Cambridge Coincidences Collection

About fifteen years ago I lived in Tollesbury, Essex, and worked in an office in South Hanningfield, Essex. One of my office colleagues lived in Canvey Island, Essex, and was called for jury service on a case at Southend, Essex. After his first day the case was deferred and he returned to the office for a day. unable of course to disclose any details of the case. I was friendly with an elderly lady in Tollesbury with whom I played scrabble once a week. On the evening of the above court case my friend asked whether I would mind us playing with another friend of hers. I agreed and had a very enjoyable evening with the judge who was hearing that very case, and who had no restriction about discussing details. Naturally I never disclosed my contact with either party but my office colleague was mystified by my knowledge of the case.

What were the odds that a girl from New York State and a guy from Seattle, WA, would meet in passing far from our homes, fall in love, then find out months later that our relatives had the same occupations? His grandfather and father were professional photographers, and my grandfather and father were professional photographers as well. I was a photojournalist with my own photography studio when we met and he loved photography as well. We always thought it was an interesting coincidence.

In my role as a Regional Secretary of The Professional Golfers Association based at The Belfry in Warwickshire, I took a telephone call from a member pro - Eddie Bullock, who was at that time at a golf club in Bedford. He urgently needed a letter from me confirming some contractual matters. It transpired that the following day, we would both be attending a Golf Trade show at Sandown Park in Surrey, so I arranged to see him there to deliver the letter. The next day after visiting my office, I set off for Sandown Park, travelling by the M6/M1 route, only to get caught in a major traffic jam near to Toddington, with queueing vehicles as far as the eye could see to the front, and very soon, to the rear. We were obviously going nowhere for a long time, and my thoughts turned to returning home once clear of the hold up - but the important letter meant that I did need to carry on. At that moment - sitting stationary in the fast lane of the M1 - I looked in my rear view mirror and saw that driver of the car immediately behind me was Eddie Bullock. I took the letter from my pocket, got out of my car, knocked on Eddies' window, and delivered the letter in the outside lane of the M1.

About 30 years ago my elderly Mother was taken every week to a singing class by one of her friends. I was working at the time as a sales rep and on this particular day had to collect something from a local supplier. I parked my car outside the company on a street that linked a main road to a popular local cut through to a city estate in Nottingham. As I was only going to be 5 minutes I stupidly left my handbag in the footwell of the passenger seat and when I returned about 3 minutes later the lock on the door had been forced and the bag stolen. I reported the incident to the police as soon as I returned to work and when I got home cancelled all my credit cards. Later that same evening a gentleman arrived at the door to return my purse including all my money, credit cards and business cards. It transpired that he sang in the same class as my mother and was walking down the road when the thief was making a quick getaway, saw the purse fall out of the bag on to the road, recognised my name from the business card, made the connection with my mother and also remembered where she lived in order to return it to me!