Eric Blunt

Eric Blunt was the landlord of The Flying Horse which in September 1972 was in opposition to the Rovers Return Inn in a Pub Olympics contest. Among the more traditional hostelry sports of darts and dominoes was a drinking contest where the contestants were Stan Ogden and Johnny Owen. Knowing the latter's form, most of the men of Coronation Street bet against Stan and then, to make sure of their money, got him drunk the night before so that he was hungover on the day of the contest.

Eric badgered Rovers team captain Ernie Bishop when Stan was late, insisting he only had five minutes to make an appearance, or a substitute had to be put forward, or his pub would win by default. Eric was the player for the Flying Horse in the darts contest and was surprised that his opponent was Betty Turpin and was even more so when she beat him. He showed bad form by refusing to shake hands with her and she called him a "male blooming chauvinist" to his retreating back.

He also remonstrated with pensioner Jonty Chataway for putting down a wrong domino against Ena Sharples, calling him a "flat-capped old nit". A flustered Jonty pointed out that he'd spent the game with Ena staring intently across the table at him "like a flipping hypnotist!"