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Last Updated: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 17:29 GMT 18:29 UK

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England expects...

30 July, 1966

World champions
Forty years of hurt began soon after Geoff Hurst rifled the ball in 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. Legendary Russian linesman Tofik Bakhramov gave the goal to prompt scenes of wild celebration and Nobby Stiles' jubilant jig.

June, 1970

West Germany take revenge
England looked a good bet to hold on to their crown in Mexico. But skipper Bobby Moore was subject to a controversial theft allegation and goalkeeper Gordon Banks missed the quarterfinal against the Germans through ill health. England still went 20 ahead before 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
Great Britain's 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 they triumphed over all their rivals in the group stages before facing Australia in the final in 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
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 sealed an emotional tournament with a 46 63 61 final 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 trailed 221 runs behind the Australians. Day four arrives. Enter Ian Botham. The Somerset allrounder crashed an unbeaten 149 off 148 balls. It paved the way for Bob Willis to take 843 in the fourth innings England won by 18 runs to level the series and later reclaim the Ashes.

10 February, 1984

Torvill and Dean
It is easy to forget the 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 glamorous. Briefly.

22 June, 1986

The hand of God
"The first goal was dubious the second was a bloody miracle". So said England manager Bobby Robson after Diego Maradona ended England's World Cup dream in Mexico. His first goal was 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 an unusual cricket shot but can be 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 stuttered. 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 existed 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 a year later he became only the second player to win backtoback Masters. Faldo remained a golfing force for years 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 met old rivals West Germany in the semifinal. But it became a classic "we wuz robbed" scenario for England. Favourites Germany only scored through a lucky deflection. But in a manner which set a pattern 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 "butts" 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
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 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. 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 final by 22 runs. The reasons for England's defeat were various but eventually it was another failure down under to put in the record books.

1 August, 1992

Christie wins 100m gold
Ldetrd Christie who was born in Jamaica and grew up in south London appeared destined to be an England sporting bridesmaid. He dominated European sprinting but seemed unlikely to better his 1987 World Championship bronze or silver at the 1988 Barcelona Olympics. Aged 32 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 many contests England come secondbest when matched against opponents from across the pond. "Still" many fans believed "at least our football or soccer as the Yanks call it team is better than theirs". 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 destroys England
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. For the watching English fans it was almost as hard. England's lastgasp quarterfinal win over Australia was forgotten as Lomu's awesome power brushed aside Englishmen. Shellshocked captain Will Carling was left shaking his head and muttering "freak" at the final whistle.

3 September, 1995

Bruno beats McCall
Few serious boxing fans will claim Bruno was an alltime 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 kicked off off as a great month to be English. The sun shone 'Three Lions' topped the charts Euro 96 fever swept the land and the nation's patriotic mood was whipped up by the football team's awesome display against the Netherlands. The host nation produced one of the best displays by an England side. Teddy Sheringham and Alan Shearer scored twice each as the Dutch were blitzed.

26 June, 1996

Germans win again
June 1996 ended as an agonising month to be English. The hope and pride of Euro 96 ended abruptly as Germany again won in a semifinal penalty shootout. England fans can easily 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 dreams again.

23 September, 2000

Redgrave becomes Olympic legend
The Olympics can turn nonmainstream sports into big news and never more so than when Britain's 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 he was joined by Matthew Pinsent James Cracknell and Tim Foster just held on against the Italian quartet.

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 last game at Wembley. It seemed England were fated to be forever second to their Teutonic rivals but not so in Munich. Michael Owen scored three Steven Gerrard and Emile Heskey chipped in with the others and England football fans were in raptures.

8 June, 2002

Lewis wins world title
Debate over whether Lewis was really a Canadian mysteriously subsided after he dismantled Mike Tyson over eight brutal rounds in Memphis. Londonborn Lewis had already become the first Briton to be undisputed heavyweight champion after bating 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 of old 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 "injustice" 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. In the 2002 World Cup England simply lost to a better team.

12 February, 2003

Aussies beat England at football
True this was a friendly and the result mattered little. 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 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.

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 wasted chances to win 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.

23 June, 2004

Paying the penalties again
A familiar tale as England fans endured more penalty heartache and the players departed with another bunch of excuses. Young striker Wayne Rooney was a real star of Euro 2004 in Portugal but his loss to injury was pivotal when England led the hosts 10 in their quarterfinal. With echoes of the 1998 World Cup Sol Campbell headed a lastgasp 'winner' which was disallowed and skipper David Beckham led the spotkick failures.

7 September, 2005

Humiliation in Belfast
As anticipation ahead of the Ashes cricket decider reached a frenzy Engand's footballers let their fans down. Northern Ireland ranked 111 places lower and behind Rwanda in football's global order claimed a deserved World Cup qualifier victory against disjointed opposition. The defeat left many supporters calling for England's Swedish manager SvenGoran Eriksson to resign.

12 September, 2005

The Ashescome home
With the odds stacked against them England fought back from behind in a classic series showdown with old rivals Australia. They were outgunned by the world champions in the first Test but levelled matters with a dramatic tworun win at Edgbaston and edged into the lead with another nailbiting win at Trent Bridge. England endured some nervy moments in The Oval decider but secured the draw to land the Ashes for the first time since 1986.

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