My first objection to Norman’s review of The Crown Inn in the London commuter county of Buckinghamshire may sound like a quibble, but it does illustrate his propensity to base his pronouncements on thin evidence. He samples but two of the mains on offer (6 on the menu + daily specials), yet claims to have backed “the main course winner”. Sorry, Matthew, but you cannot follow just two horses in the Grand National and be confident that one of them is THE winner.

My second objection is the greater neglect. The restaurant critic for the magazine of a major national newspaper does not assess a single dessert. His pretext for not doing his job? The portions “are too geared towards the needs of the famished wayfarer to leave room for even so tempting a pud as treacle tart with clotted cream.”

Sorry, Matthew, but if part of your enviable job is to critique the components of a meal and you fear you may be getting too stuffed from your main course to contemplate dessert there is an easy solution: push away your plate, unfinished. Only after sampling the puds may you conclude they are worth skipping.