It seems when I get a day off, which is pretty rare at the moment, I pretty much spend it sitting on my sofa in my dressing gown with the curtains drawn, vegging out, watching telly. I managed to get to 7pm today having done little else. But there was plenty to see from the sofa today. First up was the nerve-wracking England versus Slovenia game. My girlfriend was annoyed that England were now playing in red, just when she'd learned the colours. But apart from that she got through the game without saying anything worthy of being in a sketch, which was a shame as it means I have to do some actual writing.
Our team never make it easy for us, but today they played well enough to make us hope that we might have a chance of getting somewhere. I had been annoyed by the people who had written us off after that first game (though less so after the abysmal second one), but anything can happen once this stage of the competition comes and it's my belief that we will play better against the bigger teams. I still don't think we're going to be lucky enough to beat four of these big teams, but I am delighted we are playing Germany in the next round. If we got them later the pressure would be unbearable, but I think we can take them. So let's make the next round our world cup final and not worry too much about what, if anything, will follow it.
England looked a lot more capable in this game, though it wouldn't have been right for us to get two up and be able to relax would it? And don't be one of those people who goes ""Us" I didn't know you were playing," because it is totally accepted practice to refer to your team and your country in that way. And you know you will have done it at some point. So stop being a dick.
The greatest sporting achievement though was to come after the game, when I was prompted to turn over to BBC2 by a friend on Twitter to watch a Wimbledon match which was (at this stage) about 28 all in the fifth set. I sat there for another two hours watching this battle between two exactly equal tennis players continue. With the score at about 43 all I had to head out to dinner, but remarkably it went on and on into the night, ending up at 59 all before they called it a day.
At 31 all I had wondered what would happen if neither of them ever made the breakthrough and by 40 all (in games, something I called deuce in games, but which David Mitchell on Twitter suggested should be named Megadeuce - you know for all the other times this is going to happen) I thought that maybe it was time to accept that these players were exactly equal and should be allowed to progress to the next round as a doubles pair, taking on single players in what some people referred to as the Blockbusters model of play. It would be terrific if two men ended up winning the men's singles at Wimbledon.
Yet more excitingly the game might never actually end and the next round of Wimbledon will be continually put off. There was something oddly hypnotic about this boring spectacle and it was clear that no one wanted it to end (in fact I believe the crowd booed the players when they desperately wanted to stop after 9 o clock). But wouldn't it be amazing if it went on for days? There is a film in this epic battle. A very, very boring film. But what a testament to the human spirit and the limitations of rules. This system is in place to stop anyone being knocked out of the tournament in a 5th set tie-break, but surely a tie-break would be a lot kinder in this instance. Because whoever gets through is going to be too knackered to even play the last match. Perhaps Megadeuce is the point where the tie break should be introduced!
Hope you can make it down to one of the recordings of the last two shows of AIOTM. Now at the Bloomsbury Theatre. Really need to put bums on seats if we're going to do any more in 2011 - http://www.thebloomsbury.com/event/run/1415
Tell your friends. Next Monday is looking a bit quiet at the moment so if you can make it down to that one it would be ace. I think the last one has a good chance of selling out as everyone wants to be there at the end, so don't leave it too late to book for that one.
This show is reliant on people buying tickets for the live show and I have been pleased with how we've done so far. But we need to do bit better!
It was great to get a mention in
this Guardian top 10 of podcasts as well as an honourable mention for me and Andrew for being at the forefront of this new medium for comedy.
