I’m not over-competitive – it’s just great beating siblings

Is anyone else worrying about future family meals around the Brownlee dining table after Alistair and Jonny’s Olympics glory? Just me then?

It was lovely that they won a gold and silver medal each but how tricky will that be when it comes to getting the crispiest roast potato or last piece of garlic bread?

“You gave it to him! OMG that’s so unfair… It’s because he got a gold and I only got a silver isn’t it?”

I think we can all identify with this to a certain extent, especially those of us from large families.

I remember reading a news story once about a wee girl who called the police when her brother cheated at a board game and I totally related to that.

At a certain age, there is nothing more satisfying than beating a sibling and running to bask in your parents’ approval, from being better at colouring in the lines to getting a better degree or winning consistently at Scrabble (Yes! Suck it up losers) – sorry.

In some competitive – and highly motivated – families this need to do better than a brother or sister obviously carries on well into adulthood. Think of the Murray brothers or the Williams sisters.

It doesn’t always have to be sport-related, either. I’m sure all the hundreds of Kardashian females are regularly competing with each other to get more pictures of their bottoms on social meeja.

For the rest of us, it fizzles out to a certain extent but never disappears completely.

My niece spent several months after her A level results a couple of years ago responding to every request from her parents by pointing to her brother and going: “Hello! A stars! Ask him, I’m not doing it.”

Thankfully, I have one sister who is as unscrupulous as me when it comes to winning and we have had some wonderful evenings as grown-ups happily cheating at cards or board games while plying our siblings with alcohol.

There is a double satisfaction there because you can taunt them the next day about how drunk they were as well as what losers they were.

There, I’ve admitted it. I shall await the long arm of the law.

We have had some wonderful evenings as grown-ups happily cheating at cards