In fact, the seemingly freak occurrence was evidence of the exact opposite. Given last Wednesday's winning numbers, it was almost predestined that there would be multiple winners.

The numbers drawn were 3, 6, 9, 12, 21, 24 and the bonus number was 17. Nine of the 10 winners picked their own numbers, while only one player used 'quick pick'.

The reason so many people picked the same numbers is quite simple. All six winning numbers are low enough to be included in a birthday, and the combination of three, six and nine is also a part of The Clapping Song. Its chorus, "Three Six Nine the goose drank wine . . . ." is used as a skipping rhyme and most people know it even if they don't know how.

Birthdays, house numbers and well-remembered combinations of numbers are frequently used as lottery picks, so those who play them have a much much greater chance of sharing the jackpot with other players than those who opt for truly random numbers.

Since the chances of winning the lottery are so small in the "rst place, though, many players choose to ignore the fact that they are not the only Irish person born on Christmas Eve.

The 10 winners might not be too unhappy . . . they are 250,000 better off and those common numbers were the ones that came up . . . and the National Lottery gets a nice, quirky story on the front page.

The lesson is simple, though. If you don't want to share your lottery jackpot win, avoid the obvious.