Letter: Memories of Moore

Sir: If it's midweek and it's a football match then it must be Arsenal v Leeds United. I was not looking forward to the game, as somehow Leeds always seem to reserve their best performance for games against us. The prospects for the game were put in perspective when the announcement was made before kick-off that Bobby Moore had died. Even if you were too young to remember the match, everyone has watched the highlights or seen the goals that secured the greatest day in English football history: Moore wiping his hands before shaking hands with the Queen, lifting the Jules Rimet Trophy and presenting it to the Wembley crowd.

Reading the newspaper the morning after, the tributes and coverage of his death were equal to that of a major statesman. Growing up as a kid in the early Seventies playing football over the park, if you were a forward you were George Best, a defender, Bobby Moore. Not for him the clenched fist machismo characterised by the modern game, more of a cool, calm approach of a master craftsman. People have certain days that stay in the memory like where they were when both Kennedy and Lennon were shot, for me this day is of at least equal importance, part of my childhood has just died. Oh, by the way, the result was Arsenal 0, Leeds United 0.

Yours sincerely,

PAUL ROBERTS

Essex

2 February