MEMO TO PEDANTS: ENGLAND TEAMS ARE DIFFERENT

‘JUST to clear up a few incorrect reports/ articles this morning,’ wrote some insufferably smug twerp at Channel 4. ‘Last night wasn’t the first time England have been in a World Cup semi-final since 1990. The last time was 2015.’ This was accompanied by a picture of the England women’s team. If we’re going down that path, the last England World Cup semi-final was in 2017, and featured the men’s Under 20 team. Yet everyone knew what was meant by the 1990 statistic. Just as, if England’s women reach the final in 2019, it wouldn’t be the country’s first World Cup final in two years — the men’s under-20s won their semi-final and the tournament outright — it would be the first, for the women, a fantastic achievement and one that would deserve acknowledgment in its own right. So shall we just agree for future reference that all the England teams are different, that men’s sport isn’t women’s sport, and women’s sport isn’t age-group sport, and that there is a special circle of hell reserved for virtue-signalling pedants on social media?