It seems just like yesterday. 2 May 1964, the sun shines over Wembley and a beaming Ronnie Boyce, arms aloft, runs behind the goal having just headed West Ham’s Cup Final winner. Pretty much right in front of me.
That image for a teenager, decked out in claret and blue and somehow in the Preston end, is still the greatest moment I’ve witnessed in 66 years following West Ham. There has been a couple of European successes, more cup final triumphs, sure. But that day was something special.Boyce’s goal had achieved something very special, the club’s first major trophy in its history. It was the catalyst for the golden generation of our club in the 1960s, still without question in my mind, the greatest years of the club’s history.
Sadly this week, Ticker passed away at 82. Maybe something of the soul of our club went too. The East Ham-born midfielder played 342 games for the Irons, scored 29 goals, and somehow seems to get a little forgotten ,unsurprisingly, for his part in that great team of Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst.
But if you were there, if you knew what an influential role the unassuming Boyce played in that team, being hailed as the heartbeat of West Ham was fitting. Three of his team mates went on to win the World Cup, others like Johnny Byrne was hailed as a genius.
But without Boyce, there are many who believe that the 1960s glory years may not have happened. Boyce was the glue that kept it all together, the focal point that made a great team tick.
He played in front of Moore, he had Byrne and Hurst ahead of him, Jack Burkett, Peters and John Sissons on his left , Peter Brabrook on the right. Eddie Bovington was there alongside him to do what Eddie did. But it was Boyce pulling the strings, winning possession, spraying passes short and long, and appearing in the box for some crucial goals.
Me, the old fella and uncle Sid had stood on the giant, rain-drenched Kop at Hillsborough a few weeks earlier and seen Boyce take on the greats of Manchester United. And that was a great side. Bobby Charlton, George Best, Denis Law - who we also sadly said goodbye to this week - were part of Matt Busby’s greatest side.
Boyce, in all that cloying mud, scored a gem into the top corner from 20 yards and then headed a second before Hurst finished the scoring. Boyce was Man of the Match by some distance.
When someone of Boyce’s magnitude passes away the tributes rightly come flooding in, so it’s on these occasions you think back to personal memories of a great player. Hillsborough was unforgettable, but Wembley surpassed that.
Why was I in the Preston end to see that goal in glorious Technicolor? Simple - I’d failed to get a final ticket despite all those vouchers.
On the day of the match, dad drove to Slough to collect a ticket from a workmate whose brother knew Bob Lord. Even now I don’t know how dad pulled that off, and it was clearly supposed to be his ticket. But he drove me back to Wembley, put the ticket in my hand and warned me not to be late home.
That ticket, from ‘up north’ was part of Preston’s allocation.
There was not a hint of a problem in those days - not so much now - with a London lad in all the wrong colours surrounded by Preston’s hordes. Can you image the fuss now? The good thing thought was that after the whistle and the presentation, I was about the only person left in that end and was able to get right to the front as the West Ham side paraded the trophy.
Such memories, and all because of Ticker.
He’d been a perfect fit for Ron Greenwood’s emerging side. Ted Fenton gave Boyce his league debut as a 17 year-old on October 22, 1960, against, yes, Preston. Greenwood was manager about eight months later.
The potential was obvious. In the 1961/62 season Boyce played just four games, but the East Ham kid played 27 games the following season and then 41 in each of the ’63/64 and ’64/65 seasons, emerging with FA Cup and European Cup Winners’ Cup medals. He’d been just 20 at Wembley, the other scorers that day being Sissons, at 18, and Hurst, 21.
Can you imagine that today? Say Freddie Potts, Ollie Scarles and Lewis Orford on the score sheet for a Wembley final at those ages. Maybe it shows how much harder it is these days for youth talent to get through, such is the massive competition from foreign players and the huge financial pressures on managers not to lose any match.
It was a bit easier in the 1960s, with the Football Combination giving youngsters the chance to play alongside senior men. Boyce had benefited. Many felt he should have played for England, but there was such competition in that Alf Ramsey era. He had Charlton, Nobby Stiles, Peters and George Eastham in that World Cup squad. That’s tough competition.
Sissons, by then the best teenager in the country, never got an England cap. But Ramsey had Terry Payne, Ian Callaghan and John Connelly as his wingers, and he famously dumped them all during the tournament for Peters and Alan Ball to play on the flanks. Something of a masterstroke, that.
So Boyce was left to continue his career at Upton Park. An integral part of the blossoming Greenwood era and the foundations of the John Lyall management to follow.
Sixteen years from 1964 to 1980 produced three FA Cup triumphs, two European finals and two League Cup finals, plus three Charity Shield appearances for good measure. Nothing West Ham have produced since can touch that golden era, and Boyce played a significant part in the foundations of all that.
He retired early at 29, through injury after two seasons at the beginning of the 1970s when he played just three times now behind Trevor Brooking, Billy Bonds and Pat Holland.
As we all know, he went on to scout and coach for Lyall and Bonds, his immense experience now a key part of the backroom staff at Upton Park.
But for me, and I believe many others, the memories of Hillsborough and Wembley will never be forgotten. Boyce dedicated his life to West Ham. I can still see you round the back of that Wembley goal Ronnie, having headed in that last-minute Brabrook cross.
Thanks for everything, Ticker. RIP.
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