By Phil Creighton
GROWING up, children’s TV star Keith Chegwin was one of my heroes. He was always smiling, always upbeat and always on CBBC.
It was a thrilling day when, back in 1985, he brought the Saturday Superstore roadshow to my home city. This was the Swap Shop/Going Live/Tiswas of its day, hosted by Mike Read.
My Dad took me over to the field where Keith and his band of merry men had set up and, as you did back in the day, left me there all by myself for the morning.
And at the end, hero that he was, he patiently waited for me patiently waiting for Keith who was patiently signing all manner of Superstore stuff to snotty tearaways. Legend.
Keith was also the host of children’s game show Cheggars Plays Pop, a fusion of silly games and pop music, played out between the red team and the yellow team. Watching along at home, I’d always pick a side, and inevitably it would be the losing one.
So began the story of my life.
I’ve had premium bonds since birth and not once has ERNIE looked favourably on me, while friends who bought a couple of years ago have had countless tenners sent their way.
Shuttle forward to 1999, and my football team, Gillingham, were at Wembley for the League One play-off final. In the 89th minute, they were winning 2-1 against Man City and, with my friends, we were getting excited at the prospect of Championship football the next season.
In what is now the stuff of folklore, City went on to bag two goals in the closing minutes, bringing all those dreams crashing down.
Being a winner doesn’t quite seem to be in my nature.
Until now that is.
2023 seems to have got off to a great start – I am finally number one at something – and no, it’s not the long-distance boreathon.
No one else in Wokingham borough buys more lemon curd than me.
The stats from loyalty card scheme Nectar don’t lie, and I’m already in training to retain my title.
I shouldn’t tell you this so my title remains intact, but lemon curd has been my breakfast go-to ever since I tried to emulate Paddington and realised marmalade was not for me (don’t even get me started on Mr Strong yoghurts…)
As a nipper, it was Gale’s lemon curd, but the last time I spotted a jar in the wild was a long, long time ago. There was a heavenly period when Aldi carried it, but in its merciless dog-eat-dog world, not enough of us bought the jars and it was discontinued.
Alas.
Nothing else quite cuts the mustard at breakfast time and there was a bit of a scare last year when jars were hard to find, which makes the spending spree is even more impressive.
There was one Saturday when the supermarket sweep took in four of the big name stores in a bid to find a jar, otherwise my morning routine would have been well, toast.
Nectar and Sainsbury’s published the data on its digital app as part of an overview of each customers’ spend in 2022, including their top three most purchased products. In my case, it was milk, bread and the Shepherd Neame real ale Whitstable Bay. Well, you can take the boy out of Kent …
Alex Naisby, director of loyalty and CRM at Sainsbury’s says: “Nectar’s Year in Review is always a moment I look forward to as not only is it exciting to discover my top purchases, it’s also fantastic to see the products our customers love and the celebrations and trends they enjoy.
“I can’t wait to see how customer shopping habits change throughout 2023.”
Keith Chegwin might no longer be with us, but I’m sure that just this once, he’d be on yellow team. Yellow for lemon curd, obviously.
