When we interviewed Malcolm Bramley, chairman of Sunderland's Senior Supporters' Association and former SAFC club secretary, he spoke of rubbing shoulders with the likes of Len Shackleton, Charlie Hurley and even George Best. We thought we'd share this amusing story of when Malcolm borrowed The King's car for a weekend...
When I was an office boy at Sunderland, all the players had excuses of why they wanted extra tickets, when attendances were huge and tickets were at a premium. Charlie Hurley in particular, I would always help him out with extra tickets.
Charlie had a brand new Ford Zephyr and I used to love that car. I used to babysit his children so he’d give me a lift home whenever he’d come back from a night out, and he knew how much I liked the car. One day he said: “You’ve looked after me, how would you like to borrow my car for one weekend when we have an away match? I said I’d love that and one Friday he came to my office and gave me his car keys.
On the Saturday, I was asking this girl out who would always say no, but when I told her I had Charlie Hurley’s car for the weekend she said “pick me up at 6:30pm”. We went for a ride along the seafront and had a coffee, and it was dark by the time we came back. I dropped her off home, reversed the car and all of a sudden there was a massive bang! Her neighbour’s brick wall had disintegrated and the back of the car was a complete mess but I drove off in a panic.
On Sunday morning I received a phone call from the girl and she told me that the neighbour heard the bang and they had the registration number, so unless I went round straight away and sorted things out they would call the police. I went to the house and sorted everything out with the neighbour and arranged to pay for the damages. That was the simple part…
I then had to take the car back to Charlie. I knocked on the door and he said “hi Malcolm, did you have a nice weekend?” I told him about my weekend but when he asked for the keys I had to break the news to him. I showed him the car and he swore. A lot. He then told me “you can babysit my two girls until they are 30 years old, and you won’t get another penny out of me, now f*ck off out of my sight!” I’m thinking that’s the last Charlie’s going to talk to me.
Monday morning comes and one of the players knocked on my window and told me Charlie wanted to see me. I went down to the dressing room and there must have been about 35 professional players there when I walked in. I didn’t know what to expect but suddenly they all started singing the Beatles song Baby You Can Drive My Car… but with slightly different words: “Baby You Can’t Drive My Car”! In the end it was a good laugh, and I never babysat the kids again. The girl never went out with me again but Charlie remained a good friend.
