Sir Alf apparently said to him" you get the ball and give it to Bobby"
His dance in 1966 after the game is etched on my mind.

RIP

RIP. Him and Alan Ball were little midfield powerhouses in the 66 World Cup.

A very sad day for his family but if he's been suffering from cancer and advanced dementia for a long time it's also a release. More than me on this board will know how tough it is to watch a loved one decline like that.

I second every word of that, Mr H.

Considered by some to be a dirty b back then but a truly memorable give it all player. One by one all of the greats that many of us grew up with and copied for hours and hours with a ball fade away. RIP Norbert Nobby Stiles.

a player i could relate to more than some of the others. probebly a release for his family but until a few years ago he had a life that a lot of us would not mind having. thanks for the memories nobby.

Remember years ago reading a book by one of the refs ( Clive Thomas or George Courtney - that era ), where he had booked Nobby for a dubious tackle. Nobby protests " come on ref, I haven't got my contact lenses in", then as the ref's completing his notebook, Nobby looks over and says " it's an i not a y" ! Great character . Unfortunately those type of players are few and far between now.

Good tribute on Football Focus

and Bobby has dementia......its been a sad few day with Connery and JJ Williams.

That's like the ref who pulled Bobby Moore up for a foul. What's your name, Bobby the ref asked.

RIP

Ralph Wright was a similar player if not similar skill levels. I remember having conversations with Ralph when he reported to me at work about the outright violence on the pitch back in the sixties and seventies. Nobby Stiles was of a similar ilk.

as the late great ex manager harry storer once said, no player likes being kicked but some like it less than others.

Back in the day when I was working at the British Museum, the director of one of our contractors had connections with Manure. When they had an evening game in north London, they would stay at a hotel in Russell Square.

One afternoon, my boss 'phoned me and asked me to go to his office as he had, "someone who wanted to see me". I opened his door and there, sitting on the opposite side to my boss behind his huge wooden desk sat a small, schoolboyish chap wearing a light grey 'whistle', large specs and a huge grin. He looked vaguely familiar but it took me a few seconds before I realized that it was Nobby. The exact opposite of the person we regularly saw on the pitch. Polite, cheery, down to earth with a good sense of humour, it was a real pleasure to be in his company. RIP.

I was later to meet Alex Stepney under similar circumstances.

They reckon he really was blind as a bat, some say that was the reason for some of his tackling, not that he deliberately went in hard , or was nasty , just that he saw opponents at the very last minute.