Pickles

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Pickles was dog of the year in 1966.2018 is Year of the Dog


Heard the one about the dog who helped England win the World Cup?

Heard the one about the dog who helped England win the World Cup?

Triumphant on home soil in 1966, the Three Lions have yet to reach such heights again but do have a chance to reminisce when they face current world champions Germany, the beaten finalists at Wembley 50 years ago, in Berlin on Saturday.

However, that iconic image of Bobby Moore lifting the Jules Rimet trophy could have been very different but for the crucial intervention of a mixed breed collie called Pickles.

Fifty years ago this weekend, the Football Association was left panicking over the theft of the World Cup less than four months before the tournament was due to begin.

Step forward, Pickles.

'The whole thing was amateurish'
The Jules Rimet trophy was on display at a stamp exhibition in central London but on Sunday, 20 March - just the second day it was on show - it was taken from its case in Westminster's Central Hall.

With the security guards absent on a break, the exact circumstances of how the cup was taken remain a mystery.

"The idea there were people by the display case all the time is just not true," said Doctor Martin Atherton, author of the book 'The Theft of the Jules Rimet Trophy'.

"The whole thing was amateurish - the fact the FA let the trophy out, the security arrangements and the whole recovery of the trophy.

"It came out one of the security guards was 74 years old or something. The security was quite inadequate.

"We think two people broke in through an emergency exit, took the trophy and walked out again."

A policemen stands by a display case where the World Cup was stolen from
The Jules Rimet Trophy, valued at £3,000, was taken from its display case at the Stampex exhibition in March 1966


"There were two separate descriptions of two clearly different people - a tall person and a short person," said Atherton.

"The description the police put out was an amalgamation of the two."

In the meantime, the FA secretly commissioned a replica of the trophy to be made by silversmith George Bird.

A ransom note for the trophy was received by then FA chairman Joe Mears, signed by someone called Jackson, demanding £15,000.

On police advice Mears, who was also chairman of Chelsea, pretended to agree to the deal.

An undercover policeman met Jackson - who was really a former soldier called Edward Betchley - in Battersea Park with a suitcase stuffed with newspapers covered with a layer of £5 notes, and Betchley was eventually arrested.

A chance discovery
With the trophy still missing despite Betchley's arrest, the crucial moment of discovery came on the evening of Sunday, 27 March.

Dave Corbett left his flat in Norwood, south London, to make a phone call and take his dog Pickles for a walk. Little did he know they were about to hit international headlines.

"Pickles was running around over by my neighbour's car," explained Corbett.

"As I was putting the lead on I noticed this package laying there, wrapped just in newspaper but very tightly bound with string.

"I tore a bit off the bottom and there was a blank shield, then there were the words Brazil, West Germany and Uruguay printed.

"I tore off the other end and it was a lady holding a very shallow dish above her head. I'd seen the pictures of the World Cup in the papers and on TV so my heart started thumping."

Pickles and Dave Corbett
Pickles found the World Cup trophy after his owner Dave Corbett left his flat to make a phone call
Not 'World Cuppy'
Corbett went to his local police station to present the trophy and was initially met with disbelief.

"I slammed it on the desk in front of the sergeant and said 'I think I have found the World Cup'.

"I remember his words: 'Doesn't look very World Cuppy to me, son'.

Eventually, a detective was summoned and Corbett was taken to Scotland Yard for questioning.

"It suddenly dawned on me that I was number one suspect," he added.

"After an hour or so they ran me back home. When I got back to Norwood there was all the world's press outside."

Once the police cleared him of any wrongdoing, Corbett - and in particular Pickles - became the subject of the international media spotlight.

Police display the Jules Rimet trophy to the press following its discovery
Police display the Jules Rimet trophy to the press in London following its discovery by Pickles
A role on film and angry women
Pickles was awarded a medal by the National Canine Defence League and received several other rewards.

The collie became a TV star and even appeared in a film with Eric Sykes called The Spy with a Cold Nose.

