Would I ditch a date after 51 minutes? I’ve waited that long to be asked a single question

‘It is much harder to look past a lack of chemistry at a cafe or museum, and easier to make your escape.’ Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images

Fifty-one minutes. It’s too long for a meeting, close to perfect for an album, and a solid result for a 10km run – but a date? You can only hope that it’s not a personal best.

A new study suggests that 51 minutes is all the average person can manage of a date that has started to go downhill. The survey of 2,000 adults (carried out by the breakdown provider Britannia Rescue – used to facilitating hasty getaways, I suppose) found that a fifth had departed a date midway through, with commonly used exit strategies including sudden headaches and getting a friend to fake an emergency.