When Sunderland was a town of winners in 1989

Sunderland - a town of winners.

It certainly was in 1989 when Wearsiders won all sorts of competitions.

John Kirtley, of Washington, was the winner of the competition to name the new Sunderland ferry, which was run by the Echo and the Arts Development Agency.

The Little Waster

After the launch, the ferry will be used to run regular sight-seeing trips around the harbour.

John called it The Little Waster after the nickname of comedian Bobby Thompson, who died a year earlier.

The passenger ferry was officially launched from Panns Bank, below the Wearmouth Bridge.

A date with Jason for Sally

Sally McQuillan was chosen from hundreds of entries in a magazine to win a date with Jason Donovan.

Sally, from Millfield, met the Australian actor and singer when he appeared at the Mayfair nightclub in 1989.

Boxing fans struck lucky in October 1989.

Glen Hopkins won a Henry Cooper sweatshirt and T-shirt consolation while Kevin Walters and Bob Thompson both won a pair of tickets to a Billy Hardy fight.

A prize of cat food - but he didn’t have a cat

Another winner was competition buff David Lloyd who bagged over £2,000 worth of prizes in a contest run by the makers of Co-op 99 Tea.

The Co-op has presented lucky David with a bumper prize package including a £1,000 holiday for two, a portable TV, microwave oven, food processor, tea set, pendulum wall clock, teasmade and kitchen scales.

David correctly guessed the prices of selected items in a contest modelled on TV’s hit game show The Price Is Right’.

Delighted David said at the time: “The best prize I ever won was a 28-day coast to coast holiday in America, and the most useless was a year’s supply of cat food, and we don’t even have a cat!’

Share your memories of life in Sunderland in 1989 by emailing [email protected]