Sitting at lunch with a thesp and three self-proclaimed Sport Unenthusiasts, I was surprised to hear myself concede that all competitive sport boils down to is beating other people. “That’s just not the way with a production” said the thesp. But is it? “Success is relative” said T.S. Eliot. And I agree.

Yes, there is certainly merit in an achievement that you earn for yourself, and success can be relative to what you have done. But the concept of success is ultimately founded on comparison, whichever way you try to cut it. The way in which we measure success is set by boundaries and grades, and these cannot help but be informed by the environment around you.

So when an actress says there’s more to life than beating people, I say that a theatrical production essentially boils down to that too. Who involved in a production reviewed by Varsity this week hasn’t checked out a fellow production’s review, to see where they stand in relation to it? It may not be as black and white as winning and losing, but even in this arena the aim is to do well for yourself, and be better than the competition.

I will concede that constant comparison to others can get dangerous: especially in team sport, when a group mentality can warp the importance of something completely out of proportion.Perspective is important.

Competitive sport, one voice at said lunch concluded, isn’t her thing because she’s not competitive. Really? Who’s not competitive? Of course, in highly-strung sports players, that competitive drive is high, and it’s therefore not to everyone’s liking. But that is not to say that competitiveness is non-existent in other people. Academic, actor, artist or athelete: everyone wants to be better than someone else at something. And that is competition.

At the end of the day, competitive sport makes everything less subjective. It’s about winners and losers and numbers on a score-card – and this is isn’t to everyone’s taste. Yet while the boundaries of success are not as clear-cut in other disciplines, they still exist. Anyone claiming not to be competitive to some degree is kidding themselves: it is a basic human characteristic which shapes so much of what we do, and to a productive end.