A personal appreciation by David Stirling, past Sports Editor of the Evening Times

FOR almost 50 years, Bob Crampsey made an outstanding contribution to Scottish life. A Mount Florida boy, he grew up in the 1930s within 300 yards of Hampden Park, sparking a lifelong love affair with football, and sport in general.

His was a family of Queen's Park supporters and he was an Honorary Life Member of the Spiders.

Raised a Catholic, he said he also "invoked freedom of choice" to watch Rangers. It was this independent spirit, a hallmark of his life, which made Bob Crampsey one of the most respected commentators and journalists in Scotland.

With his passing yesterday morning at 78 we have lost our leading voice of reason, trusted by all sides to bring balance and perspective and impartiality to any debate.

For almost 40 years, from April 1972, Bob also edited the world's longest-running newspaper sports column - Now You Know - in the Evening Times. He called it his labour of love.

When he started, I was a young sub-editor on the sports desk. When he retired, I had been his Sports Editor for 13 years.

His genius, as a former Brain of Britain, is well documented. But Bob also was a lovely man, soft-spoken, witty, modest, and it always was a delight and an education to be in his company or have him on the end of a phone. I was proud and privileged to call him friend.

The former head teacher - "I was a historian by trade" - became a pioneering broadcaster on radio and TV.

He joked he was the only surviving link from the days when pigeons carried reports back to newspaper offices. Technology was a stranger to Bob, as were the most basic DIY tasks, which was the source of much amusement in the Crampsey household.

Until he retired last year, he was still battering out his Now You Know column on his trusty old typewriter. He cherished that great day in 1937 when 149,000-plus spectators saw Scotland beat England 3-1, and the following week 146,000 were at the Scottish Cup Final when Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1.

A year later, the seven-year-old somehow persuaded his mother to allow him to join, alone, the 82,000 watching the 1938 Scottish Cup Final replay between East Fife and Kilmarnock at Hampden, won 4-2 by the Fifers.

"The crowds were remarkably well-behaved in those days," Bob recalled. "I was adopted by a crowd of miners from Coaltown of Wemyss, and since that day I have had a soft spot for East Fife."

Bob began his broadcasting career with Scottish TV in 1957 - "It was ice hockey, would you believe?" - and teamed up with that other legendary figure from black and white broadcasting, Arthur Montford.

"For at least the first four or five years everything was done on the hoof," Bob recalled. "There were no recording facilities and if you got it wrong you got it wrong very publicly."

It was here the Crampsey legend was cemented, when his off-the-cuff, five-minute football monologues filled in when the film failed; and it did, often.

Bob joined Radio Clyde in the 1970s before negotiating a transfer to Radio Scotland in 1987, a year after retiring as rector of St Ambrose High in Coatbridge. His final Sportsound was appropriately at Hampden for the 2001 Tennent's Scottish Cup Final.

His great sporting love was actually cricket, and he was a member of Somerset CCC and a regular visitor to the English county. Somerset and Queen's Park; Bob certainly was a champion of the underdog.

His writing output was prolific, with almost 30 books on football, plus many more on a range of subjects.

He wrote a biography of Jock Stein, the official history of Queen's Park, and the centenary histories of the Scottish Football League and the Victoria Infirmary.

Other works ranged from the official history of Royal Troon Golf Club to Glasgow's 1938 Empire Exhibition, cricket, politics, travel, Scottish railways, four novels and his autobiography, The Young Civilian, containing vivid recollections about a boyhood in wartime Glasgow.

He also wrote the biography of city merchant Sir Thomas Lipton and he was a witty and in-demand after-dinner speaker and lecturer.

In 1999, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate at Stirling University for his contribution to Scottish Sport. He said the highlight was receiving his degree from the then University chancellor, actress Dame Diana Rigg.

He was passionate about music - Stephen Sondheim and American musicals were a source of comfort in his final weeks - and he was a long-standing associate of the Royal College of Music. And I can testify to his skill on the piano.

Helped by an encyclopaedic knowledge, which he freely shared, he won the title Brain of Britain in 1965 and was a semi-finalist on Mastermind in 1973 - specialist subject the American Civil War; he lost by a point.

He served for three years in the RAF in the 1950s before marrying Veronica, his childhood sweetheart - and Queen's Park season-ticket holder.

He leaves behind his beloved Ronnie and their four daughters, Alison, Fiona, Marion and Siobhan, and grandchildren Katie, Michael, Tino and Harry.

Bob was known as Bert to his family, who will greatly miss this gentle man and gentleman.

As we all will. My only regret is not playing more cricket

After the death of the legendary Jaymak, the former Evening Times Sports Editor, Jimmy McCormack, Bob took over Now You Know on the recommendation of his brother-in-law, John Quinn, then a young Times reporter.

Bob enjoyed the twice-weekly challenge of answering reader queries and also contributed on a range of other topics. Here are a selection of his pronouncements.

On Now You Know "My abiding memory will be of the unflagging courtesy of the readership. When one made an error - and one did inevitably - the readers would write to you saying that possibly such and such might be a tad adrift.

"They would have been quite justified in showing a touch of asperity, but it never came.

"To be allowed to do the Now You Know column has been a great privilege. It is not given to all who delve in the annals of the football capital of the world and Glasgow was most certainly that. It had four grounds which could take crowds of 40,000 or more.

"The marvellous and huge Evening Times bound volumes told us of Junior clubs now dead and gone, of enormous crowds, holding three times as many as those of today.

"It was very hard work, four or more sports papers to be read every Saturday night. But to have been allowed to do so has been a very great privilege."

On being 1965 Brain of Britain

"I think I won it because I met my fellow contestants before the quiz started. The English chap was charming, and so was the fellow from Northern Ireland. But I conceived a violent antipathy towards the Welsh bloke, who didn't endear himself to me by addressing me as Jock on our first meeting.

"I started out with the viewpoint that I give a damn if I am third, just as long as you are fourth, sunshine. It gave me the spur because it became evident that he was the bloke to beat."

On the best Scottish sides

"Dundee in the early 1960s were the best. Jock Stein's Celtic played with great exhilaration, but the Dens Parkers were a classical side. In the 1950s I went every year to the Hibs-Hearts derby. Hibs were prepared to lose three goals to score four. The Aberdeen side of the 1980s was tremendous and, for a while, there was Dundee United."

On his favourite players

"Stanley Matthews was the best I ever saw. Gordon Smith won three league winners' medals with three different clubs outwith the Old Firm. Others included Alex Hamilton of Dundee, Charlie Gallacher of Celtic, and Willie Hamilton of Hibs. Of the more recent crop, Jorg Albertz, Lubomir Moravcik, Brian Laudrup and Henrik Larsson were excellent."

On his favourite match

The classic 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden between Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt, when the Spanish aristocrats beat the Germans 7-3."

On himself

The one thing I regret about my inglorious sporting career is that I didn't play more cricket."