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Ah, Simon.

I once had a practice that did put me behind many a silk, foremost among which was a person I shall not name. That, however, does not impede the anecdote.

We had a bitterly fought application, proceeding in the QBD, but involving issues mainly concerned with what is mostly the preserve of the family court. Two silks went head to head, and neither came off ignominiously.

However, the silk I had instructed began each point he made with things like "My Lord, the authority on this point is X v Y, a House of Lords case in which I appeared for X...", or "My Lord, this is a contentious point, however the Court of Appeal determined this issue in A v B. I appeared for B in that case...".

Literally, every relevant point determined in the senior appellate courts were cases this silk had won, going back 20 years. One after another they came, and all his oppo could do was fight for the sake of fighting.

We had a seriously good judge sitting that day, and all I saw was the judge (formerly of the same Chambers as Turner, J, incidentally), just lapping up what this particular silk had to say. To the extent that ore than once, his oppo's speech was interrupted by the judge asking our silk "Is that right?".

Tour de force doesn't even come close. I left that court exhilarated, for the first and only time in my career. Also, we happened to win.