In the beginning...

In the beginning there were deadlines. And the deadlines slowly approached. And the deadlines even more slowly focussed the mind...

Sadly, the mind became focussed on things that - to others (let us call them, for want a better title, "employers") - were of less than earth shattering import.

Yet focussed the mind became.

Questions emerged. Such as "is there a solid relationship between FIFA world ranks and international match results", "is head-to-head really as bad a method of tie-breaking as I think it is", "if you went back to the first FA Cup match and tracked the winners through the thousands of games since - who would you be following now" and "how much more likely is Australia to qualify for the world cup now they qualify out of Asia rather than against the last number Sepp Blatter thought of".

Some of these questions involved numbers.

Some of them involved vast arrays of data and spreadsheets and stuff like that.

Some may even involve answers...