Quitting time

With 78 days to dawn before the Ashes begin, cricket is in suspended animation and in any case the World Snooker Championship is in full flow.

(By the way, if you ever thought cricket had bad administrators, look more closely at snooker. Wow! They did not secure a sponsor for this year's event until the last minute even though the championships set TV records for viewers all the time.)

I still have a lot of time for this other elegant game, where the players call fouls against themselves, where the referees have the lightest of grips and where the watching 1,000 in the Crucible behave with impeccable good manners.

For a couple of years I ghosted Steve Davis's articles, offered him advice - he was 20 when we met - once lent him a fiver which was repaid at our next meeting before I had remembered and gave him his first sip of red wine.

A nice man, from a nice family although to my amusement, the invitations to his parties ceased the moment my main focus became cricket.

Now, aged 51, he has been beaten 10-2 in the first round and says that may be his last attempt on the world title. So I can offer him another piece of advice.

Quit while you are still an icon. Don't struggle on. Accept that we all grow old. You will be surprised how easily retirement feels once you let go.

Michael Vaughan faces the same problem. His 24 for Yorkshire against Durham today did not prove anything. If the runs refuse to flow this summer I hope he will see that once the tide turns against you a graceful retirement is the only option.