Beware of patterns...

Three consecutive numbers, 10, 11 and 12, came up again last week, but the lesson of the lottery is that as soon as any kind of pattern starts to emerge it fades again. One of the rarer winners, 34, came up for the second week running, and 48 came up for the third week in four. But 39 remains unlucky, along with 13, 20, 36, 3, 8, 19 and 24.

Apart from 10, long losing streaks mostly lengthened, and 46, 20, 8, 36 and 39 must now be approaching a record losing run.

CLIFFORD GERMAN