MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 1966, was just like any other day, according to The Northern Echo’s front page.
It tells how a Canadian gas company had struck a gas reserve at Farndale on the North York Moors that would supply 10m cubic feet of gas per day, enough to heat York. If verified, it would be the biggest gas field in the country.
It says Princess Alexandra had given birth to a daughter who was 17th in line to the throne, and there was a political story about Harold Wilson’s Labour government being in trouble over a proposed wage freeze which the unions opposed.
And then there’s a four-paragraph story on the front headlined: “Peters in crash”.
“Martin Peters, the England and West Ham footballer, who scored one of the winning World Cup goals, escaped unhurt last night when a car in which he was travelling was involved in a collision,” it says.
And that’s the only mention on the front page that, 36 hours earlier, England had won the World Cup.
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The final, against West Germany, had been played at Wembley on Saturday, July 30. It was a 3pm kick-off, so perhaps by Monday morning, the Echo – then edited by Sir Harold Evans – thought everyone would be fed up with football.
After all, everyone would have known the result. The game was televised to an estimated 400m people worldwide, and the Echo reported how at Durham County Show, the exhibiting rings emptied as people poured into the trade tents which had TVs to watch the match.
It doesn’t, though, have any reports of people gathering in pubs, and showering each other with lager when a goal was scored, so perhaps pubs weren’t used in that way in those days.
The Echo’s evening sister, the Evening Despatch, told the story of the match on Saturday afternoon in its “sporting pink” which was produced as the game was being played. Its first edition had the score at 2-2 and a headline “Classic to fit great day: England one down but equalize”. The edition went to press in Darlington with extra time just kicking off.
The first edition of the Evening Despatch, published at the end of 90 minutes when the score was 2-2
Its second edition was headlined “It’s England’s World Cup: extra time goal sensation”. It gives the final score as 4-2, but doesn’t describe England’s fourth goal.
The second edition of the Evening Despatch of July 30, 1966, with the final score
Its match report finishes with a sentence so sensational that it is printed in block capitals as it describes England’s decisive third goal – perhaps the most analysed goal in football history: “THE BALL STRUCK THE UNDERSIDE OF THE BAR, CAME DOWN AND FOUND ITS WAY ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE LIVE FOR ENGLAND BEFORE SOMEHOW SPINNING OUT AGAIN.”
So the old news was kept off the front page on the Monday, but the back page was devoted to “England’s finest hour”, as the main headline said.
The Northern Echo's back page of August 1, 1966, reporting on the historic World Cup victory
Ray Robertson, a Coundon lad who was the Echo’s Middlesbrough football reporter for three decades, was at Wembley and wrote beautifully about the historic moment he had witnessed.
"England, who gave football to the world, and were hosts on this great occasion, triumphed in an afternoon of drama,” he said. “For those privileged to be at Wembley, and millions of television viewers, it was not just a game to be remembered. It was one which cannot be forgotten.
“People will tell their grandchildren of this great day. A day when two teams gave everything they had for the top prize in soccer. A day when the tension was electric, the thrills too numerous to count, and the finale as sensational as it was almost unbelievable. It was a World Cup final with chapters of fiction. It had everything. Drama, thrills, great goals, soft goals, courage – and a storybook ending.”
Let's hope that today also is a day with a storybook ending that people will tell their grandchildren about.
England captain Bobby Moore collecting the Jules Rimet Trophy from the Queen
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