Lessons to be learnt about left-handers

Nick Afka Thomas does the maths
You probably missed it, but last Sunday was the 15th annual Left-Handers Day, an event that highlights the endless ways in which our world is designed for right-handers. Being one of the estimated 10%-15% of lefties myself, I've always struggled with ticket-slots on the tube being placed to the right, so that popping your card in the slot to your left opens the wrong barrier. Very embarrassing at rush hour.

A lot has been written about the persecution of left-handers. The Romans called the left "sinister", and still today the word "left" carries clear negative associations in at least nine of the world's 10 most spoken languages (it would be surprising if Bengali didn't have this bias as well, but I couldn't find any). My favourite piece of left-bashing is the Spanish phrase no ser zurdo, which means "to be clever", but literally translates as "not to be left-handed".

So what would the Spanish make of an economic study in the US that unexpectedly discovered that college-educated, left-handed men (oddly not women) earn about 26% more than similarly educated right-handed men, as long as they complete their full four years of study? Who's clever now, eh? It has also been claimed that 20% of Mensa's membership are southpaws, and apparently people with an IQ of 140 or above are more likely to be left-handed than right-handed. On top of that, there's the fact that four out of the last six US presidents have been left-handed. I'm not sure what that says about intelligence, but the current president is definitely a right-hander.

At least half the British monarchs since George II have been left-handed, including King George VI, whose stutter was supposedly brought about as a result of his left hand being tied to a piece of string as a child and yanked whenever he tried to use it. Winston Churchill was left-handed. So was Napoleon. Nelson was (as would you be if your right arm had been amputated). Bill Gates is. Four of the original five creators of the Apple Macintosh were, as well as 25% of all the Apollo astronauts. Surely that's grounds for a good conspiracy theory? Right-handers everywhere should quake at the might of the anti-dextrous brigade.

Today provides the perfect opportunity to put this scientifically to the test. Quite literally, in fact, since the 4th Test against Pakistan is getting under way. England's unchanged 12-man squad contains four left-handers, including man of the moment Monty Panesar. Now, at the last World Cup it was found that 47% of all batsmen who were number one, two or three in the batting order were left-handers; and against Pakistan at Headingley and presumably again at the Oval, an astonishing 100% of the opening three batsmen were left-handers.

The left-hander's advantage in sport is well documented, but surely its crowning moment was on November 4 1947, when boxer Mike Collins squared up to his opponent in a right-handed posture; suddenly he switched to a left-handed stance and landed a knock-out blow. It still stands as the shortest fight ever: only four seconds long.


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