The latest of a Guardian Print Shop series featuring classic sports images. Today’s picture is of the moment
England won the 1966
World Cup final, beating West
Germany 4-2 at Wembley
Forget the best known photographs from the 1966 World Cup final: Geoff Hurst smashing home the fourth goal (“They think it’s all over … it is now!”); Bobby Moore riding on the shoulders of his teammates with the Jules Rimet trophy raised aloft in his right hand. Those frames don’t quite capture the raw emotion of that historic victory as well as this image by Gerry Cranham. Shot at the final whistle, it features England’s manager, Alf Ramsey, in a state of shock, being congratulated by his colleagues. But the scene is wonderfully stolen by the physiotherapist, Harold Sheperdson, whose explosive leap punctures the boundary of the frame. Ordinarily, as a picture editor, you wouldn’t want a person’s hand to be chopped off like this. Yet, somehow it just feels right, here – as if the euphoria of winning the World Cup simply couldn’t be contained within the frame.