Enigma Variations

Bob Crampsey – broadcasting legend

July 28th, 2008

We heard today of the death of one of Scottish broadcasting’s most respected figures. Bob Crampsey was a man who made you thankful you owned a radio or TV, for whatever he was talking about it was always worth hearing. While it was the football fans who were the most numerous and regular beneficiaries of his erudition, he was eminently capable of discussing a multitude of subjects with a quiet authority born of copious study; a true Scottish polymath.

A winner of Brain of Britain, and later a semi-finalist on Mastermind, he was also a headmaster, an author, and a historian of many subjects, including sport at all levels which he could recall seemingly at will to the constant admiration of his radio and TV colleagues. On STV at a time when the general quality of their sports content rather lagged behind the BBC, Crampsey’s pieces to camera (which must have been live) were a haven of intelligent and unbiased comment to me as a youngster who was already fed up with the bias that was rife at the time.

In later years on Radio Scotland’s Sportsound in the midst of the football banter and sometimes bickering between Jim Traynor, Chick Young and Gordon Smith it was always Bob who would drop in a persuasive observation or recall a historical precedent that would become the definitive answer on the topic being debated. While he loved football he was also an expert on Cricket, a game he said gave him even more pleasure, frequently attending Somerset’s games in Taunton.

Though he was a summariser rather than a commentator, when Bob retired it was like losing John Arlott from Test Match Special or Bill McLaren from the rugby commentaries; the authority wasn’t there any more. A few years later there is still no-one around with anything like the knowledge or integrity that he had. Now his death leaves an enormous hole and cuts a link to a past in which football was the game of the working class rather than the playground of super-rich businessmen. He will be sorely missed.

Entry Filed under: Scottish, sport