Apologies for trespassing on this space – not normally my domain. But I am curious. This afternoon saw the latest instalment of what we at the Gazette have dubbed ‘Carry On England’, a quadrennial tale of preening dilettantes and music-hall slapstick that always seems to end with John Bull weeping into his pint. Some us have never quite recovered from the trauma of David Seaman’s ponytail.

But hang on! We won. So this year? Who knows.

Many employers bowed to the seemingly inevitable and issued guidance that staff could watch the game if they agreed with managers to make up the time later. A sensible policy, surely, though doubtless one of the small business pressure groups will work out that 0.1% (or whatever) will be shaved off June’s GDP in consequence.

It occurred to me, however, that in legal practice, where the billable hour endures and small firms in particular can often need ‘all hands on deck’, it’s not so straightforward.

Then there’s the issue of discriminating against those for whom the national game is a matter of supreme indifference (more people than you might imagine, despite the sudden ubiquity of the George Cross). Why should they cover for those who do slope off for the afternoon – even if the absentees do make up the time later on?

What if you’ve got a Kiwi working for you, or a Honduran; must they be granted the same latitude? And what about people who would indeed like to take time out thank you very much – but to watch Roger Federer defend his Wimbledon title?

It pays to be flexible where you can, certainly in terms of staff morale. And who doesn’t want to be popular?

What would Harvard Business School recommend, I wonder. That all games be played in the evenings or at weekends, perhaps. The good news for managers is that – in England’s case at least – the rest of the tournament will be.