“Ooh, I want that one,” says my young daughter, pointing to the stuffed ladybird cushion on display. She loves anything to do with ladybirds. “And it’s only $5 per guess!”

We’re standing at Rip-off Rick’s Cup Shuffle carnival game at the local fair. In the game, he hides a bean under one of four cups and shuffles them before placing them in a line: A, B, C and D. You can then buy as many guesses as you want to locate the bean.

The catch is, between each guess, Rick waves his hand over the cups, and the bean “magically” moves to another cup. My buddy worked here last summer and let me in on a secret: Rick can only move the bean to an adjacent cup, such as from B to either A or C. I’ve seen the cushions in the shops for $16, so no way am I spending more than $20. Can I guarantee a ladybird in four guesses?

#116 More soccerdoku

Solution

Albion’s goals against must be 0 in order for the Goals For/Against totals to be equal. To get 7 points, Albion drew 1 and won 2, so they drew 0-0 and either won 3-0/ 1-0 or 2-0/2-0. United had a goal deficit, so must have lost at least once. They conceded 5 goals, and since Town and Rovers only scored 2 goals between them, United must have lost 3-0 to Albion. So Albion beat another team 1-0; that team must be Rovers. All results then follow:

Albion 3 United 0

United 2 Town 1

United 2 Rovers 1

Town 0 Albion 0

Town 0 Rovers 0

Albion 1 Rovers 0