The Chase contestants need to get an atlas and look up Sunderland - reaction to the £19,000 River Wear blunder

Chaser Anne Hegerty had already guessed Tyne. Despite this hefty clue her opponents, from Manchester, Oxfordshire and London had no idea. It cost them £19,000.

What of it? It isn’t expected that everyone should know every puddle and fissure of this land. But these people had agreed to appear on a televised general knowledge quiz.

The Sunderland section of the Wear, a major British river with huge industrial, religious and other history is evidently not well known. Why?

Bede and a quite incredible shipbuilding heritage (eg. Wear-built ships were vital in feeding and fueling the country during WWII) should themselves be enough to cement at least a correct answer in a quiz.

It’s often said that Sunderland should bang its own drum more loudly. But sometimes it’s them, not us.

Many of you have experienced the surprise of a non-Wearsider when informed that our city has miles of sandy beaches, replete with piers and a port. Why the surprise? My atlas shows Sunderland on the coast. Doesn’t everyone’s?

The media often don’t help and national journalists can have a “that’ll do” approach to the area. It isn’t difficult for the uncertain journo to establish that not everywhere in the North East is a stotty cake-width from the Tyne.

The Investment Monitor website’s list of the UK’s largest 25 cities doesn’t list Sunderland, which should be at number 18. Other websites seem to merely guess at its population.

Football Focus once showed footage of Seaburn and declared it to be in Tyne and Wear. It isn’t. It’s in Sunderland. Tyne and Wear hasn’t existed since 1986.

Tyne-Tees’ website gives the game away, offering “News for Newcastle and the North East”. Is Newcastle, a whole 8% larger than Sunderland, not just part of the North East?

We shouldn’t be too vexed. There’s a widespread dearth of knowledge. Viewers of Pointless might feel reassured that 92 of 100 people, presumably adults, have heard of Winston Churchill. But you really have to wonder about the other eight.