"They think it's all over…"

Sadly, “It is now”

Some of you may have noted the passing at 81 of Kenneth Wolstenhome, the BBC commentator who uttered the famous words at the end of the 1966 World Cup Final.

What you may not be aware of is his service record.

The following is extracted from the Guardian. Apologies for the journalese inaccuracies, you should get the gist that he was a very brave man.

“He had been born at neighbouring Worsley and, after leaving Farnworth grammar school, his vague ambitions to be a journalist were put on hold while he trained as an RAF bomber pilot. Between 1941 and the end of the second world war he was to fly exactly 100 missions over Germany, first on daylight raids then, even more precariously, with Donald Bennett’s low-flying Pathfinder squadron, which struck first by dropping flares on targets. The harrowing death toll averages suggested that those pilots who lived to log more than 25 missions were extremely lucky, and those who logged more than 50 as divinely inspired. For Wolstenholme’s precise 100 he was awarded the DFC and Bar.”

Another one slips into history.

Moggy