This morning I was listening to the 0826 Sports news with Rob Bonnet. He reported England’s win over Ireland at cricket, “on the Duckworth/Lewis method which is used to decide the outcome of matches affected by rain.”
Rather intrigued by that formulation, rather than the more usual shorthand version, I found myself wondering if the method would hold such a (horrid) fascination if some more common or garden surname than Duckworth were involved - even though the intricacies would still make our innumerate society prefer to roll their eyes at its mention & cling to the fond belief that there must, really, be some much simpler method, despite the evidence of the farce of South Africa playing England in the 1992 World Cup under a method devised by Richie Benaud.
The name of Frank Duckworth, co-devisor of the formula, is of course well known to statisticians as editor of RSS news.
Blow me down, moments later another Duckworth was introduced. Cecil Duckworth, Worcester Rugby Union Club’s chairman and benefactor.
Teeny tiny coincidence. But here’s another one. On Economix Edward L. Glaeser asks “Do economists underrate the value of human interactions?”
“Economics should be seen as a discipline that has spent centuries chronicling the enormous gains that come from people connecting with each other.”
Coincidences just remind us of the multiplicity of connections large & small.
