Mark Daniels: Germany win. England lose. But what about pubs?

Taking a moment to myself yesterday in advance of the rush for the Germany trouncing of England, I watched the European Grand Prix and couldn't help wondering if the result in Valencia was a portent of things to come for the rest of that afternoon.

After all, German Sebastian Vettel looked pretty much invincible as he romped home to beat the Englishmen Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Some have argued that because the car is designed by an Englishman - Adrian Newey - and is built in England - Milton Keynes - it could still therefore count as an English victory.

But the team's owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, is Austrian and the team is owned by the Austrian registered company of Red Bull. And so he insists that, in the likely event of a win, the Austrian national anthem is played, not the British. Austria borders Germany and 89% of the population speak German as their native tongue.

So, by default, Germany beat England.

The highlight of the race, of course, was where Vettel's team-mate, Australian Mark Webber, lived up to the company's slogan of "Red Bull Gives You Wings" as he clipped Kovalainen's Lotus and launched his F1 car in to the air. Quite spectacular, and another indicator of things to come as at least England beat Australia in Cricket's One-Day Internationals.

But then the main event arrived and an excited hush of anticipation decended on the pub as our customer's set about praying to whichever God they chose in the hopes that England would prevail.

Sadly, they did not. I've seen enough statistics, thoughts and comments on the matter from professionals, commentators and spectating bloggers this morning to last me a life time. We didn't win because, at the end of the day, Germany were just better. (Let's not even mention that goal...)

And so, when I closed my pub at the end of a very long, very busy, and very profitable day, I turned my thoughts to my business. Has the World Cup been good for me? Am I going to struggle now that the tournament is over?

At the start of the tournament I was bordering on arguing that no, it wasn't doing me any financial favours. After all, as the USA took England to a draw in their opening game, my pub was packed. We took nearly three times our recent average Saturday takings simply because of that opening game.

Every customer looked at me and teased that I was making a mint, but the simple fact was this: on the day before that game my pub was dead, I took less than half what I would normally take on a Friday. And it was a similar story the day after that game.

By the end of the week, my takings were up by just £10.25 on an average week.

It was a similar story the following week as we headed towards England's game against Algeria.

People, after all, only have a finite amount of money and so they adjust their socialising accordingly.

But then we headed in to the past week. England's game against Slovenia saw an unprecedented spike in trade just half way through the week and led to me scrambling together an impromptu barbecue to support yesterday's much-anticipated England/Germany clash.

Last Wednesday saw sales jump by four times the average Wednesday for my pub, and the party mood continued through the week as people became excited by the proposition of England beating Germany.

By Sunday lunch time the fervor was infectious. I couldn't normally give a stuff about football, but my business was doing well and the excitement was catching. I couldn't wait to see the game, and that has never happened to me before.

The emotional rollercoaster that ensued was quite simply one of the worst things I've ever experienced. The moans and groans and anticipated oohs and aahs had me likening the experience to a mass orgasm waiting to happen, cheers building up to a crescendo climax if a goal was scored, or a deflated gasp if it didn't quite happen... And, at some points, utter silence.

Then it was over. England had lost. Badly. And they were out of the World Cup. Is that bad news for pubs?

Well, for those who have been showing the game it almost certainly is. The last seven days have been one of the best weeks we've ever had since coming in to the pub, financially. Statistically, it is simply the best week by far that we've experienced since the smoking ban came in to force in 2007.

Had England beaten Germany the excitement would have carried on as fans licked their lips in anticipation of an Argentina clash on Saturday.

One more week would have taken the pressure off my overdraft and put us back on an even keel for the summer.

So England coming out of the Cup is bad news for pubs who were showing the matches. It is, however, great news for those that weren't and saw their takings dip as people headed elsewhere in search of viewing the game. Those customers we've nicked off you over the last couple of weeks will be back with you soon, I'm sure...

Meanwhile, as I and the staff worked hard to deal with such a fantastic uplift in business, my wife buggered off before it all started to go with the great unwashed to Glastonbury where, she's proudly informed me via several texts, she's seen Rolf Harris, The Worzels and somebody called Two Door Cinema Club.

She'll be returning today to discover that the glasswasher leaked on Saturday night and has blown up the Coca Cola machine, a staff member has broken her cooker, and there's a burnt patch on the grass where I got it slightly wrong with the barbecue...