"He won Dog of the Year, Italian Dog of the Year and appeared on television on Blue Peter and Magpie," said Corbett, now 76.

"He lapped it up and was perfect under the lights.

"He was invited to most countries in the world but in those days it was six months' quarantine when you came back."

Pickles is offered a film role
On the back of his fame Pickles got a role in the 1966 film The Spy with a Cold Nose, starring Eric Sykes (bottom left)
Corbett, meanwhile, got pay-outs from sponsors and the cup's insurers, which totalled almost £5,000.

The pair were invited to a celebratory dinner after England beat West Germany 4-2 following extra time in the final.

"We went into the hotel with all these celebrities and Pickles walked over to the lift shaft and did a wee. I felt so embarrassed," recalled Corbett.

"All the wives of the footballers were there but they weren't invited up to the main reception. I have never met so many angry women.

"Afterwards, the England team went out on to a balcony and the street was full of people. We went with them and Bobby Moore picked Pickles up and showed him to the crowd, and there were cheers."


The FA were so concerned about the Jules Rimet trophy going missing again they arranged for policeman Peter Weston to switch the original with Bird's replica during England's post-match celebrations at Wembley
An unfortunate end
Corbett bought a house in Surrey with his reward money and was a prosecution witness at the trial of Betchley, who was subsequently sent to jail.

However, Pickles did not live much longer to bask in his newfound fame - passing away in 1967.

"He was a perfect dog, except he didn't like cats," said Corbett.

"He was outside with my son and had a choke-chain on when a cat shot across the alleyway. Pickles pulled the boy, he let the lead go and the dog went away.

"We were looking everywhere and at the back of garden there was a tree and he was halfway up there. I think he must have broken his neck."

Pickles is now buried at the bottom of Corbett's garden in Lingfield.

Pickles
Pickles was buried in Corbett's garden with a plaque which reads: Pickles - finder of the World Cup 1966
As for the Jules Rimet trophy, it was given to Brazil following their third triumph in the competition in Mexico in 1970.

However, it was stolen from the Brazilian Football Confederation's building when it was on display in 1983 and never recovered. It is believed that it was melted down for gold.

The replica, returned to Bird and kept in a box under his bed until his death, was bought at auction by world governing body Fifa in 1997 and is now in the National Football Museum in Manchester.

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Is Russia killing stray dogs ahead of the World Cup?

Earlier this year, Russia’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, met with animal rights activist to discuss their fears that stray dogs would be exterminated ahead of the football World Cup. Mutko pledged to stop all cruelty, and said he had ordered the construction of shelters for stray animals.

But activists allege dog killings have continued and that Mutko’s words are meaningless as city governments are not compelled to follow recommendations made at a federal level.

“If you put it in plain Russian, they said ‘sod off, we’re going to carry on killing’,” says Yekaterina Dmitriyeva, the head of NGO the Foundation for the Protection of Urban Animals, who was present at the meeting. She set up the popular Facebook group, Bloody Fifa-2018, last year.

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Pickles owner David Corbett's agent ,the same as Spike Milligan's 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. But I ate with the wives in a separate room. The women weren't allowed upstairs. They made a fuss of the dog, but God they were upset. "Our husbands win the World Cup and the FA banish us down here!" they said.'

What Corbett was unaware of, though, was the secret plan that had been successfully carried out earlier that day by the FA to ensure they would not be embarrassed again. Once the trophy had been presented by the Queen to Bobby Moore, plain-clothes officer Bob Geggie was detailed to shadow the England players around the Wembley turf on their lap of honour, watching the trophy closely. Geggie can be seen next to the team on film and photographs taken of those moments.

And, unknown even to Geggie, a Wembley policeman, PC Peter Weston had positioned himself near the changing rooms with Bird's replica, which had still been made, although from base metal, for the next stage of the FA's scheme. With the team celebrating inside, Weston took his chance. He tells the C4 programme: 'Luckily the [real] trophy was near the entrance where Nobby [Stiles] was sitting. I said to him, "I'll have that, you have this." He looked bemused as I legged it, but never said a word. But that meant from when I took it off Nobby, the trophy was a replica. Over the next four years I saw it paraded, in newspapers, on TV, and always chuckled to myself.'

