Left-handed, that is. (Yeah, yeah. “It’s the only thing left about me.” “Left-handed people are in their right minds.” Chortle, chortle.) Anyway, the latest left-handed news comes from the University of Montpelier:

Are left-handed people nature’s way of starting a fight?

Alexander the Great was one, as was Billy the Kid and John McEnroe. Now scientists believe they can explain why some people are left-handed, and it’s all to do with coming out on top in a fight.

About 10 per cent of Britons habitually use their left hand rather than their right and for years biologists have been mystified as to why such a significant minority of people should be born left-handed.

It is known that left-handers tend to suffer more health problems and are at greater risk of serious accidents compared to right-handers. So, all other things being equal, the left-handed trait, which is largely genetic, should have died out long ago in prehistory.

There must, therefore, be some hidden advantage to being left-handed that counteracts the risks, but the problem for biologists was trying to work out what this advantage was. One idea is that, in the days when arguments were resolved by hand-to-hand combat, being left-handed gave people the benefit of surprise against right-handers. This advantage, however, would only have persisted if left-handers remained in the minority, otherwise right-handers would soon get accustomed to fighting with left-handed opponents.

Now two researchers from the University of Montpellier have found evidence to support this controversial idea…

Be interesting to see if this goes for rhetorical boxers as well. Right-wing and left-handed? KA-POW!

Update: A reader writes in to correct the Telegraph’s reporting on Billy the Kid.

His only known photograph was orginally a reversed image photograph, making him appear left-handed. Hollywood has helped to spread this myth over the years.

Ok, he’s out of the club.

Update II: A left-handed fencer sends in his thoughts.

I read the above article with interest. I can confirm after 8 years of fencing training that being left-handed is an advantage in a toe-to-toe fight. Two right-handers have to reach ‘across’ the body to hit each other, since the left side is turned away to lower target area (in the old days, the left side held a shield). This trains right-handers to aim slightly to the left. Facing a lefty, the right side is turned away, and the lefty’s blade is directly opposite the righty’s as opposed to off slightly to the left. So a right-hander acting on instinct (the whole point of training) will be aiming to thin air with a blade in the way of his normal path of attack. He can compensate, but this by itself is disorienting. This advantage went a long way to overcoming my jelly legs, low stamina, and general uncoordination.

I don’t know how researchers plan on confirming this, but if they persuasively do, it’s another case of science confirming common sense. I don’t have a reference, but I believe the Bible speaks of an elite unit [in Joshua's army, I think] of soldiers ‘lame in the hand’. Since lameness is not a fighting advantage, scholars now believe this refers to an all-left-handed unit of swordsmen.

Blessed are the left-handed.

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