West Ham‘s Europa Conference League-winning stars stepped into the photo booth to pose with their trophy after the final whistle on Wednesday evening. 

Fresh from beating Fiorentina 2-1 at the Fortuna Stadium in Prague, the players revelled in showing off their achievement as they sought to capture a moment in history. 

Jarrod Bowen looked particularly pleased to have been handed the Man of the Match award, after the England international scored the match-winning goal on the stroke of the 90th minute. 

Fiorentina’s pacey dominance had held West Ham back for much of the final, but the east London side were the first to break the deadlock when Said Benrahma scored from the spot in the second half. 

Just five minutes later, Giacomo Bonaventura levelled proceedings with a gracefully-struck shot that had Alphonse Areola beaten. 

West Ham brought their 58-year wait for European glory to a halt in style on Wednesday night

The players brought the trophy home to be greeted by a sea of supporters in east London

But victory in the Czech capital saw the Irons break their 58-year duck in Europe in spectacular fashion and provide a pitch-perfect send-off for outgoing captain Declan Rice. 

Just hours into their newly-minted status as European champions – and before the all-nighter and raucous open-top bus parade – the men who made a difference in the final got to grips with the latest addition to West Ham’s trophy cabinet.

Cup keeper Alphonse Areola (left) held his place in the starting XI with Lukasz Fabianski relegated to the bench, while Vladimir Coufal (right) played a key role in securing the Hammers’ opening penalty

An experienced head amongst the pack, Kurt Zouma (left) said he had come to West Ham ‘to win trophies’. Nayef Aguerd (right) scrapped well to combat Fiorentina’s high press

Emerson Palmieri (left) became the first player to ‘complete’ UEFA competitions with his fifth trophy. Tomas Soucek (right) had a dream homecoming to Slavia Prague’s ground after coming up through the club’s academy 

In his last performance in West Ham’s colours, Declan Rice (left) excelled in defence on an emotional night. The captain claimed he never doubted team-mate Jarrod Bowen (right) wouldn’t score the match-winner – Bowen’s 90th-minute strike inked his name in the history books and saw him named Man of the Match

Lucas Paqueta (left) justified his club-record move last summer setting up Bowen’s winning goal, while Said Benrahma (right) was nerveless from the spot to almost tear the netting of Pietro Terracciano’s goal

Michail Antonio (left) was a dogged attacking presence for much of the match, stretching Fiorentina’s defence. Thilo Kehrer (right) had a bright cameo for the side after starting the game from the bench

Pablo Fornals (left) stepped into Benrahma’s shoes with 20 minutes to play as West Ham hunted down their equaliser, and Angelo Ogbonna (right) had the briefest of cameos after Bowen’s late heroics

Sporting director Mark Noble (far left) could finally celebrate European glory after losing out on a Europa League final spot as captain in 2022, and although Aaron Cresswell (left) failed to make it onto the pitch, the defender has made valuable contributions all season. David Moyes (right) has scarcely stopped smiling and dancing since the final whistle after securing West Ham’s first European trophy in 58 years

Lukasz Fabianski was unlucky not to keep his place at No 1 after Moyes’ stuck to his guns and kept in Areola. Unused substitute Danny Ings made the move to West Ham last summer, winning his first career trophy on Wednesday night

WHY WOMEN GROW 

by Alice Vincent (Canongate £16.99, 304pp)

Is there any pastime which cuts across gender barriers in the way that gardening does? Go to a nursery or garden centre this weekend and I bet you’ll see a pretty even split of men and women browsing through plants or eyeing up shiny tools.

As the historian Catherine Horwood wrote in her 2010 book Gardening Women: ‘For centuries gardens have been important to women, and women have been important to gardens’, even though almost all women gardeners were denied any share of the limelight until the arrival, in the mid-19th century, of the great garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.

Nowadays, many of Britain’s most influential gardeners — Carol Klein, Rachel de Thame, Anna Pavord, Sarah Raven and even the Princess of Wales — are women.

In Why Women Grow, journalist Alice Vincent argues that women’s contribution to gardening is still being undervalued. ‘We have silently made the world more beautiful, too often without acknowledgement’, she declares, pointing out that ‘the majority of RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardens are still designed by men, who take home more of the medals; there has never been a female lead presenter of Gardeners’ World’.

