Sporting Bygones: Examining curse of Jules Rimet Trophy and an unsolved mystery

We remember Geoff Hurst's hat-trick, the was-it-over-the-line moment of anguish, Nobby Stiles dancing with joy, watching the endless replays, hearing again Kenneth Wolstenholme's unforgettable ad-lib and the outbreak of jingoism which, some say, helped Harold Wilson stay in power.

But without Pickles there would have been national embarrassment and no one could have imagined the existence, like something from the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, of the curse of the World Cup.

Looking back at a range of 44 years, the story has Pink Panther humour, mystery, incompetence, unhappy endings for all the main players – Pickles included – and stretches credibility as much today as it did in March, 1966.

The Jules Rimet Trophy was named in honour of the lawyer who served as president of the French Football Federation from 1919 to 1946 and – rather more importantly – of the Federation of International Football Associations from 1921 to 1954; it was he who came up with the idea of a World Cup.

The small, solid gold statuette was first contested in 1930 but England, regarding such a competition as being beneath the founders of the game, did not deign to enter the World Cup until 1950 and were suitably punished for their arrogance by being beaten by the United States in Brazil.

Rimet had stipulated in presenting the trophy that the first country to win it three times would hold it in perpetuity and Brazil, with the great Pele as their fulcrum, had succeeded in Sweden in 1958 and Chile four years later. They were among the favourites in 1966 but England, under Ramsey's astute management, had emerged as leading challengers.

Brazil had handed over the trophy in January, 1966 – as the rules demanded – and it was kept under lock and key in the Football Association's offices at Lancaster Gate. Then the FA in their wisdom acceded to a request from the Stanley Gibbons postage stamp company that the Jules Rimet Trophy should go into an exhibition the firm had organised, opening on March 19.

The FA stipulated that there should be round-the-clock surveillance in Westminster Central Hall for the duration of the exhibition and insisted the trophy was insured for 30,000 even thought its official value was only 3,000.

The exhibition was open for six days a week with the hall being taken over for church services on the Sabbath and it was at 12.10pm on Sunday, March 20 that one of the guards noticed that the display case holding the precious statuette had been forced open; the World Cup was gone.

The following day, Joe Mears, the chairman of Chelsea and the FA, received a phone call during which a man told him a parcel would arrive at Stamford Bridge the following day. Instead, the parcel, containing the removable lining from the top of the trophy and a note demanding a ransom of 15,000, was delivered to the Mears's house. The note added that if Mears informed the police or newspapers and did not follow instructions the Jules Rimet Trophy would be melted down.

Mears did contact the Metropolitan Police and met Detective Inspector Charles Buggy, a member of the elite Flying Squad, who told Mears to place the advertisement in the London Evening News as the thief had demanded and also prepare a dummy parcel of supposedly used notes.

The thief rang again – Mrs Mears taking the call as her husband was suffering from an asthma attack – and the caller, who called himself "Jackson", agreed to Buggy's plan for the handover.

That went comically wrong; "Jackson" was arrested and identified as Edward Bletchley, who had convictions for theft and receiving stolen goods.

Bletchley claimed he had not stolen the World Cup but could retrieve it – if given bail – from a man he knew only as "the Pole" who had offered him 500 to act as middleman in the affair.

Bail was refused and the whereabouts of the trophy remained a mystery. It was solved on March 27 when David Corbett was walking Pickles in Beulah Hill, South London, and the dog started sniffing a parcel, wrapped in an old newspaper and tied with string, under the hedge of Corbett's house. Pickles had found the World Cup.

He became a canine hero, appearing on TV and in films while Corbett, once he had been cleared of suspicion of involvement in the robbery, received rewards totalling 6,000 and was a guest at England's celebration dinner after they had won the tournament.

But by then the curse had already struck. Joe Mears developed severe angina in the aftermath of the theft and died within weeks of the trophy's recovery.

Edward Bletchley served two years for intent to steal and demanding money with menaces but died from emphysema shortly after his release. Pickles choked to death on his lead, which had snagged on a tree as he chased a cat.

The Jules Rimet Trophy itself was stolen again – in Rio di Janeiro in 1983 after the Brazil team of 1970 had won the World Cup for a third time. It has never been recovered.