[DE88]

In the end, it was won by Beth Mead with Ben Stokes 2nd and Eve Muirhead in 3rd.

We can't have been the only two here watching... were we? 

I must admit, I actually missed the start because I allowed myself to believe it was starting at 7, rather than 6:45... 

As I said, the odds on Beth winning were pretty short - and so too were the odds on Stokesy being best of the rest (1/4 with Paddy Power). The odds on the Lionesses and Sarina Wiegman winning the Team and Coach of the Year awards respectively can't have been very long, either. 

I'm delighted, however, that Eve came third (the best of the rest of the rest, one might say). I'm not ashamed to admit that curling is the one Winter Olympic sport I follow more than any other, and I was really gunning for the GB ladies in Beijing - and Eve in particular, these being her fourth Winter Games and only a bronze from Sochi to show beforehand. So it was thrilling for me - as, indeed, it was for many others - when she and her team won gold.

This was, of course, the first SPOTY with an audience present in three years. And some of the traditions remained present and correct - including most of the awards being presented towards the end, and the In Memoriam segment immediately before the presentation of the main award (beginning with Elizabeth II, as only it should have, and ending with Shane Warne). "Pioneer Trail" was played at the end too, something that hasn't happened much in the last few years (the 2020 event ended with a montage accompanied by Florence and the Machine, and I for one won't forget 2018 when George Ezra performed and it rather took away from Geraint Thomas's moment).