NB:- Click on the image for a larger version
It is, of course, 25 years ago today (May 14th 1981), when Spurs played in one of the most memorable FA Cup Finals. I refer to the momentous replay of Thursday 14th May, 1981, played out in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. Every year at Cup Final time, this match is mentioned, and this year was no exception. If you watched the pre-match coverage on BBC yesterday, then you would have seen Garth Crooks interviewing Ricky Villa about THAT goal, which remains to many people (not just to Spurs fans) the best Cup Final goal ever!
Both Ricky and Ossie Ardiles were on Question of Sport on Friday night, but the Garth Crooks feature was filmed at The Dorchester Hotel in Park Lane, London on Wednesday 26th April, 2006, when I had the good fortune to be amongst over 400 adoring Spurs folk, paying homage to virtually all the members of the 1981 Cup Winning squad, and management.
All of the team were present at the reunion, and were interviewed on stage by (West Ham fan) Matthew Lorenzo of Sky Sports. The team being Aleksic; Hughton, Miller, Roberts, Villa, Perryman, Ardiles, Archibald, Galvin, Hoddle, Crooks. (Gary Brooke was the unused substitute). Both Keith Burkinshaw and Peter Shreeve were also interviewed, and many other Spurs names (including others who had featured in the 1981 Cup run) were present. For example, I had the pleasure of meeting Don McAllister, who had flown over from Australia for the event. Legendary Spurs fan, Morris Keston helped Matt Lorenzo to kick off the evening.
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As regular readers know, I share the exact birth date of Ricky Villa, and have now had the great pleasure of meeting him several times. (Once on our birthday in 2004!)Ricky's enthusiasm for the club, and for Spurs fans remains unabated every time he comes over. I am very grateful to my friend and fellow Trust Board member, Derek Ridgers, for the photographs featured on this page.
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As can be seen, Glenn Hoddle was literally beaming with joy, and Ossie can be seen busy keeping the hordes of autograph hunters satisfied. The evening ended with the appearance of Chas and Dave to complete the re-enactment of that wonderful FA Cup year.
If you would like to be informed of future events such as this, why not join my mailing list by following the link on the right of this page. This was not an official THFC event (although Director Paul Barber was present), and I hope to be amongst the first to hear of future celebratory evenings!
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