The shooting season has long ended and now rugby (or at least, the Six Nations part of it) has finished as well. Both these provide well-established entertainment opportunities for the City of London, something that usually goes down quite badly with the wives, as they take hours and wipe out a Saturday or Sunday.

Apart from being pleased that enthusiasm for rugby is spreading and the Six Nations championship could be expanded to embrace more of our Continental neighbours, my interest is limited thanks to my domestic circumstances. Mr Moneypenny and cost centres one, two and three, despite all being past and present rugby players (cost centre three is a stalwart of the local under-six team), are Australian passport carriers and enlargement hasn't yet reached Down Under.