Initial Analysis

Basic information

        Balls drawn         Richard's success
# 3     11 17 21 29 30 40   no matches
# 4     26 35 38 43 47 49   no matches
# 7     09 17 32 36 42 44   two matches, three off by four

Near Misses

Consider lottery 7 - Richard had three choices that were four off the balls actually drawn. The possibilities for these are:

05 13 21 28 32 36 38 40 46 48

If 32 or 36 were chosen, they would count as exact matches, rather than near misses, so can be excluded from this count.

None of 21, 38 or 40 could be chosen because of Richard's lack of success in draws 3 and 4.

Hence the three near misses must come from the remaining five possibilities.

Deduction

Select three from:

05 13 28 46 48

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