When I was in grammar school many years ago, I can always remember counting how many boys were in my class on the days when football took place. Inevitably there were some who would have been off ill with some malady or other, but I was always delighted if the absentees were an odd number.
Why? Well, let me explain.
We were an even number of boys in the class – 32 to be exact – so if an odd number of boys were not in school, it meant there would be an odd number reporting for football that afternoon.
And that was important to me.
Have I captured your curiosity? Let me explain further.

