Pickles a world cup hero!

World cup fever is currently gripping (most) of the nation and whether you love it or loath you cannot avoid it. Tonight our brave boys will be going once more into the breach for queen and country against the USA, but before this evenings kick off I think we should take time to reflect on a true English world cup hero. My tale harks back to the halcyon days of jumpers for gold posts, the Beatles, pipe smoking and when everything was in black and white.

If you are sitting comfortably I will begin

On a Sunday evening in March 40 years ago, David Corbett left his ground-floor flat in Norwood, south London, to make a telephone call from the kiosk across the road. With the Thames lighterman was Pickles, the four-year-old mongrel he had taken off his brother John's hands, when he was a puppy, because he chewed furniture.

'I put the lead on Pickles and he went over to the neighbour's car,' recalls Corbett, now 66. 'Pickles drew my attention to a package, tightly bound in newspaper, lying by the front wheel. I picked it up and tore some paper and saw a woman holding a dish over her head, and disks with the words Germany, Uruguay, Brazil. I rushed inside to my wife. She was one of those anti-sport wives. But I said, "I've found the World Cup! I've found the World Cup!"' Corbett, or more precisely, Pickles, had indeed discovered the missing Jules Rimet trophy.

Now Pickles began the life of a celebrity. He starred in a feature film, The Spy with the Cold Nose, and appeared on Magpie, Blue Peter and many other TV shows. He was made Dog of the Year, awarded a year's free supply of food from Spillers and there were offers to visit Chile, Czechoslovakia and Germany.

'But I would've had to put Pickles into quarantine for six months and he was only a pet, so I didn't think I could do that,' says Corbett. How did he find the constant attention? 'I got myself an agent. The same as Spike Milligan's. He made me £60 a day, bloody brilliant! He would call and my [ex] wife and I would meet him and his girlfriend and go drinking Champagne.'

Corbett's agent arranged entrance to the party on the evening of England's 4-2 victory over West Germany in the World Cup final. 'The streets were full of people. The players were out on a large balcony [of their hotel in Kensington]. I went in with Pickles under my arm and Bobby Charlton, all of them, picked him up.

So, I hope our overpaid superstars will take heed of our humble canine here, £60! not sure how much that is in todays money but its not £120,000 per week Mr Lampard. Typical though, we get to host the world cup and somebody pinches the cup! Bobby Moore kept up the good work in Mexico a few years later...

All together now "3 Lions on a shirt, Jules Rimet still gleaming!" (thanks to Pickles)