SPECTATOR SPORT
A whiff of nostalgia
Frank Keating
I WAS overcome by a potent whiff of nos- talgia this week. It was almost a hankie job, as a sudden reverie dumped me back to a carefree, clear-eyed boyhood. All I had been doing was studying a railway timetable to ensure a fast Wednesday getaway from Epsom Downs to be in Manchester in time to enjoy a few late-night drinks over the always relishable sabre-rattling prognosti- cations which precede a new Ashes series.
Can it really be a quarter of a century ago that I was making a shorter journey — but one even more breathless with anticipation — from Epsom as soon as the big race had been run? What a day that was — and still as vivid, as my prime was fizzing and fancy- free. It was 29 May 1968. It was the day of Sir Ivor and Sir Matt.
I was working then as an ITV producer in outside broadcasts. I was assigned for the day to a 'liaison' capacity, which meant grabbing a few passing luminaries for inter- view. A doddle — and it meant I could loll back in my grandstand seat for what was one heck of a day. For ITV not only had exclusive rights to the Derby but they were also covering, later that evening and live, the European Cup Final at Wembley between Manchester United and Benfica, the lustrous footballing 'eagles' of Portugal, led by the glistening Mozambican Eusebio.
For the Derby, we had been across the water a few weeks earlier to film the favourite at Vincent O'Brien's blissful gal- lops at Ballydoyle. Sir Ivor was going to be ridden by Lester Piggott at Epsom. The fierce-eyed bay was owned by Raymond Guest, who was the US ambassador in Dublin, a gregarious sport who told us he had put down £550 the year before on Sir Ivor to win the Derby and that William Hill had accepted the bet at 100-1. Guest, how- ever, would not be across to watch the race — he was furious that he would have to attend on the same afternoon the unveiling at Wexford of the Kennedy Memorial.
The bookies knew Sir Ivor to have a spectacular turn of foot, but put their hopes on him not staying the full Derby one-and- a-half. Nor might he, had the 'long fellow' not been aboard. Piggott waited and wait- ed, and then some more, as he nursed the colt the distance. Only 50 yards from the post, with unbelievable cool and daring, Lester let him go — and like a missile from a catapult the chocolate and powder-blue colours of Guest were launched from the pack as the horse went for the line in a surge of acceleration defying description.
Lester just mumbled, 'When he went, he went. He just gets on with the job.' Sir Ivor is still his favourite Derby winner. At once, different sorts of palpitations, for we were on our way to Wembley. Rather like the World Cup Final two years before, the 1968 European Final was a mediocre match, beset by nerves, up to the level full-time. The extra-time period invested both games with their unforgettably fulfilling passages.
We were testing a prototype hand-held camera, so were allowed on the pitch as the players flopped down before extra-time. All Matt Busby said to them was, 'Keep passing the ball to each other and you can win.' And they did, with a gloriously eruptive spasm which did for Eusebio's men.
United held a victory banquet at the Rus- sell Hotel, towards the end of which word was sent for any stragglers still in need of sustenance to proceed to the Savoy, where Raymond Guest's hooley was still in full swing. He had flown over Teddy and the Kennedy entourage from Wexford, as well as the Irish President, De Valera. So racing and football came together in double cele- bration — and as we walked home to Hol- land Park around breakfast time, us fringers in the big time knew we wouldn't have many days like that again.
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