I've never been known as a great drinker. Indeed my stock answer to those suggesting I go on the lash is: "I don't need a drink to enjoy myself."
But there are obviously those who do "need a drink to enjoy themselves" – mostly members of the England cricket team plus a few well-known footballers.
Indeed, many of of the high profile sports stars have at one time or other had some problem with drink.
This brings us to our beloved Freddie Flintoff, who in the aftermath of England's Ashes success in 2005 was clearly worse the wear for drink during the celebrations.
If it had been a footballer in that state, the press and authorities would have slain him – and he could have well ended up getting banned.
But Freddie was untouchable as an Ashes hero. We all empathised with him in a way – and his behaviour brought laughter rather than condemnation.
But perhaps, in hindsight, we should have all been more critical.
He got away with it then, and with some weak management in Australia, he received several minor reprimands for poor behaviour during the recent Ashes tour.
Not only was he forgiven, he was rewarded with the captaincy of the England one-day side, in Michael Vaughan's absence.
Flintoff obviously took no notice of some soft taps on the wrist. He had clearly not learned his lesson and last weekend finally got on his come-uppance following escapade in a pedalo (they were called pedal-boats in my youth) in the early hours.
In my first blog a couple of months ago, I called for Andrew Strauss to be appointed No 2 to Michael Vaughan.
That judgement is looking wiser by the moment and I hope for all our sakes that the amiable Lancastrian never captains England again.
Thank god that Vaughan's fit – for now!!.
The only time I went to the cricket field "having had a few" was following a lengthy pub lunch while on a club cricket tour in Cambridgeshire.
The whole team – with players regularly leaving the field regularly to empty themselves - performed abysmally. Oyur opponents got a big score and then reduced us to 60-9.
It was then that Reg and I doubled the score to add some respectability to the score. I have to admit that my 30-odd at No 11 was one of my best ever innings.
Perhaps, I should have gone on the lash more often......