Woe 90

I HAVE been emailing back and forth with a friend about the possibility of playing in Formentera, an island near Ibiza, in April.

We did not go ahead with booking because the website of the tournament did not show the schedule, and emails to the organisers went unanswered.

Then another friend mentioned planning to play in Crete at about the same time.

I fairly quickly researched decently timed flights for the latter tournament, and there was some debate about which was the better option, when it suddenly dawned on me I might not be allowed by law to play on either island.

The point is that since the UK left the European Union, Brits are allowed to spend only 90 days in every 180 inside the Schengen passport area.

The area is bigger than one might assume, including as it does Norway and Switzerland as well as the usual suspects of France and Germany.

Because I have a longish trip to the Greek island of Kos in May, I will be perilously close to my limit.

A person's number of days includes the day of arrival and the day of leaving.

By the time I leave Kos on May 20, my currently booked number of trips in the previous 180 days inside the Schengen area will total 82 days.

I am this week on an eight-day walking holiday in Cyprus, which, luckily for me, is not in the Schengen area as otherwise I would be right at my legal limit with no margin for error.

The Crete tournament, in the former Venetian-controlled city of Chania, runs from April 17-23.

In theory I could make that by flying there on the 16th and returning on the day the tournament ends, but the latter would not be much fun and I would be right at the limit.