Football

Elementary figures...

PERHAPS there's too much statistical analysis in sport, but I couldn't help noticing the attendances at the two Ulster Club Senior Football Championship semi-finals.

There were 3,455 at Celtic Park for Omagh against St Eunan's. And the official figure for the number at Healy Park for Slaughtneil versus Clontibret? 3,455.

People have debated and queried crowd figures for years, but those tallies are just mindboggling.

Was 3,456 just too neat a figure to use?

Or is it the start of some higher tax bracket?

I jest, of course.

To quote Sherlock Holmes 'when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth'.

These tallies matching seems a remarkable coincidence, but it's not impossible, so there's nothing else for it - we simply have to actually believe the official attendance figures.

Go figure.