Play, in good company, is only play, and not gaming; not deep, and consequently not dangerous nor dishonourable. It is only the inter-acts of other amusements.

Stoke are a decent club fallen behind, League Cup winners back in 1971. […] My mate Alec, a Stokie, suggests later that in earlier times good professionals would have stopped at, say, five in a game like this: […]

Therefore he has Berowne leave the stage first, lets Costard lag behind for a little solitary funniment, and then bolt after Berowne. If the funniment raises a laugh, that breaks contact, as it were, and continuity.

(I've never subscribed to either of the Kate ships on the show, but even I was almost a Skate convert in that moment.)