This one sneaked under my radar screen for a while but Britain’s successes are so few and far between these days that it is worth shouting out from the rooftops that we won the inaugural Spogomi World Cup in Japan last month.

Leaving aside the travel arrangements that brought teams from 21 countries to Japan to compete, there is a noble environmental purpose to the competition. Teams of three scoured the streets of Shibuya and Omotesando for 90 minutes over two sessions, looking for waste and then sorting pout what they found into their appropriate categories.

The British team, called “The North Will Rise Again”, showed they were well used to litter strewn streets and bagged 57.27 kilograms of Rubbish, beating hosts, Japan, into second place. Victorious team captain, Sarah Parry, commented without a hint of irony, “we’ve taken so much away about how much we need to clean up our oceans and reduce litter”.

Spogomi, a word created from the abbreviation for sport and the Japanese word for rubbish, was “invented” in 2008 and is so popular in Japan that 230 contests have already been held there this year. The next World Championship is scheduled for 2025.

After this success, the “sport” might just catch on in the UK. Our streets and public spaces need it to.