In a multitude of contests at locations from London to Launceston, adversaries have repeatedly found themselves in need of extra-time for some form of resolution.

On each occasion it has been a clash of the titans: Australia v England, Federer v Djokovic, England v New Zealand, Spain v Australia, Geelong v Richmond and, perhaps most seismic of them all, Kings Meadows v Riverside.

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Arguably the best two teams at the cricket World Cup, two of the best three basketball nations on the planet, two of the best three tennis players on the planet and the nations that between them have won every Ashes series.

The realisation arrived courtesy of an overwhelming sensation of deja vu when watching the basketball World Cup semi-final.

As the Boomers and Marc Gasol, or "Spain" as the team is more traditionally called, found themselves locked together after normal and over-time, it was impossible not to think "Haven't we been here before lately?"

The match came less than a month after the third Ashes Test at Headingley found England and Australia locked together on 425 runs before Ben Stokes decided proceedings.

That match in turn followed six weeks after the cricket World Cup final at Lord's had found England and New Zealand locked together on 241 runs before Ben Stokes (and a few more boundaries) decided proceedings.

That was on July 14, or World Sporting Draw Day as it should become known because, taking place across London not only simultaneously but also at the same time was the longest singles final in Wimbledon history.

Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic spent a cosy four hours and 57 minutes together with a few thousand of their closest admirers.

This was the first Wimbledon tournament where a final-set tie-break rule was introduced so, upon reaching 12-12 in the fifth, having shared 43 games in the previous four, the long-time rivals christened the rule with a tie-break which the Serb won 7-3.

Meanwhile, as the Ashes series meandered its way towards a seemingly-inevitable draw, the AFL was getting in on the act.

The charge for the minor premiership came down to a five-horse race in which the top three - Geelong, Brisbane and Richmond - all finished on 64 points from 16 wins and six losses.

Which in itself was somewhat ironic after the first home-and-away season without a draw since 2016.

Fortunately, North Launceston and Kingbrough were on hand to redress that imbalance in a development league semi-final which saw both finish on 7.7 (49) before a scrambled behind from Tigers' Cooper Sawdy decided the game in extra-time.

It was elsewhere in Tasmania that same week that the sporting draw theme reach unprecedented heights.

Separated by just a couple of hours and kilometres on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 4, traditional rivals Kings Meadows and Riverside squared up in both the Northern High School Sports Association's senior firsts netball and footy grand finals.

At Hoblers Bridge, the netballers were level at half-time, full-time and even after extra-time while the footballers were also all square on 47 points on the inaccurately-named final siren.

Kings ultimately claimed both titles but when it comes to benefiting from draws not even they can match one country's record.

England this year became the first nation to claim cricket, soccer and rugby world cup titles.

But they needed extra-time for each of them, having initially drawn against Germany at Wembley in 1966, Australia in Sydney in 2003 and New Zealand at Lord's in July.

Without those draws, Geoff Hurst, Jonny Wilkinson and Ben Stokes would have spent the rest of their lives buying their own drinks.

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