Sir Geoff Hurst who scored a hat-trick to win the World Cup for England back in 1966 was a guest visitor at David Pipes stables at Nicholashayne earlier this week.

Hurst, who played 49 matches for England between 1966 and ’72, scoring 24 goals, will forever be remembered for the part he played in helping England to beat West Germany on that never-to-be-forgotten day 56 years ago.

The match that was played at Wembley in front of 96,000 fans ended 2-2 at the end of normal time with Hurst scoring the opener on 19 minutes and his West Ham team mate Martin Peters the second on 78.

Hurst put England ahead in the 11th minute of extra time and then added a second right at the end of the extra half hour immediately the game ended and commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme coined a phrase, which has become part of our culture, when he said: “There’s people on the pitch, they think its all over- it is now!”

During his time at the yard Hurst who is now a very fit and sprightly 80 years old had his photograph taken with 12 of the horses at Pipes stables owned by Judith and Fergus Wilson, one of which Romain De Senam finished 10th in the 2022 Grand National.

Hurst also had his photograph taken with a number of the staff and children at the yard as well as the local postman Sean Maunder who had helped the World Cup hero find his way to Pipe’s at the start of the morning.

As well as having his photo taken with the children Hurst also took a penalty against each of them, which gave the next generation of football fans something to tell their own children about.

Before departing Hurst left several items of memorabilia as well as signing a number of West Ham footballs that could be used for charity fund raising.