Held as part of England’s warm-up to the Men’s World Team Squash Championship in France, the exhibition saw four matches played at the St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club in Weybridge. Each tie was played over three games with points counting towards the overall score.

England were leading heading into the final match, but Egyptian star Mohamed Elshorbagy produced a superb performance against Nick Matthew to put the Rest of the World in front. A thrilling conclusion was in store with Matthew requiring a comfortable win in the final game of the final match.

The three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist was able to turn the tide of the match to push out in front, but Elshorbagy hit the score he thought he required to win the tie. This was at least according to the tournament referee, who informed the players, before the two proceeded to finish their clash.

Despite his 12-10, 11-3, 6-11 defeat, Matthew began his post-match interview by expressing his relief that he had done just enough to win the competition for England, thanking his three team-mates for giving him a strong advantage.

It prompted confusion, with the interviewer then informing Matthew he had, in fact, lost. Both Matthew and Elshorbagy were certain they had got their team over the line. A brief delay followed as the scores were calculated, before an announcement that England had, in fact, triumphed 122-121, despite Elshorbagy’s bonus points for winning the match.

Thankfully the players took the result in good spirits and the confusion did not overshadow what had been an interesting format and an exciting contest.

It certainly is not the first time a mathematical mix-up has occurred in sport, with some incidents having a far greater impact than others.

One of the most famous errors was committed by Manchester City. And no, it has not been a misplaced decimal point on some of the English Premier League leaders' more recent transfers. On the final day of the 1995-96 season, the club occupied the final relegation spot in the League on goal difference, with Southampton and Coventry City hovering just above on the same number of points.

Having battled back from 2-0 down against Liverpool, Manchester City manager Alan Ball informed Steve Lomas that Southampton had gone behind against Wimbledon and instructed the midfielder to waste time to protect the draw which would keep the club up. Or so he thought. While Lomas headed for the corner flag, substituted striker Niall Quinn raced back down the tunnel to notify his team-mates that Ball's information was inaccurate and that City actually required another goal.

A late winner did not prove forthcoming, however, and the club joined already-relegated Queens Park Rangers and Bolton in dropping down a division. While Ball survived the error, he was sacked after just three matches of the following season.

A similarly disastrous error was made by South Africa when they were pursuing qualification for the 2012 African Nations Cup. Having been informed that group rivals Niger were trailing 3-0 away in Egypt, South African coach Pitso Mosimane shut up shop at home against Sierra Leone.

Having played out a goalless draw, South Africa began celebrating their qualification to the continental tournament out on the pitch, having finished with a better goal difference than Niger and Sierra Leone. The only problem was that the three teams level on nine points were separated by their head-to-head record and not goal difference.

With Niger having picked up six points in their head-to-head matches, they edged South Africa and Sierra Leone, who had earned five.

Mosimane was ultimately left bemoaning his error, claiming he would have thrown on a striker rather than a midfielder in the closing stages had he been aware of the mistake. A complaint was launched by the South African Football Association on the somewhat shaky ground that goal difference should have been used. Sanity prevailed when the complaint was eventually withdrawn.

Sadly for South Africa, it is not the only time a mistake has resulted in one of their national teams suffering elimination from a major sporting event. Their cricket team famously exited a home World Cup in disastrous fashion in 2003.

With rain threatening the conclusion of their final group stage match against Sri Lanka, the hosts calculated that a total of 229 runs would prove enough to claim victory under the Duckworth-Lewis scoring method, which continues to confuse many to this day.

Having been informed of the total, Mark Boucher confidently fist-pumped in triumph when his six off the fifth ball of the 45^th over took South Africa’s score on to the required 229. The batsman confidently defended his next shot, which proved the final one of the innings as the players where then ushered off the field for rain.

"Boucher was given the message of 229, so he was pretty happy when he got that,” reflected captain Shaun Pollock after it emerged the total had only proved enough to tie the match. “You can look at all the ifs and buts but in the end it doesn't help much."

South Africa’s tie ultimately led them to them finish outside the qualification places for the Super Six phase, allowing New Zealand to progress with Sri Lanka and Kenya.

Golf has also provided a number of examples of mathematical mistakes. Arguably the most famous involved Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo at the 1968 Masters. After bogeying the final hole of the tournament De Vicenzo appeared on course to contest a play-off against American Bob Goalby, with the two players on 11-under-par for the four rounds.

De Vicenzo, celebrating his birthday, signed off on his scorecard which had been marked by playing partner Tommy Aaron. The only problem was that Aaron had incorrectly marked a par on the 17^th hole, rather than the birdie De Vicenzo actually scored, thus he was inadvertently penalised one stroke.

With the Argentine having failed to notice the error, he signed for the wrong score and ended the tournament one shot adrift of Goalby, who celebrated the only major victory of his career.

"I play golf all over the world for 30 years, and now all I can think of is what a stupid I am to be wrong in this wonderful tournament,” De Vicenzo reflected afterwards, having missed out on the chance to secure a second major, following his British Open win the previous year.

Fast forward to the British Open in 2003, where English golfer Mark Roe found himself in contention in the third round. He finished his round just two shots off the lead, giving him the opportunity to launch a bid for the victory on the final day.

The opportunity was soon snuffed out, after it emerged that Roe and Swedish playing partner Jesper Parnevik had failed to swap scorecards before their round, in accordance with the rules. Although the error was initially missed by officials, it was later noticed when they players had officially signed the cards. The penalty was that both players were disqualified from the event. After the controversial incident, tournament organisers changed the rules.

While there is a degree of misfortune to each of these cases, those wishing to avoid similar embarrassment would do well to check the rules first.