Already operating the highly successful open-wheel racing site Brits on Pole and the cricketing blog The Nurdler, our latest project aims to try to capture the wider experience of being a sports fan rather than concentrating solely on an individual discipline.

“It’s not the despair, Laura. I can stand the despair. It’s the hope” – These iconic words, spoken in the 1986 film Clockwise by hapless headmaster Brian Stimpson (played by John Cleese) to a pupil as his life disintegrates, sum up perfectly what it means to be a sports fan.

It’s the hope we can’t stand is a relatively new project that is still finding its feet. This blog is about the experience of getting swept up in the drama of the latest big tournament until you can talk about nothing else, or of taking an insane punt on a little-known outsider at silly odds.

It’s about the little spark of hope you can never quite extinguish – even when you know from endless experience that it’s all about to go horribly wrong. Again. No matter what your sport, you know that feeling, which is why we hope we can tempt you to join us and read along as we build this site into one as strong as Brits on Pole and The Nurdler.

Comments, suggestions and feedback are all welcome.