't around then. Think my memory isn't playing tricks, but that's how I think it happened.
I was at Thirsk races with my Dad and 2 uncles! Can’t believe we even thought of going. Anyway I can remember the racecourse announcer telling us that Martin Peters had put us 2-1 up. We watched all of extra time in one of the bars or tea rooms!
I was in the mob at the time as well in Akrotiri.....listened to it on BFBS, at end of normal time they switched back to their scheduled programme, something about KSA if I remember correctly, didn't find out the final score until hours later, tannoyed message....huge cheer. Can you imagine the BBC doing that now! Just lurking on your board but whilst here, best of luck for the coming season.
I was 12 Sat at home in front room with dad He purchased a slab of ice cream for us to enjoy at half time How times have changed
Vaux Breweries garden fete (think it was at Strawberry Farm) in the big tent. My boyfriends Mam worked at Vaux.
