MAN’S BEST 
FRIEND TO 
THE RESCUE...
It was in the spring of 1966, when England misplaced the 
World Cup. Not metaphorically misplaced, but physically 
stolen while on public display at Westminster Central Hall. 
The Jules Rimet Trophy, small, golden, and mythically 
important, vanished, leaving behind an empty case and a 
profound sense that the nation had somehow failed a test 
it had not realised it was sitting.
This was awkward, because England was hosting the 
tournament in a few months. The papers filled their columns 
with indignation, suspicion, and a large quantity of speculative 
frothing. Someone, somewhere, had the World Cup. And that 
someone was not England.
Enter Pickles.
Pickles was not, as heroes often are, tall, brooding, or burdened 
with destiny. Pickles was a dog. A scruffy little mongrel with a nose 
calibrated for intrigue and a worldview that began and ended with 
interesting smells. He lived with his owner, David Corbett, in South London.
One evening whilst going for a walk, Pickles detected something amiss. Not 
criminal as such, dogs are not big on jurisprudence, but wrong in a textural, 
olfactory sort of way. Newspaper. Cold metal. A whiff of human panic. He 
investigated, tugged, insisted. Corbett followed, perhaps assuming they had 
found a sandwich, or a cat. Instead, there it was: the World Cup trophy, wrapped 
in newspaper. Despite weeks of police investigation, the greatest prize in sport 
was discovered by a dog.
Pickles became famous overnight. Not just local news famous, but properly 
famous. Photographs, television appearances, ceremonial dinners. He received 
a medal and a year’s supply of dog food. Meanwhile, England went on to win the 
World Cup that summer, hoisting the very trophy Pickles had retrieved, as if the 
universe were gently insisting on narrative coherence.
He died in 1967, having lived long enough to attend banquets and be serenaded 
by gratitude. He left behind no memoirs, gave no interviews, and made no 
attempt to monetise his brand. Which is perhaps the most heroic thing of all.
Mr Alexander
In 1966, when football had finally come home to 
English shores, disaster struck after the famous Jules 
Rimet trophy was stolen in London. Mr Alexander tells 
the story of how England’s blushes were spared by 
a dog called Pickles, who saved the World Cup by 
knowing his onions.
© Vitalii Kliuiev | Dreamstime.com
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