Late to ping-pong tonight after trying to coach Eldest with her latest maths homework. A Range Rover (4x4) grid with one set of decimal numbers, eg 0.2, 1.7, 3.2 and 2.1 along the top and another set down the side. Your job is to multiply one by t'other and put the result in the square.

Oh, no calculator allowed: it's totally mental (don't pronounce the "t" for full effect). Not too bad? Little bit of long multiplication, the tricky bit being to put the decimal point in the right place. But there's isn't just the single 4x4: not two, not three, but nine in all. So that's around 150 bits to work out. Yikes. Left daughter and her mum to it.

Second match of the season, and again we were second best going down 8-2. Two-thirds of the opposition are retired: doesn't stop 'em out-thinking and outwitting their relatively youthful opponents, shame to say. I had Greybeard on the ropes, 7-1 up, and still managed to grab D from the jaws of V. Tenacious, these oldies.

At least the motor let me back in afterwards. Well, not straightaway, that'd be too easy. Internal lights came on and the doors stayed firmly shut. Strolled around the car for a minute or two, psyching it out and trying to catch it unawares, then the passenger door decided enough was enough and caved in. Gotta love those French electroniques.