Nancy pulled off a surprise victory over favourite Richard in the Great British Bake Off, but there’s only one winner for Michael Moran.

Well, that was a turn up for the bakes.

Against the run of play, Nancy Birtwhistle has carried off the coveted cake-stand thingy. It’s a salutary reminder that The Great British Bake Off is a knockout tournament, not a league. Builder Richard Burr’s record-breaking run of five ‘star baker’ awards counted, ultimately, for naught.

You might think, what with the final showdown hinging on the construction of a vast edible windmill, the man with the pencil behind his ear would be a shoo-in for the title. But it was not to be. Richard was narrowly pipped in the final two challenges.

But while the 60-year-old grandmother from Lincolnshire may have taken the title, Richard is still the winner in my book. In the long term, I think he’ll be the baker to reap the biggest commercial benefit from having appeared on the show.

Just as, depending on our vintage, we can still hum Vienna or Penny Lane more readily than Shaddap You Face or Release Me, I’m willing to bet that we’ll be seeing more of Richard’s beaming face on our televisions and on the covers of cookery books in years to come.

Yes, with that silly pencil still stuck behind his ear.

Good for Richard. The person I really feel sorry for in all this is Luis. To get so far, and come away empty-handed. And let’s not forget, Luis was one of the few competitors who looked as if he enjoys a cake.

[Related: The 7 secrets to winning Bake Off]

As ‘sport baking’ drifts ever father from its roots – I have no doubt that we’ll eventually see Bake-Off ruined by professionalism in the same way that cricket once was – Luis is a welcome reminder of what baking is really about. Which is, in case all of Paul Hollywood’s borderline-OCD layer counting had made you forget, making lovely cakes.

And watching people make lovely cakes is astoundingly popular. More people watched the Bake Off final (12.3m) than this year’s World Cup final (12.1m) on BBC1.

This series of Bake Off will be remembered for many things. Iain binning his cake and storming off; Diana’s mysterious and nasty-sounding injury; the alarming escalation of Sue’s double-entendres.

But while I think Richard will be the one to make the most dough (groan), and Luis is my personal favourite, let’s not belittle Nancy’s achievement. She’s a worthy winner in a competition that’s still about skill and love of the game. And where the losers are our favourites. Which makes Bake Off the most quintessentially British sport of all.

Are bakers eligible for BBC Sports Personality of the Year? My vote goes to Luis.