It occurred to me whilst watching the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show that 2 hours of watching highlights of minor sports and brief highlights of major ones (pictures courtesy of Sky Sports) is a long time to wait to find out the name of the big winner. And the results can sometimes be a little disappointing.

With that in mind, one wonders, does Zara Philips not have an agent or a minder who could have suggested that she have a brief speech prepared? A lot of the horsey fraternity at the SPotY show looked somewhat embarrassed by her vacuous ramblings, none more than Mike “Pentonville Prison Face” Tindall. If you’re winning a prize based on being a personality, it doesn’t really do to fall at the first hurdle.

Paul Sculthorpe, captain of Saint Helens (team of the year) perhaps understandably, given the enormity of what the Ryder Cup team achieved in a sporting context, didn’t have anything ready either (and the Saints lads looked like they were worried the cops were going to come bursting in at any moment) but at least he said what Zara Philips should have said: “this is particularly great for [enter minority sport here] and I hope you’ll all come and watch it a bit more” or words to that effect.

My own personal highlight was in realising that the person (outside Phil Taylor, who for the time being at least has an “athletic prowess” handicap as far as the suffrage is concerned) who should have won hands down (Joe Calzaghe) didn’t get to the podium. After a weekend where the ancient and stupid sport of boxing had enjoyed something of a resurgence on our TV screens (with commentators talking as if it had never been away) it was good to see that it is still so unpopular that a fish-faced gymnast and a royal on a pony get more votes than a bona fide boxing world champion. The only trouble is, it’s the monarchy that’s battling it out with boxing (and Miss World) to be crowned the most ancient and stupid thing of all. So there’s a bit to do yet.