Don Your Way column: Why Doncaster World Cup has been the fun distraction we all needed

And so it has proved with the Doncaster World Cup, our ‘just for fun’ lockdown contest to find the town’s number one village or suburb.

Just in case you’ve missed it, I’ve been running a series of polls on Twittter, asking people to choose their favourite parts of the town, played out in a World Cup style format.

It is nothing more than a bit of daft fun to keep people busy and give them something to debate and banter about during lockdown.

And the response has been phenomenal.

It has been heart warming to see people proudly throwing themselves behind their village of choice. People sharing tweets and voting to push their favourites over the line.

Posts on Facebook urging people to get voting. All just a bit of harmless entertaintment to keep people busy and engaged.

I can’t even claim credit for the idea.

My former colleague James Marshall recently ran a Yorkshire World Cup on Twitter (won by Doncaster of course) and then the seeds were sown.

I suppose Pointless star Richard Osman is the daddy of the whole format, having had biscuits, crisps, drinks, Christmas films and much more play out against each other over the years.

People young and old have voted in their thousands and have taken the whole contest very seriously, as of course, they should.

My partner made sure her vote was cast (although her choice didn’t progress too far in the competition) and my own suburb fell by the wayside pretty early on.

But all that is irrelevant.

I’m proud that such a little bit of light-hearted fun has got people engaged and talking.

The constant slew of coronavirus news is, at times, difficult to contend with.

It can seem absolutely relentless, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

Which is why silly games such as this are fun to keep spirits up.

What game shall we play next folks?