Guest Review: Geoff Hurst: Last Boy of ‘66 By Geoff Hurst

And here comes Hurst. He's got... Some people are on the pitch. They think it's all over. It is now. It's four!

Geoff Hurst's extraordinary hat trick turned him into a global superstar overnight. There is no player in the history of the game so universally identified with a single match.

But the full story of the nation's biggest ever sporting victory is about much more than those final moments. Here Geoff remembers his teammates, the times they spent on and off the pitch, the extraordinary journey they went on together, what football meant to each of them, their work ethic, their culture of team loyalty, their continued bond over the decades.

The enormous salaries paid to today's Premier League stars means that when they finish playing, few will ever have to work again. The 1966 team never had that option. They were payed £60 per match, and received a £1,000 bonus for winning. Most tried, and failed, to become successful managers, with Jack Charlton being a notable exception. Twenty years after they scored the England goals in the final, Geoff and Martin Peters were selling motor insurance. Ray Wilson was an undertaker.

Yet all remained aware they achieved something on 30th July 1966 which may never be repeated, and did so staying close to their roots. The day after the final Alan Ball stopped at a motorway cafe on the M6. One or two people asked to see his winner's medal, then left him to his egg and chips. Geoff mowed the lawn. 'That's what you did on a Sunday'.

In Last Boy of 66 our 1966 hat-trick hero takes us back to those very different days. A definitive and important eye-witness account, to be treasured by fans and historians for generations to come.

Review: In 1966, England won the football World Cup with Geoff Hurst famously scoring a hattrick in the final. This book, published in 2024, is his account, written with the assistance of the journalist Jasper Rees, of that World Cup competition and his teammates. The title of the book arises from the fact that, since 2023, he is the last surviving member of the 11 England players who played in the final (there were no substitutes at that time).

The book, illustrated with numerous photographs, gives details of the author’s life, his family and career. In the main, it describes the 1966 competition and his teammates. It is not just the 11 who played in the final that are featured but also the other members of the squad, the manager Alf Ramsey and the coaching staff. There are also chapters covering other, sadder aspects, such as tragic incidents in the author’s life and the high rate of dementia amongst retired professional footballers. Clearly, a book detailing the fates of his teammates will strike a sombre note, but this is more than balanced by the the respect and affection he felt for his teammates as Alf Ramsey built a team that won the ultimate prize in football.

As a schoolboy, I was part of the World Cup fever that swept the country in 1966 and this highly readable book brought the excitement flooding back, as well as providing fresh insights into the buildup and the matches. I would recommend it to all football fans.

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