CRUNCHING the numbers Tony Jameson had to face the facts: he had whiled away two and a half years playing Football Manager across two decades.

The enormity of his addiction finally hit him although, he soon rationalised, he had wasted more time sleeping. It’s all relative.

“I worked out I had spent nearly two and half years of my life cumulatively playing it,” the 35-year-old confessed. “You sleep for about 25 years of your life so in comparison it’s not that much

But I hadn’t realised I had played it that long until I added up all the hours. This is quite weird. The game is a massive part of my life.”

Tony is not alone in this predicament. Many have lost days to the simulation game which allows you to manage a football team. In this virtual world, Tony holds an impressive track record. In fact, he has clocked up 50 ‘years’ with his team, Blyth Spartans, taking them from obscurity to Champions League winners.

It may not mean much to anyone outside the inner circle but in the Football Manager stratosphere it is a huge feat.

Seeing as his obsession seeped into every aspect of his life, he decided he might as well write the game into his first solo show aptly named Football Manager Ruined My Life.

“The game is 21 years old and I’ve played every single version. I should be over it by now but I’m not. In the show I look at how different my life would be had I not played it.”

So is the show a sort of AA for Football Manager fans?

“I call it a big support group. The audience seems to be predominantly people who have played the game. People share their stories of the game. I love that.”

Unlike more assiduous fans who would sacrifice mother and child for just two more minutes of playtime, he understood early on that the game may prove detrimental to his relationship with his wife-to-be.

“She was aware of the addiction,” he laughs. “She is a big football fan as well. We tried playing together once but we argued because I wouldn’t sell her a player. It was not healthy for the relationship.” Football Manager has been a solitary pursuit ever since.

Tony Jameson’s stand-up career started rather late after he signed up for a slot at a comedy club in Newcastle.

“I wrote my joke down an hour before the show; I’m not the kind of person to plan ahead. I was probably needlessly confident. I came back and ended up getting on the support slot. I was in the right place at the right time.”

A college and university lecturer, he took voluntary redundancy and soon started opening shows for Frankie Boyle and Kevin Bridges. Never did he imagine that a few throwaway jokes on Football Manager on Bridges’s tour would hurl him in the stand-up limelight.

“I did a five-minute bit at one of his shows. He heard it and set the ball rolling.

“These guys were doing a book about people playing Football Manager and he put me in touch with them – I’m one of the stories in the book now. I then got introduced to the guys who made the game. I said I might do a show and they said they’d support me. That was two years ago. They’ve helped with PR and advertising. The irony is that Football Manager hasn’t ruined my life. It’s created my career.”

Going from ‘little bonus’ on others’ tours to leading man last year was an adjustment. But teachers are nothing if not adaptable.

“You just go on, do your stuff and you’re a little bonus but when you’re on your own you think ‘They’ve come to see me so I have to justify the ticket price’. I have to make the show worth it, there’s a bigger pressure.

“But I love it. I like the spontaneity of stand-up. Every show is slightly different. It’s good fun.”

Tony Jameson will be at the Arts Centre on Wednesday, April 8 at 8pm. Tickets are £13, or £12 with concession. To book go to swindontheatres.co.uk or call 01793 524481.