Match of the day

Monkey's eminent literary correspondent writes a special item for us: There were no TV screens for the Spain v Russia Euro 2008 semi-final at the TLS summer party last night. However, there was Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of The Spanish Armada, v Geoffrey Hosking, author of Russia and the Russians. Sir Tom Stoppard, Clive James and Paul Johnson were at the Foundling Museum in Brunswick Square to provide what little was known of the Euro 2008 score. Original scores by Handel were also on show. There was no half-time music from TLS contributors composer Thomas Ades or tenor Ian Bostridge, but much admiring of the museum's magnificent Hogarths. Gordon Burn, author of Football, Fame and Oblivion, preferred to talk about Cherie Blair. The Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm may or may not have supported the boys from Moscow. There was much studs-up tackling among the many who thought their own books had been roughly reviewed this year. Diana Melly was looking hard for the one critic who had written a harsh thing about the late George. The TLS money was happily on the men from Madrid.