Vincent’s previous book, Rootbound, told of her joyful discovery of gardening in her 20s and how tending a tiny urban balcony helped her get over a painful relationship break-up.

Female persuasion: Picking flowers in the garden. Journalist Alice Vincent explores the role women have played in art of gardening

At the beginning of this book she has a supportive new partner and has moved into a new property — with a garden! — yet she is still anxious and dissatisfied. To cheer herself up she embarks on a project to interview other women about what gardening means to them. She posts a message online with the simple question: ‘What drew you to gardening?’ By the next day, she has received 500 answers.

For the next few months, Vincent travels around the country interviewing a selection of women about their experiences. Some of the replies from new mothers tell her that gardening gives them a reason to be outside with their children, while others see the garden as a precious opportunity to get some time away from their offspring.

One new mum finds the garden an escape from the loneliness she feels indoors. Several of her interviewees use gardening as a way of coping with stress and anxiety. 

One of them takes up gardening while in the grip of severe agoraphobia, brought on by being caught up in a terrorist incident in Paris. Her bramble-infested garden, now a jumble of roses, clematis and honeysuckle, was the only outdoor space she could bear to be in.

Soon ‘curiosity encouraged her to explore the local neighbourhood, see what was growing there that might work in her own depleted soil’.

Another woman, a victim of a sexual assault, says ‘the ground gave her something to hold, to indulge in and escape to’.

One of the best chapters in the book sees Vincent returning to the house where she grew up, driven by a longing to see her childhood garden again. The house’s new owner invites her to wander around and she has a Proustian moment: ‘I can taste the listlessness and longing of my adolescence.’

She had always believed her father was the gardener in the family but standing in the garden she has a revelation. All the things she loved best about it — the sweet peas, the Welsh poppies, the coldframe — were her mother’s doing.

‘I see her artistry, her cleverness, in the hard landscaping that still stands,’ she writes.

Alice Vincent writes lyrically about gardens and she makes some valid points about the pivotal role gardening plays in many women’s lives, but Why Women Grow is let down by her tendency towards navel-gazing. The simple joy of gardening gets lost in the mix.

Still, any gardener — woman or man — will surely agree with her when she asserts: ‘To green a space is to occupy it. To spring life from dirty grey concrete is to stage a takeover. To garden is to cultivate a superpower.’

Boris blasts ‘dismal’ MPs for refusing to beam Olympic heroes onto Parliament

By Simon Walters for The Mail on Sunday
Updated: 19:52 EDT, 26 November 2011

Boris Johnson last night denounced ‘dismal’ MPs for refusing to project giant images of British Olympic and Paralympic heroes on to the Houses of Parliament.

The MPs threw out a request by London 2012 chiefs to beam stars such as heptathlete Jessica Ennis, cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, tennis player Andy Murray and Paralympic swimmer Ellie Simmonds on to the Palace of Westminster next summer.

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What the Houses of Parliament would look like with Olympic images projected onto the side of the building

One claimed that it was ‘demeaning’.

Cheek: A naked Gail Porter was beamed on to the side of the Palace of Westminster for a magazine stunt in 1999

But the decision by the Commons Administration Committee not to allow the displays during the Games was attacked as ‘arrogant and unpatriotic’ by one MP.

And London Mayor Mr Johnson said: ‘It is a dismal decision. This paperclips committee should be leaping at the chance to showcase the finest human specimens on arguably the most stunning city backdrop in the world.

Parliament won’t even be sitting. I urge sensible MPs who are proud of this city and eager to stage a fantastic Olympics to demand a rethink.’

In 1999, a 60ft image of naked TV presenter Gail Porter was projected on to the same side of Parliament in an unofficial stunt to promote FHM magazine.

Olympic organisers wanted ‘iconic spectaculars’ – action photographs of the athletes – displayed on Parliament during the Games, and a separate display of the Olympic rings on Big Ben on New Year’s Eve. It would not have cost the parliamentary authorities a penny.

But Tory committee member Sarah Newton said the Olympic montage would ‘set a precedent’ and spark a flood of similar requests.

She is said to have ‘pulled a face’ when shown an illustration of the projections.

The proposal, which has been leaked to The Mail on Sunday, was to be funded by Mr Johnson’s Greater London Authority. Apart from a few days, the images were to be displayed when MPs are on their summer recess.