The Jimmy Greaves We Knew: An Authorised Celebration of a National Treasure by Mike Donovan;

Author:Mike Donovan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mint Associates Ltd
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

24

Sir Geoff Hurst

Team-mate

SIR GEOFF HURST sat in the yellow glow of a bright electric light in his backstage dressing room talking Jimmy Greaves. It was around half an hour before show time and followed a meet and greet on stage with guest fans. The illumination exposed how he had defied the ageing process, having reached the 80-year milestone. Lean, dapper, in a grey suit, light blue shirt and matching diagonally striped tie in a darker shade, and eyes that twinkled; you could also see in those peepers and his body language as clear as a sunny-blue-sky day that he meant every word. The Jimmy he knew was important to him and he was expressing that importance in affectionate, erudite and honest fashion.

Geoff and Jimmy were international and club team-mates, for England and West Ham United, experiencing contrasting fortunes in the triumphant summer of 1966.

Geoff was immediately installed as a national hero after scoring a treble in the World Cup Final, became a Sir in 1998, and enjoying life as star of the show on theatre tours, sharing memories and views to entertain and captivate audiences around the UK.

Geoff, who was getting ready for a show at the New Theatre in Peterborough, said, ‘The Jimmy Greaves I knew, of course, is one of the greatest goalscorers we’ve ever seen, if not the greatest. His record just speaks for itself. Absolutely astonishing. You don’t use the word genius in many walks of life, but you’d have to use the word genius when it comes to Jimmy for scoring goals.

‘The Jimmy Greaves I knew personally was one hell of a nice guy, with an unbelievable, wicked sense of humour which came across. Terry [Baker, master of ceremonies at Hurst’s shows] did a lot of stage shows with Jimmy. And Terry [in a baggy T-shirt displaying the image of late musician Jimmy LaFave as he’d left his suit behind on the previous stop on the road] talked earlier at the pre-show meet and greet tonight about not being particularly well dressed when he spoke to the guests. If he’d have been with Jimmy and that had happened, Jimmy would have taken the mickey out of him. And Jimmy would have been so funny doing it. I said to Terry, “It doesn’t matter how badly you are dressed, I wouldn’t have been able to have a go at you like Jimmy. I’m not as clever as that.”’

Geoff told of how Jimmy had been a ‘boyhood hero’ and that he displayed his doe-eyed devotion to him when he randomly met the person he had put on a pedestal the year before establishing himself in domestic and global folklore.

He said, ‘I remember bumping into Jimmy in October or early November 1965. It was before I’d played for England, while he was a world-class player. I can tell you where it was – Romford in Essex.

‘I was shopping with Claire, my daughter, who is sadly no longer with us, and had just been born. I passed this shop. It was a tobacconist shop.

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