Sir Geoff Hurst refused to go to 1966 Wembley celebration because of rule about his wife

Sir Geoff Hurst has admitted to refusing to go to the celebratory banquet Wembley put on for the 1966 World Cup-winning England team, as their wives were not allowed to attend. The West Ham United legend scored a hat-trick in the iconic 4-2 victory over West Germany to win the Three Lions' first, and to this date, only World Cup.

His individual brilliance sparked mass celebrations all across the country with people lining the streets in their thousands to mark the extraordinary triumph with street parties and parades. But as the nation congregated with their neighbours and friends, organisers at Wembley put on a huge banquet for England and the players of the other semi-finalists, Portugal, Germany and the Soviet Union.

However, organisers refused to invite the wives of the players, who had to attend their own function in another area of the stadium, away from the players. Having barely seen his wife Judith, who he has been married to since 1964, Hurst snubbed the Wembley celebrations to mark the iconic occasion with his beloved other half.

While speaking exclusively to Express Sport, as part of Budweiser's 'Bring it Home' campaign, Hurst, 82, said: “On the celebrations, I'll tell you what we did. First of all, the morning after, I went home and washed, I cut the grass and cleaned the car. That’s what I did the morning after we won it.

“On the night we won it there were some very boring banquets after many of the games at Wembley, not just the World Cup final, but the games leading up to it with the teams. The banquet that night was the four semi finalists, plus all the dignitaries, but our wives were not invited.

“Not many people know but wives were not invited. We’d hardly seen them for two months, they were in the basement downstairs on their own. I said, ‘I'm not having that. I'm not going to a boring banquet while my wife waits downstairs’."

In and amongst the delirium and many lifts of the Jules Rimet trophy, Hurst realised nobody had organised any other celebration for the players. Luckily, he was able to get on the phone with famous singer Danny La Rue to get a place at the entertainer's club.

“So what I did, I phoned up, you remember Danny La Rue," Hurst added. "He had a club in London, Hanover Square. And I'd been there a few months before, and that was quite good. The food was nice.

“What stuck in my mind was me stupidly thinking we wouldn't get in, they wouldn't let the World Cup winners in. I was thinking ‘Will we get in?’ How stupid can you be?

“Anyway, I phoned up and naturally we got in. I invited Martin Peters, Alan Ball, Nobby Stiles and John Connelly, the Burnley winger. We had an amazing night with great pictures of just us there really enjoying ourselves celebrating.”

Hurst partied the night away with many of his England colleagues he had played with since the age of 17. Yet, there was one huge absentee from the celebrations. "Bally and Nobby, I played with them at under 23 level and under 17 level, so we went back a fair bit," the legendary forward added. "That was just an unbelievable, great night.

"The amazing thing was Martin Peters, who I invited, he was my next door neighbour at the time, didn't come out. I've never got over that. Why he wouldn't come out with me, his mate and our wives, who knew each other. They’ve known each other for 60 years. They still speak every day, probably twice a day and he didn't come out that night."

Budweiser is partnering with Sir Geoff Hurst to inspire England to ‘Bring it Home’