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Last Updated: Friday, 21 November, 2003, 09:40 GMT

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English sport timeline

30 July, 1966

World champions
37 years of hurt began soon after Geoff Hurst rifled the ball in with his left foot to complete his hattrick and seal England's extratime win. The decisive moment came when Hurst a shock starter over Jimmy Greaves slammed a shot off the underside of the bar and on to the goal line in extra time. The Germans claimed the ball had stayed out but the legendary Russian linesman Tofik Bakhramov gave the goal to prompt scenes of wild celebration and Nobby Stiles' jubilant jig.

14 June, 1970

West Germany take revenge
England looked a good bet to hold on to their crown in Mexico with many of the side from four years previously Gordon Banks Bobby Moore Bobby Charlton and Geoff Hurst still in action. But Moore was dogged by controversy after a theft allegation and Banks was ill for the quarterfinal against the Germans. England still managed to go 20 up but Banks' replacement Peter Bonetti was beaten by a weak Franz Beckenbauer shot and in extratime Gerd Muller won it.

11 November, 1972

Great Britain wins rugby league World Cup
The Great Britain rugby league team won the World Cup in 1972. Led by the late Clive Sullivan the first black player to captain a British team at any sport Britain triumphed over all their rivals in the group stages before taking on the Aussies in the final in front of a 10000strong crowd in Lyon. It ended in a 1010 draw but Britain were crowned champions because they had a better record in the qualifying round.

1 July, 1977

Wade wins Wimbledon
It had been a long wait for an English Wimbledon champion. Not since Fred Perry completed his hattrick of wins in 1936 had the nation celebrated for one of its own at the AllEngland club. But in 1977 in the Queen's Silver Jubilee year Virginia Wade defied the odds to claim the women's crown. Wade beat world number one and top seed Chris Evert in the semis and recovered from a poor start to complete a memorable 46 63 61 victory over Betty Stove.

19 July, 1981

Botham beats Australia
Evening at Headingley on 18 July 1981 and England's cricketers look doomed. Following on on day three of the third Ashes Test they were still 221 runs behind the Australians. Day four arrives. Enter Ian Botham. The Somerset allrounder made a mockery of the Australian bowling crashing an unbeaten 149 off 148 balls. It laid the platform for Bob Willis to take 843 in the fourth innings and England won by 18 runs to level the series. They went on to reclaim the Ashes.

10 February, 1984

Torvill and Dean
It is easy to forget the remarkable impact Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean had at their peak. The Nottingham pair's triumph for Great Britian at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics was unprecedented. Their interpretation of Ravel's Bolero earned them an astonding nine perfect 6.0 marks for artistic impression brought classical music into the mainstream and briefly made wearing floaty fabrics and swirling around on ice very glamorous indeed.

22 June, 1986

The hand of God
quotThe first goal was dubious the second was a bloody miraclequot. So said England manager Bobby Robson after Diego Maradona ended England's World Cup dream in Mexico. One player has never scored two more contrasting goals the first a clear handball the second a mesmeric run which bamboozled seven England defenders. Yet would the English still be talking about them had John Barnes' late cross been converted by Gary Lineker

8 November, 1987

Gatting gets it wrong
The reverse sweep is one of cricket's more unusual shots but can be extremely effective if timed correctly. England skipper Mike Gatting unfortunately got it badly wrong against the Aussies in the Calcutta heat in 1987. His attempt looped into the grateful hands of Greg Dyer he was out and England's promising chase of Australia's 2535 began to stutter. England finished eight runs short and the boys in Baggy Green celebrated yet another triumph over the Poms.

8 April, 1990

Fabulous Faldo grabs Masters glory
The US Masters had been in existence for 55 years before an Englishman was finally able to wear the famed winners' green jacket. Nick Faldo obviously enjoyed the feeling in 1989 as one year later he became only the second player to win backtoback Masters. Faldo remained a golfing force for years after famously winning his third Masters title and sixth major in 1996 as he clawed back a sixshot deficit against Australia's Greg Norman to win by five strokes.

4 July, 1990

West Germany KO England
Despite an unimpressive start to Italia '90 England improved greatly and found themselves against old rivals West Germany in the semifinal. But it became a classic quotwe wuz robbedquot scenario for England. Favourites Germany only scored through a lucky deflection. But in a manner which was to become all too familiar throughout the 1990s it all went wrong on penalties. The less said about the spot kicks from Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle the better.

1 September, 1991

Relay boys grab gold
Perennial 4x400m champions the USA expected to kick the ahem quotbuttsquot of Great Britain in the Tokyo world athletics championships. But the allEnglish quartet had other ideas. Roger Black Derek Redmond and John Regis ran superbly yet anchor man Kriss Akabusi still began his lap one metre down on individual 400m champion Daniel Pettigrew. But the 400m hurdles specialist slowly wore down his rival and memorably beat him on the line.

2 November, 1991

Aussies win World Cup
England rugby fans will hope the newspaper headlines on 23 November 2003 are not the same as they were on 3 November 1991. Then Australia were too good for England in the rugby World Cup final. The Wallabies scored the game's only try although arguments continue to rage about David Campese's knockon to prevent a Rory Underwood score. Regardless it is all about the record books and they simply show another triumph for the gold and green.

25 March, 1992

England collapse under pressure
England turned up for the final in Melbourne in confident mood and why not After all in the group stages 24 days earlier they bowled out opponents Pakistan for a mere 74 denied an inevitable victory only by rain. Yet England ended up licking their wounds as Pakistan won the match by 22 runs. The reasons for England's defeat are many and various but eventually it was another failure down under to put in the record books.

