Yes Jock, we HAVE got this one!

I’D forgotten to set the alarm. But for some reason (call it a premonition) I woke early yesterday to see ‘‘4:58’’ in bright red illuminations staring back at me.

Fleetingly I thought about rolling over, safe in the knowledge the ‘‘record’’ button was set on the TV. But those numbers kept staring at me, challenging me to get up.

And knowing there is nothing ‘‘live’’ about recorded sport, no matter how much you try to kid yourself, I pulled back the covers, slipped into my slippers and headed down to the lounge.

I looked out into the darkness to count how many other households were lit up early, waiting for the America’s Cup telecast to start, and counted, surprisingly, only three or four on the surrounding hillsides. Perhaps, like me, they prefer to watch it with the lights off.

As I waited for the action to start, I pondered the previous mornings of early starts and the building apprehension/excitement as Emirates Team New Zealand inched closer and closer to success.

I looked at my mobile phone and smiled at all the previous cuprelated texts, especially from the alwayspositive Jock, of Queenstown, who time after time kept reassuring me ‘‘We’ve got this one’’ with a thumbsup emoji attached.

I wanted so much to agree with him but being superstitious, I just couldn’t bring myself to say or text the words in case my presumption somehow ‘‘jinxed’’ our boat. Silly, isn’t it, the things some of us believe?

But that’s how it felt back in 2013, in San Francisco when we led 81 and lost, so horribly, so painfully; that we as a nation, with our outpouring of constant expectation of a great victory, had somehow offended the yachting gods and suffered terribly for our premature celebrations.

So not this time, I thought. Instead I would invoke my own secret sporting weapon for guaranteed success: I would sit throughout the broadcast and not utter a single sound.

Now, anyone who has been within earshot of my spectating habits will not believe this is possible, not for a second! But it’s true. That’s how the Highlanders won the Super Rugby final a couple of years back, through such selfcontrolled silence. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

And so it was yesterday morning, quietly willing our superfast cat to overcome a slow start, to gain the lead and then extend it, from 120m to 230m, then back to 187m, 149m, 135m (what’s happening boys?), then back to 304m and 317m.

We were, said the TV commentator, giving Oracle a ‘‘bit of a caning’’ . Then we were ‘‘looking to go in for the kill’’ and ‘‘licking their chops’’ but still I waited, just in case, something, anything, might go wrong.

But not this time. At the finish line, we were 55 seconds ahead, the New Zealand crew began a victory dance on the boat and I let out a whoop as the celebratory text conversations with mates began.

Yes Jock, we HAVE got this one!