The annual Salut! Sunderland HAWAYs, modest prizes awarded to opposing supporters who are judged by our panel to have been the best interviewees of the season, will be announced early next week.
But now we need new contenders for the 2016-2017 awards.
It is that time of year. Salut! Sunderland is preparing to make its annual HAWAY awards, honouring the best of our “Who are You?” interviewees among opposing supporters. The interviews ahead of each match often reach the highest standards (the answers, I mean with due modesty, not the questions) and we are delighted to offer awards to the best as voted by our panel of judges.
Rudyard Kipling went to Chicago and considered it an abomination: ‘I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.’ It serves Geoff Hiron* OK all the same. Born near Vicarage Road, he has made his home in the Windy City while remaining loyal to his roots and his football club. Salut! Sunderland spotted his nom-de-guerre – Harry Hornet – in Comments posted after mentions of his team and asked him to handle the last Who are You? of the season. Here are his responses. I like Geoff’s replies, and that is not just because he likes us. What Kipling made of Watford may or may not be recorded …
Two more Who are You?s to go, including this one, and the judges are already busy choosing the best of the season for our annual awards. Can Lyndon Lloyd*, our Everton hot seat occupant, gain late support from our panel? Have a read of his interview, with thoughtful comments on his team and ours – as you’d expect from someone who runs ToffeeWeb.com – and then pray his prediction for the game turns out to be correct. After all that, settle down if you can for what could, just could, be a great Wednesday to be a Sunderland supporter…
For our second Who are You? interview ahead of SAFC v Chelsea, we extend a friendly hand to Denise Hone*, a Chelsea fan who has graced these pages in the past. Her site is Chelsea Den and you can see her tweets at https://twitter.com/thechelseablog
Angela Smith*, broadcaster, Supporters’ Council leader and former squash pro, is as Stoke as they come, a fan – she says – from birth, so precocious, too. She was quite enjoying the season until recent bad results, and expects Sunderland to snatch a draw on Saturday. Ideally, we need better than that but we’ll see. Welcome back to Salut! Sunderland, Angela. after an absence of two or three years and good luck after Saturday …
Nick Birch* is this season’s second supporter from the Arsenal fan site Gunners Town to volunteer or be volunteered for the ‘Who are You?’ hot seat. He’s a regular home and away, shares the apparently increasing disenchantment with Arsène Wenger and, instead of laughing at the idea of there being a Sunderland player who might do a job for the Gunners, suggests that Jermain Defoe could compete for a place if only as an impact sub. He will be at the Stadium of Light on Sunday and cheerfully accepts our best wishes for a great day out, to be followed by the visiting Londoner’s obligatory night out on the Toon, marred only by the result (can we also pray for glum faces in Bigg Market after a defeat at Anfield?) …
This, redirected from the original and now abbreviated version for a boring technical reason, is the full interview with Gary Gowers, a Carrow Road regular since the age of six, editor of NorwichCity.MyFootballwriter.com and the Norwich City voice at the Metro newspaper. Thanks, Gary, for some great answers …
For James read Roy. For the opening game of the season, our Leicester City interviewee was one James Bennett, one of Monsieur Salut’s former Abu Dhabi colleagues, and it is fair to say his comments on us – ‘I’ve always admired Sunderland’s fans and their passion but their style of play has always been on a level with the Stokes of this world and not something I would pay to watch… even if they were my team’ – did not go down too well. Roy Bennett*, no relation, offers a somewhat less contentious appraisal of his club and ours. He hopes his Foxes can sprint beyond the chasing pack’s reach, accepts that this season’s act will be hard to follow and realistically reckons fourth bottom safety is between us and Norwich …
Colin Randall writes: As we nervously approach a match of easily calculable importance, at home to WBA on Saturday, Salut! …