Watching my daughter play tennis is such a rewarding experience as it would be for any parent, surely? The love just swells in my heart to see her enjoy the game.

Even when my kids are not the most competent watching them ‘have a go’ is inspiring. The ‘you never know, have a go’ mentality of Australia is one of my favourite things about living in Aus!

So, when another child’s parent started clapping at my girls mistakes the fierce mumma bear reared her angry head. Maybe this parent did not know the etiquette of tennis and that you clap at points won not lost? In my English way I glared in the direction of the other mother, the glare gone unseen by her but not the other parents.

At two games all the clapping was becoming annoying to even my levelheaded daughter who I could see an Andy Murray esq muttering under her breath as she prepared to serve, the morning sun beating down on the clay court exacerbating the heated game.

‘I kept muttering what’s all the clapping about? You clap at the end of a game not every point!’ she later confided in the car.

‘Yes, it must of been very distracting and was quite rude really’ I replied. ‘It certainly didn’t help her son win did it?’

‘Did you see that he came off crying, I think she put too much pressure on him’ she replied.  I hadn’t seen that and felt sorry that this child we did not know was made to feel like he had done anything wrong.

My girl won 6-3. She walked the length of the court to touch rackets and say well done (handshaking since covid now a thing of the past). Unfortunately, her opponent threw his racket to the ground. Ignoring his tantrum, she persistently made eye contact with him and said, ‘You played really well’ to no response.

I was proud of my daughter not because she won but because of her humility in her actions.

Later whilst watching Enola Holmes together on the sofa, I said ‘maybe that parent felt the pressure of being the away team and not in her own surroundings!?’

‘You have too much love Mum she just shouldn’t of behaved like that!’

I think back to my first experience of tennis, watching Wimbledon on tv with my Nan. What would her reaction have been to this parents’ actions; she would of tutted for sure! Whatever happened to tutting? It must be a generational thing; I haven’t heard anyone tut at something for years! Another passive aggressive way of showing emotion, slightly more acceptable than clapping at someone’s mistakes, I wonder?