8485/21404
Well,
gambling.com, if you are actually taking bets on this (which seems doubtful) then I am going to put a hefty sum on the person who wins or, if that is (as I suspect) some kind of crime, then I can leak the result to whoever promises me the biggest slice of their winnings. Which might also be a crime, but one that is harder to detect. Though still pretty easy to detect. Why did this person place one million pounds on (eg) Richard Herring to win this? Oh, look, they've been emailing.
My mum has a sporting theory that is quite hard to test empirically as it's quite specific to her, but she believes that if there are three sporting events in a day that you have a favoured team for, they will all go the same way. So if the first match is a win for your team, the team or person you're supporting later on will have a good result.
Today she wanted England to win the rugby, Middlesbrough to win against Oxford and the UK men's curling team to get their first gold in 104 years. It became apparent pretty early on that England were not going to do well in the rugby. So would the other two results be disasters for her preferences too?
I could put the theory to the test. I was pretty sure high-flying Boro would beat relegation challenging Oxford, but in the end it was a 0-0 draw. No where near as bad as the humiliating defeat for England at rugby. If you find it humiliating to be shown to be not as good at throwing a wrong shaped ball around and jumping on other men and putting your hand up between other men's legs and holding on to their jersey whilst pushing them hard from behind. I'd find it pretty humiliating to be involved in that win or lose. But if I lost, I'd go, "Well that seemed like quite an arbitrary kind of game and more of an excuse to explore latent homosexuality. Which I am all for. Who wants to get in a big bath with me?"
Anyway, perhaps mum's theory was correct. Middlesbrough drawing a match they should have easily won is equivalent to England recording a record breaking home defeat at the hands of some Irishmen, who have proven themselves to be better at disguised homosexuality.
The UK lost the curling final and so will have to endure at least 108 years of hurt before claiming gold. I hope someone in curling is still around from 1922 and just holding on to see that medal. What if they can't die until the UK wins? No person is more cursed than they.
So mum might have been right. I only had two sporting interests today and they were that York City should win and Rochdale should lose. Both teams won, so I don't know what that means.
Whilst it would be amazing to live in a world where my mum's sporting choices always basically align in threes, I can't imagine that it's always true. Especially if it's not just her, but everyone. After all someone out there might have been supporting England, Oxford and the UK (in which case, actually, it's pretty much the same result) or Ireland, Middlesbrough and Canada (though that seems a bit of a sporing smorgasbord - you'd probably have to be born in MIddlesbrough to an Irish and a Canadian parent. I don't think it's a place that many international travellers tend to settle. You only live in MIddlesbrough because you're born there.
I would say today's test is inconclusive, but suggests mum is broadly correct, but I will need to stay in Cheddar and study this more thoroughly to get a definitive answer.
