ALTRINCHAM resident Erika Sparkes came to Britain from Munich in 1961 to work as a hair stylist - and ended up reporting on the 1966 World Cup to German speaking people on Granada TV.

At first, she worked for Steiner Hairdressing at the Midland Hotel.

They even sent her to style hair on two cruises – the maiden voyage of the QE2 and a world cruise with the Northern Star.

She had just left Steiner to manage Erika Hair Fashions in Claremont Road, Sale, when she was head hunted by Granada Studios to do an exciting job.

She was one of seven glamorous women chosen to take part in a breakfast programme designed to help foreigners understand the action when their country was taking part in the World Cup.

Erica spoke German and the others, Bulgarian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian and Italian.

“Not one of us knew about soccer,” said Erika.

Erika, had to work whenever Germany, Austria or Switzerland were playing. The first match was between Germany and Switzerland.

She remembers stretching the translation on one match with Switzerland to say: “If they had brought their mountains to protect them, they couldn’t have played worse!”

Erika said: “We arrived at 5am when the sports reporters would give us the match summary to translate. When it was our turn we sat in a glass recording cubicle. At the other end was a man with a clapper telling us when we were going live, usually abut 9 am.

“My heart was thumping the first couple of times.”

Each day, she returned to the hair salon. “My clients said they had seen me but couldn’t understand a word I said.”

Then came the final between England and West Germany. Erika believed England would have won anyway although she wasn’t sure about the disputed goal.

“It wasn’t a straightforward win,” she said.

Erika is a widow, and has one son and three grandchildren. She has lived in Altrincham since her marriage in 1973.