Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

Steve Smith

A Guitar In How Many Millions? When in the Sixth Form of my local school in Oxford, I bought a second-hand black electric guitar made by Suzuki: a name one associates with motor-bikes, not electric guitars. I learnt very quickly that I'd never master the damn thing, so I sold it to my friend Andy, bought a drum kit, and along with two friends we formed a school band. Andy (in the style of Jerry Garcia!) always played this guitar with a pained expression on his face: so it was only fitting that we fixed a plastic label with "Pained expression" stamped on it onto the guitar. Not many black Suzuki guitars with "Pained expression" on it out there in the rock world, I reckon. Or indeed anywhere. Time passed, A-levels finished, and we went our separate ways. I never saw Andy again. Now skim forward three years and move from Oxford to my new friend Mike's student digs in a rundown terrace somewhere on the outskirts of Cambridge. Mike had just bought himself an acoustic guitar that he was learning to play, and I was visiting him for the weekend.

Companion on train

On 29.3.12 I was travelling from Edinburgh to Bristol, and had to change trains at Birmingham New Street. There were a lot of people on the platform waiting for the train. I had booked seat 03 in the Quiet Coach F. It was a long platform, and I wanted to know which end of the platform coach F was likely to be. There were no officials around to ask, so I wondered whether one of the people in the crowd might know. I was waiting in the centre of the platform, with perhaps 200 people around me. I picked on an elderly man with a stick, who looked intelligent and harmless. He said he didn't know, but was also wanting coach F. We stayed put till the train arrived, then had to walk some distance to coach F. I sat down in seat 03, and a few minutes later the elderly man arrived and sat in his seat 02, next to me. We then had an interesting conversation for the rest of the journey. He was going on to Cornwall. I told him I had been to Cornwall many years ago for an archaeological dig at Gwithian. He turned out to know the archaeologist in charge. That did not surprise me much, because the population of Cornwall is not large, and influential people tend to know each other.

The New Carpet

I joined the Army as a 16 year old in 1972 along with 61 other young lads from all over the country. We were based in Deepcut, Camberley, Surrey for 18 months during which we carried out basic military training, finishing with trade training and being posted all over the world to various units. My specialisation was as a clerk. Of the 62 who joined, just 26 remained after training, the rest having decided to leave for various reasons. I moved to Wiltshire and one of my friends went to join the Commando Logistic Brigade. In 1986 I was posted to Hereford and I knew my friend had since also moved there. I moved to Hereford in the knowledge that I had accumulated over 100 days leave as I'd served in the Middle East with just 3 weeks off during my 3 year tour. Whilst shopping in Hereford for a piece of carpet to put in front of the fire at my new home, who would I meet in the street but the same friend I'd said goodbye to some 12 years before. He invited me round that very evening to meet his family and catch up on our years apart. He asked me to take my shoes off as he'd just had a new carpet laid that very day.

Divine intervention or Coincidence

When we were in our late teens and early twentys, during the seventies, we were five male close friends myself, Denis, Graham, roy and John who socialised a lot around Newcastle staffordshire. As time went on one of us, Roy Joines moved away, and we lost touch completely. The other four of us kept in touch with each other and regularly meet once or twice a year in Blackpool, where one of us, John now lives. My name is chris adams, and I work in a travel agency in Sandbach Cheshire, and in the spring of 2010, a man came in to book a holiday. i recognised him immediately as Roy Joines, the friend I hadnt seen for nearly 40 years.