But the tale of the Cup was hardly over yet. In 1970, Bird's replica was returned to him and the original given permanently to Brazil. In 1983, the original was stolen and never returned. The replica, though, went up for auction 14 years later at Sotheby's. It was bought for £254,000 by Fifa, eclipsing the reserve price of £30,000, and is now at the National Football museum in Preston.

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The stolen England World Cup story syncronistically comes to an end in 2018.

Identity of thief who stole World Cup trophy in 1966 revealed for first time

The theft of the Jules Rimet trophy in London led to one of the biggest manhunts in Scotland Yard’s history but the culprit was never caught.

ByTom Pettifor
04:30, 24 MAY 2018

The identity of the man who stole the World Cup in 1966 can be revealed today for the first time.

Sidney Cugullere nicked the Jules Rimet trophy in London – three months before England were due to host the competition.

It led to one of the biggest manhunts in Scotland Yard’s history but Cugullere, then 40, was never caught and his identity has remained a secret for 52 years.

Now, with the 2018 World Cup just 22 days away, a probe by our sister paper the Mirror has uncovered the story of one of the world’s most notorious thefts.

Three independent sources with knowledge of the crime, including his nephew Gary, have told how the former borstal boy stole the trophy with the help of his brother, Gary’s dad Reg.

Dubbed “Mr Crafty”, Cugullere had tried to extort a ransom of £15,000 for it with the help of pal Ted Betchley but the plan went wrong after his friend was arrested.

When mongrel dog Pickles and his owner found the cup in a south London street, the theft became a bigger story than that year’s general election.

But armed robber Cugellere watched the drama unfold from his home in the city’s Walworth and died of cancer in 2005, aged 79, having never been caught.

Gary told us: “Sidney just nicked it for the thrill – not for financial gain but just because it was so easy.”

Another source said: “Many a time, Sid would say he was the first Englishman to lift the World Cup and that he did it before Bobby Moore.”

Cugullere, who was jailed for more than 25 years for other offences, took the Greek goddess figurine on Sunday, March 20, 1966, from the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster.

It was insured for £30,000 and was being exhibited in a glass cabinet by the world famous Stanley Gibbons stamp company.

Sir Stanley Rous, the English president of Fifa, had agreed to it being released from the FA headquarters on the condition it was watched 24 hours a day.

One source said Cugullere first told him how he had pulled off the burglary in the 80s. He had driven the mile to Westminster from his home, after hearing the cup was on display, to case out the security.

The source said: “Sid said there were those door handles you get on schools, the large metal ones, and he realised he could unscrew them and get in.”

They had been holding a wooden bar across the rear doors, which were removed, allowing Cugullere to get in to the room housing the trophy cabinet.

The insider said: “He said he couldn’t believe it when he saw it was just in a wooden cabinet with a glass front, with a chain and a little Woolworths padlock on it and no security watching it.

“He cut the chain and in seconds got the cabinet open. When he got it out, he braced himself to lift it, expecting it to be very heavy, but said it was so light it was untrue.”

Cugullere put it in his bag and walked out. Gary says his dad told him he was in the Methodist Central Hall when Cugullere took the cup but did not see him take it.

He said: “On the street after coming out of the doors, Sid lifted his jacket and said, ‘‘ere you are Reg, look at this’.

“My dad went: “F****** hell, Sid, what the f*** do you think we are going to do with that?”

It emerged that security guards had gone for a coffee when the cup was stolen.

Scotland Yard were alerted and rewards totalling £5500 were soon offered for the safe return of the cup.

Betchley, 46, was caught after trying to collect a “ransom” for the trophy and was eventually jailed for two years.

Cugullere started to panic within days of the theft and hid the World Cup in Reg’s wife’s dad’s coal shed.

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