In football, should a penalty taker belt it or place it? In tennis, how often is a fast serve best? In this mathematical analysis of sport, Eastaway and Haigh answer these and other questions. Mathematics is surprisingly helpful to such conundrums as whether it’s more effective to be a steady golfer such as say, Nick Faldo, or “a flamboyant player known for moments of inspiration and calamity, like Seve Ballesteros”. The answer, by the way, is that steady golfers generally beat erratic ones of similar ability – there must be a moral there somewhere.

But this is not all about mathematical probabilities and game theory. The authors trawl far and wide through sport’s arcana. For example, remember the famous line about the point of the Olympics being not to win but to take part? I had always thought that it came from the founder of the modern movement, Pierre de Coubertin. In fact he adapted it from someone called, honestly, Ethelbert Talbot, a canon of St Paul’s Cathedral who coined the phrase in 1908.

This is, in short, a light, lovely and well-written book that will reward both sport-lovers and those indifferent to it. With becoming modesty, the authors call it a “dip-in book”. It is also more. There is consistent regard for the importance of sport in human history. The shape and design of a football owes as much to Plato, it seems, as to adidas. Now there’s a thought.

BEATING THE ODDS The Hidden Mathematics of Sport by Rob Eastaway and John Haigh

Robson Books, £6.99

Buy the book here at the offer price of £6.64 (free p&p)

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