meeting in a pub after 12 years and 3500 miles away

In 1974 I was living in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada - a General Motors town on the northern shoreline of Lake Ontario. At the time I was going out with a lovely French Canadian girl called S, and we ended up sharing a flat at 885 Oxford Street with an English guy called R. I can't remember his surname, but I seem to recall that he originally came from the Farnham Royal area, in Berkshire. Anyway, the deal was that R would pay the rent (because he had taken the flat) and we would supply the food and keep the place tidy. (I should perhaps point out that R was a complete slob...) One morning we woke to find that R had 'done a runner', because he owed quite a bit of rent. We decided to vacate the premises a bit sharpish, and that was that. Sadly, S and I split up a few years later and I returned to England. Around 1986 I found myself living in a small cottage just outside of Glynde (near Lewes) in Sussex. One Sunday lunchtime I walked my dogs across the fields, and arrived at my local pub (which was The Trevor Arms in Glynde) at opening time. I went into the public bar and ordered a Guinness - and was the only person there.

connections on a train

I was on a train coming back from Leeds and got chatting with the guy opposite me, who reminded me a bit of my friend R I'd met on the train 12 years ago. As the conversation went along, I learnt that he (M) worked in Haematology and was doing research in Leeds. R works in Haematology research at Sheffield University. Knowing that the Haematology world tend to be aware of what they are doing, I asked if M knew of R, He said his name rang a bell, but wasn't 100% sure, so I text R to see if he'd heard of M. R said he'd just been reading a paper written by M. This intrigued M as his papers were very specialised and so asked what R was working on. R was working on putting one of M's theories into practice. R then asked for M's contact details, which was what M was just about to ask. My friend Lynn who was with me said that was amazing, but I just said "we're far more connected than we realise if only we talked to each other more often.

Chance Meeting

In 1990 my sister Nick was successful in getting a working job on camp boona (not sure how you spell it) the American summer camp system. This involved looking after kids and once camp was over she was then free to travel around the USA. Nick flew from the UK to Michigan and was out of contact with the family. In the meantime, unbeknown to Nick I decided to do a sojourn to the USA and flew to New York , from there I traveled around to the West Coast and back, some 2 months later I was checking out of an hotel in Miami when I heard a voice across the lobby which seemed to cut through all the other noise. It was my sister on the phone, I walked over and we ended up spending a few days together. This coincidence can be verified by my sister, photographs of us in Miami and my wife, who was from Southampton and I had first met a few days earlier whilst pushing in front of her in a bus queue in New Orleans (we have been together ever since).

Sunday school prize

My dad used to play cards in his lunch break with a chap called Harry Miles. This is Harry's story. Harry grew up in Brocklesby, Lincolnshire and served in WW1 with the Grimsby chums. In the 1920s he ran a haulage business from Leicester. One day a driver asked for the day off to go to a funeral in Stafford as his brother in law had died. Harry offered the driver and his wife a lift as he had to travel to Bristol the day before the funeral and it would save them a train journey. Arrangements were made to meet at the house in Stafford at 5pm after the funeral. Harry duly arrived, offered his condolences to the widow and was asked to wait in the front room for the driver and his wife as they'd just popped down the road for a few minutes. Harry accepted the offer of a cup of tea and was alone while the tea was made. He took the first book from the top shelf of the bookcase and opened it. His hair stood on end as he read his own name - 'Sunday School Prize, Brocklesby, Lincolnshire. Presented to Harry Miles.' Apparently his parents had died during WW1, their house had been cleared, books sent to charity and years later the Stafford widow had bought a box of books.

Shipboard Coincidence

When I was nearly 18 I boarded the Greek liner, Ellinis (not sure of spelling after all these years!) in Fremantle, Western Australia in October 1968 on my way to the UK. I knew no-one on board but met up with a lass who boarded in Adelaide. We stopped again in Melbourne to take on more passengers, among whom were a group of lads who were on their way to Mexico (we were sailing via Panama and New York). Lyn and I teamed up with them as they were a similar age and it turned out that one of them had previously lived in the same flat in the centre of Perth I had just vacated, and another had the same surname (not hugely common in Australia) as me. None of us had ever met before. Rosemary Whittle

Train number, phone number

In the 1970s, my brother had a Hornby model railway. The train had the old four digit number on it. When he looked up the new number that the train should now be carrying - it was our phone number.

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