For 50 years a man has kept the glory of England’s World Cup victory in 1966 alive through the pages of his football memorabilia.

In the run up to the official 50th anniversary of England’s greatest triumph on a football pitch this Saturday (July 30), we speak to Mike Bondy, from Highams Park, about his fond memories and priceless mementos.

The self-confessed hoarder and football fanatic is a retired sports researcher, who at 69-years-old was “just a lad” of 19 during the finals.

Mr Bondy failed to get tickets to the Wembley matches despite living nearby to the ground in Neasden, but fate handed him an opportunity he would grasp at.

England’s group featured Mexico, France and Uruguay, with all the games pencilled in for play at Wembley Stadium.

However, when Wembley officials looked at the date for the Uruguay-France game, they realised an unlikely clash - a clash with a greyhound meet.

Not wanting to upset the 1,000-strong regulars another venue was sort out and White City Stadium, an athletics track in West London, was duly chosen.

Mr Bondy said: “You have to laugh, it was quite staggering.

“Can you imagine that happening today? It just wouldn’t happen.”

More than 45,000 people attended the game, which finished 2-1 to Uruguay, and Mr Bondy still has his immaculately preserved ticket from the day.

Every worthwhile souvenir released during the competition was carefully collected and catalogued by the faithful fan.

Among the collection is the Post Office’s first day covers, a specially designed envelope with tribute postage stamps to the winning English team.

An official programme and ticket from the final, where England famously beat West Germany 4-2, thanks to a hat-trick from West Ham’s Geoff Hurst, who remains the only man to score three goals in a World Cup final.

Mr Bondy said: “Of course for the world cup these days they issue one for every game but back then they had one programme covering all the matches up to the final.

“I do wonder if England hadn’t actually made it to the final whether they would have bothered printing another programme for the big day.

“They are worth a fair bit of money now but they were going two a penny back then you could get them quite easily.”

Seen in remarkable condition, the Daily Express’ back page boasted “Champions of the World” alongside a picture of England’s controversial third goal.

Geoff Hurst’s goal still creates arguments over whether it crossed the line, with Mr Bondy conceding he “never really thought it went over”.

An item which “comes up quite a lot in quizzes” is who had the No.1 UK single on the day England won.

Mr Bondy can clear that up with a pristine record of Chris Farlowe’s ‘Out of Time’ written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

He also kept a scrapbook documenting every game from the tournament, featuring cuttings from various newspapers.

It showed signs of future career where Mr Bondy would research sport professionally while also writing match reports for football magazines Match and Shoot.

Asked if he knew he would always keep mementos from the tournament, Mr Bondy admitted he has “always been a bit of a hoarder”.

He added: “I guess I always had a feeling I would hang on to stuff and especially from 1966, it was just so special.”