1 August, 1992

Christie wins 100m gold
Ldetrd Chrisite appeared destined to become another of England's great sporting bridesmaids. He dominated European sprinting but seemed unlikely to top his 1987 World Championship bronze or 1988 Olympic silver at the Barcelona Olympics. Aged 32 many felt his best days were just behind him but Christie confounded the doubters with a brilliant display finishing in 9.96 seconds and becoming only the third man to win gold for Great Britain in the event.

6 June, 1993

USA beat England
In most sporting contests England comes secondbest when matched against its cousins from across the pond. quotStillquot many fans believed quotat least our football or soccer as the Yanks call it team is better than theirsquot. That belief was shattered on a hot Boston evening. A hairy man called Alexei Lalas prompted mirth among the visitors' fans before kickoff but no Englishman was laughing when Lalas' headed winner sealed a thoroughly deserved 20 win for the States.

18 June, 1995

Lomu beats England
It was a painful day for Mike Catt as Jonah Lomu trampled over him on his way to a fourtry haul in the rugby World Cup semifinal. And for the watching English fans it was not much less painful. England's lastgasp quarterfinal win over Australia was forgotten as Lomu's awesome power brushed aside Englishmen as though they were weak children. Shellshocked captain Will Carling was left shaking his head and muttering quotfreakquot at the final whistle.

3 September, 1995

Bruno beats McCall
Few serious boxing fans will claim that Bruno was an alltime boxing great. But it is doubtful there has ever been a more popular holder of the world heavyweight title in his homeland at least. Title bout defeats to Tim Witherspoon Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis made a world title seem a distant dream for Bruno. But big Frank ultimately achieved his goal by beating Oliver McCall in 1995 to the delight of his vast legions of fans.

18 June, 1996

England thrash Netherlands
June 1996 started off as a great month to be English The sun shone Three Lions was top of the charts Euro 96 fever swept the land and the nation's patriotic mood was whipped up into a frenzy by the football team's awesome display against the Netherlands. The host nation produced one of the bestever performances by an England team. Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearer scored twice each as the Dutch were simply blitzed.

26 June, 1996

Germans win again
June 1996 ended up being a rubbish month to be English. The patriotic fervour whipped up during Euro 96 ended abruptly as Germany again won in a semifinal penalty shootout. All England football fans remember the game Shearer's early header Kuntz's equaliser Gazza's studs being one centimetre too short as he lunged to score a golden goal. Ultimately Gareth Southgate's spotkick was saved and Germany crushed England's cup dreams once more.

23 September, 2000

Redgrave becomes Olympic legend
The Olympics has a habit of turning nonmainstream sports into big news and never more so than when Steve Redgrave competed in the Sydney 2000 Games. His attempt for rowing gold attracted nearly seven million TV viewers and that at 12.30am on a Saturday morning. It was a thrilling race as Redgrave's coxless fours lest we forget the efforts of Matthew Pinsent James Cracknell and Tim Foster just held on against the Italian quartet landing gold for Britain.

1 September, 2001

Germany thrashed in Munich
Not content with dumping England out of the 1970 and 1990 World Cups as West Germany and the Euro 96 finals the Germans also had the nerve to win the lastever game at Wembley. It seemed England were fated to be forever second to their Teutonic rivals but that was blown apart in Munich. Michael Owen scored three Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey chipped in with the others and England football fans sported a grin which has still not quite faded.

8 June, 2002

Lewis wins world title
Debates over whether Lewis was really a Canadian mysteriously subsided after he dismantled Mike Tyson in eight brutal rounds in Memphis. Londonborn Lewis had already become the first Briton to become undisputed heavyweight champion after beating Evander Holyfield in 1999 but knew he could only be considered a true great if he beat the legendary Tyson. Iron Mike was not quite the force he once was but Lewis' display sealed his place in boxing history.

21 June, 2002

Brazil outclass England
For all their failings England's footballers have in recent years at least been able to cry quotinjusticequot after exiting major tournaments. Think Argentina's handball in 1986 lucky German penaltytakers in 1990 and 1996 referees not allowing perfectly good headed goals by Sol Campbell and more lucky penaltytakers against Argentina in 1998. Not so in the 2002 World Cup. England lost to a much better team. It was as simple as that.

12 February, 2003

Aussies beat England at football
True this was a friendly and the result did not matter. But amid endless cricket humiliations and general displays of Aussie sporting prowess England fans knew their football team would give their Antipodean rivals a jolly good spanking. That idea was exposed as nonsense and flimflam as a Harry Kewellinspired Australia outplayed England at Upton Park and left home fans wondering if there was any sport left at which the Aussies did not excel.

15 November, 2003

GB lose Ashes
If the Aussies have dominated the recent history of cricket's Ashes then they are even more on top in rugby league's equivalent series. Admittedly their victories have come against Great Britain rather than England but if anything that makes defeat even harder to take. And sure enough in 2003 they came back from 208 behind scoring 15 unanswered points to win the series again retain the Ashes and ensure the status quo remained intact.

22 November, 2003

England win Rugby World Cup
England flyhalf Jonny Wilkinson was the consumate hero slotting the winning drop goal between the Australian posts deep into extratime. His kick provided a fitting end to a thrilling Sydney final. England threw away chances to wrap up the match in normal time and were pegged back by a dogged Australian side. But skipper Martin Johnson got control of his men as the climax loomed setting the stage for Wilkinson to bring home his country's first World Cup since 1966.