On Saturday I'm going to watch the Six Nations tournament match between England and Wales with my friends Colin and Kate Harvey. I have only the vaguest notion of how Rugby football is played, and watching a match at the gym while I rode a stationary bike only served to convince me that I know even less than I thought. As for caring whether England wins or Wales does, well, I'm willing to cheer on England because that's what Colin and Kate want, but I don't really care.

Ah, but I am the sort who scours the PoundLand store for deals and then, before buying, goes across Kilburn High Road to see if the same things can be found at the 98 Pence store. So to convert my attachment to money into attachment to Colin and Kate's team, I went to one of the betting companies, Paddy, and put down a fiver on England.

The photo above illustrates the process of placing a bet. I wrote my bet on a slip of paper (a slip from Coral, a different company, is used for illustration). The slip shows me taking England to win for five pounds at 4/6 odds. I handed in my fiver and the slip at the window. In return, I received a receipt that shows an image of my bet in my own handwriting. If I win, the bet will pay 6/4 of five pounds, plus my original five-pound stake, or twelve fifty.

If I had taken the other side of the bet, a win for Wales is at 5/4, so my five-pound bet would return nine pounds with a win. Wales is favored in part because two key players for England are out with injuries.

I understand very well how the Las Vegas sports bet works, with a point spread designed to take equal numbers of bets for either outcome. And I sort of understand paramutual betting, where the bets themselves determine the odds. But I don't really understand yet what the mechanism is for ensuring that the house can't lose for British sports betting. But I do know, because it's true everywhere, that in the long run, the house can't lose.

I won't be making a habit of betting, though I might make a habit of watching the matches, especially when the smoking ban for pubs comes into effect and I can stand to be in a pub for long enough to watch a match.

Go England! Crush those choral-singing coal-mining devolving Welshmen!

The answer is...

Does this begin to clear up the mystery? Click on the image to enlarge.

Above are three objects that I found on the sidewalks of London this week. Do you know what they are? (If you have ever lived in Britain, please don't answer until others have had a chance to play.)

Bonus points available for assigning names to the colors.