Hornets hero Blissett has all the right answers as he puts family club at centre of Covid battle

WATFORD legend Luther Blissett has become the quizmaster carrying the torch for Hornets godfather Graham Taylor.

All-time leading goalscorer Blissett’s weekly Big Bold Community Quiz, co-hosted on the town mayor’s Facebook page, has helped raise £140,000 to date for Watford’s Covid-19 appeal fund.

And a signed portrait of the former England striker, sketched by Watford MP Dean Russell, is among the memorabilia under auction online this week.

Blissett, now 62, said: “I’m a very patient quizmaster – not least because the answers include things about my career I didn’t know myself.

“But more importantly, it’s been a privilege for me to build on the legacy of Graham Taylor. This crisis has shone a light on his belief that football clubs belong at the very heart of their communities.

“Graham’s widow, Rita, and the family have been encouraging me to carry on his work and spreading goodwill among the supporters. It was very easy to say yes.”

Watford, the original family club, transformed their Vicarage Road stadium into a sanctuary for staff battling to save lives at the hospital next door.

Over eight weeks, the Hornets’ army of 400 staff and volunteers served more than 40,000 hot meals and washed 20,000 scrubs to help exhausted medical teams deal with the horrors of the Covid-19 pandemic.

And 18 executive boxes were converted into sleeping pods, former chairman Sir Elton John’s (with Taylor, left) suite became a meeting room and the sensory room remains an antenatal lounge for expectant mothers from the maternity unit.

On what would have been FA Cup final weekend, Blissett brought together five members of the Hornets’ 1984 Cup final side who lost to Everton to take part in his quiz, including Kenny Jackett and John Barnes. He added: “I didn’t play in the final as I spent that season at AC Milan, but this was a nice way for some of the lads to relive their experience in the name of a good cause.”