My quiz felled desperate minister

'Oh dear, I seem to have caused a bit of a stir. I have to confess that I did not intend to inflict complete and utter humiliation on the newly appointed Minister for Sport but it seems that he did that rather successfully for himself. I was standing in as the presenter of Sunday Service for Five Live, an irreverent show that romps through the political world, discussing the topical issues of the week.

One of the early items on the programme was an interview with Richard Caborn, 57, who has just replaced Kate Hoey as Minister for Sport. Having never met or spoken to Mr Caborn before, I was not sure what to expect but I assumed he would have, at the very least, a passing interest in sport.

I suggested to the producer that we finish the interview by giving Mr Caborn a quickfire sports quiz and, in an effort to dispel the myth that the Government is fixated with football, that the questions should be about other major sports. I quickly jotted down five questions and, to give him a chance, made all of them relate to events happening over the weekend or this week.

The interview had started very well, with Mr Caborn defending the Government's attitude to football, discussing the plans for Wembley, explaining the resignation of Derek Casey as chairman of Sport England and answering tough questions from the co-presenters Charlie Whelan and Iain Dale. As government ministers go, he sounded extremely enthusiastic, well informed and likeable, and I was sure that he would have read the Sunday morning sports supplements, particularly as he knew he was coming on the programme.

I asked him if he would be happy to answer a few "very simple" questions and he agreed. His abject failure to display any knowledge of current sporting icons was embarrassing, both for him and for sport. To be able to name only Tim Henman and Colin Montgomerie in the course of five questions about current events in tennis, horse racing, cricket, golf and rugby union was pitiable.