Sunderland Mastermind

Listening to Gary Bennett bringing me up to date with events from Ewood Park – seemed a bright start when I wrote that; reality took over later – Salut! Sunderland salutes Steve Cram, SAFC nut, champion athlete, top commentator and now Mastermind.

And for those who were on the road to Blackburn or otherwise missed it, Steve chose Sunderland AFC in the 1970s as his specialist subject in a celeb edition of the BBC quiz show for charity.

He very nearly scored a clean sweep, missing out only on the last question, guessing the wrong cup competition in which Bobby Moncur made his debut for us against Newcastle (it was the Texaco Cup).

The West End producer Bill Kenwright opted for pop music, not his beloved Everton, but won that round, leaving Steve – whose SAFC Celebrity Supporter interview can be found here – to beat him with the general knowledge questions. Which he duly did. I am not sure whether that means he’s a Mastermind come what may, or that he’s through to another round.

Congrats to Steve – that’s him on the left, pictured with his brother holding the FA Cup after our 1973 triumph (read the interview for the story behind the photo) – and if someone can remind us of the charity of his choice before I get round to finding it myself, give them a plug.

And if someone else can tell Old Prestonian what a prat he is for calling Steve “an embarrassing plastic celebrity fan” at Ready to Go’s SMB forum, so much the better*.

Maybe my temper has got worse since we (Whitehead, with great ineptitude) missed a penalty and they (oddly enough) didn’t. But let’s say Old Prestonian may have a good as opposed to an idiotic reason for his jibe. We so far know he met him once and didn’t like him, has never seen him at a match (registered as blind, perhaps?) and doesn’t approve of his crack. That’s the idiotic reasons out of the way; the world eagerly awaits the good one.

* Glad to say quite a few other SMB subscribers did subsequently leap to Steve Cram’s defence.