Two weeks ago I began to draft a piece about the previous weekend’s sport, but didn’t finalize it. It recorded a sporting weekend where every result went the way I wanted. England won the UEFA European Under-21 Championship with a 1-0 win against Spain on the Saturday evening (8 July). That match also featured a penalty save right at the end of the 90 minutes. On Saturday 9 July the England cricket team won at Headingley to keep the Ashes series alive, and in the All-Ireland Hurling Championship Kilkenny beat Clare by 3 points to reach the final.

Not only did the results go the way I wanted, but the timing was perfect. The England win at Headingley was completed 20 minutes or so before the throw-in at Croke Park so I didn’t have to switch between different screens trying to keep an eye on both games.

The weekend just passed, unfortunately, was completely different. We got the opposite of the two results that I wanted, and a pair of sporting droughts will continue for another year and more. Kilkenny lost the All-Ireland Hurling Final to Limerick, after taking a 3-point lead into the half-time break. The Fourth Ashes Test at Old Trafford was abandoned as a draw after a completely washed-out Day 5. That leaves the series at 2-1 with one to play, and means that Australia retain the Ashes.

The hurling result gives Limerick four-in-a-row (which Kilkenny managed between 2006 and 2009) and extends Kilkenny’s time without an All-Ireland title into a ninth year. They last won it in 2015. Similarly, England have not won an Ashes series since the summer of 2015, but they did retain “the urn” until the winter of 2017/18.

On top of all this, Leeds United (the team that I have supported since childhood) were relegated from the top tier of English football in May. It’s been a miserable sporting spring and summer for me. I take a little bit of comfort from Carlos Alcaraz’s victory at Wimbledon eight days ago, denying Novak Djokovic a record-equalling fifth title in a row, but not enough to make up for the other disappointments.

Leeds might win promotion at the first attempt. The club does, at least, have a manager now, and the EFL has approved the new owners, 49ers Enterprises. In theory, we could be celebrating a return to the Premier League in about nine months’ time. But it will be at least a year before Kilkenny get another crack at the All-Ireland title, and the next time England have a chance of regaining the Ashes is the winter of 2025/26. It all seems rather a long way away.