Laughter, tears – and anger – on Jeff’s special night
A gala dinner to mark what would have been Astle’s 75th birthday mixed comedy and campaigning
As Sir Geoff Hurst was finishing breakfast at the Hotel Football in Manchester yesterday morning, there was still a lingering grin as he thought back over some of the stories from an emotional night before.
Many of the great and good of English football had gathered to mark what would have been Jeff Astle’s 75th birthday and, as free-flowing as the memories, tears, love and support, was laughter. The Astle family had emphatically wanted it that way but they also knew that the many wonderful anecdotes only underlined a tragic sense of waste at all those lost years.
Astle died at 59 in 2002 from chronic traumatic encephalopathy – a condition caused by repeated blows to the head – and, as football now belatedly promises to investigate degenerative brain disease among its former players, the room screamed out with anecdotal evidence. Stan Bowles was among those present. As he posed for pictures with adoring fans – trilby perched on his head – you could have been forgiven from a distance for thinking that nothing was wrong. Bowles, though, is suffering from Alzheimer’s; a disease that has left him restless and struggling to string words together.
The daughter of Dave Mackay – perhaps Tottenham’s greatest player – also attended. So did Gordon Banks who, like just about every player of his generation, has first-hand experience of team-mates who have either died or are now suffering at a cruelly premature age. Hurst grew up with Martin Peters at West Ham and described the only other Englishman to score in a World Cup final as “my best pal in football”. Peters now has Alzheimer’s. “Our wives speak daily; we understand how difficult it is to live with someone with that awful ailment,” he said. “This is a brilliant cause and one of the worst diseases we are now facing.”
Astle’s daughter, Dawn, also read out a letter of support from Sir Alex Ferguson. “There are many cases of dementia and CTE becoming known; it’s a terrible illness,” wrote Ferguson. That was powerfully illustrated when Dawn simply listed the names and heart-breaking stories of the many families in attendance. One had lost a husband and father that same morning. Yesterday, the Astle family were also in Mansfield to support a charity match for Kevin Bird, a 64-year-old former defender who now has dementia.
Strength and solidarity is being drawn from shared experiences but what is also striking – and damning – is how so many families feel let down by the football authorities. Astle’s widow, Laraine, says she has never received even a phone call from the Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive, Gordon Taylor. Barry Fry, who managed Astle at Dunstable, summed up the family’s fight with typical bluntness. “They’ve put up with ---- for years,” he said.
Saturday was an evening that Astle would have loved. Story after story outlined his humour and zest for life. Hurst told how, while training in Bogota for the stifling Mexico heat at the 1970 World Cup, the England players were introduced to the Duke of Edinburgh’s equerry. He had looked bemused and reported how the Duke had been fine with the extreme heat while playing polo there. Astle, who was audibly panting, looked up and simply said: “But have you asked how his f------ horse feels?”
Frank Skinner’s speech was also perfectly pitched. Astle was Skinner’s hero and he recalled being a “nervous wreck” when he arrived at their home for his first appearance on the cult Fantasy Football League show. Astle was everything he hoped for and even volunteered Laraine to play the part of Leeds goalkeeper Gary Sprake for the sketch. “He had that comic timing,” said Skinner. “He was a showman.”
Skinner then recalled how they went to a game in Portsmouth and, without any means to reach their hotel, Astle simply waved down a van full of disbelieving West Brom fans. They spent the entire journey singing “Astle’s in our van”.
It was during a singing appearance on the show in 1998 that Laraine first realised something was wrong and his decline was aggressive. At the funeral, Skinner recalled how the mourners cheered the passing of his coffin with applause akin to a football match.
“No other West Brom player was loved like he was,” he said. “I loved him as a player and friend. He will always be The King.”
And, as the campaign for justice goes into its 16th year, what does Skinner make of the Astle women? “They make the suffragettes look like a bunch of Wags,” he said.