Life
The Battle for Britain | 28 August 2021
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Spectator competition winners: Villanelles after Elizabeth Bishop
In Competition No. 3213 you were invited to submit a villanelle whose first line is: ‘The art of [insert gerund…
2521: Leading question
Unclued lights can be arranged so that, preceded by ‘What is’, they form a question whose answer solvers must shade.…
My eye-opening mini-break in Hull
Given how difficult it is to arrange an overseas holiday, I thought I’d take Charlie and Freddie, my two youngest,…
Remembering Evgeny Sveshnikov
There be dragons! What we now call the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence was, in the 1970s, largely uncharted…
Dear Mary: how can I matchmake two dinner guests?
Q. What is the best seating plan when you have a supper party where you are hoping to matchmake two…
In turbulent times, there’s sherry
I sometimes wander through Trafalgar Square in the small hours when the traffic has abated and children are no longer…
The language of the victimhood war
Language is used in a weird way in the victimhood war, where those who see themselves without agency bravely speak…
The Swiss are united by a common cause — making money
Gstaad When Gerald Murphy and Cole Porter discovered the French Riviera as a summer resort during the early 1920s, the…
Why no one wants their holiday to last forever
I have been on holiday for two weeks. Well, not quite. You see, a bloke I once met told me…
With tourists absent, the teeming marine life has returned to the sea off Malindi
Malindi, Kenya Beneath the Indian Ocean’s surface, I wondered if the pandemic had turned out to be a good thing…
How I love England — despite the hellhole that is Gatwick airport
At Gatwick airport, after an hour and 15 minutes in a snaking queue system apparently purposely designed to infect as…
The end of an era: after 20 years we must move our horses off the farm
The letter arrived in a hand-addressed envelope, inside of which was a handwritten note. After everything we have been through,…
Bridge | 28 August 2021
So, face-to-face bridge is slowly returning, with EBU’s Summer Meeting in Eastbourne being one of the first to take place.…
2518: Make a run for it? - solution
As suggested by 11A, other unclued lights were all anagrams of ducks: 12A drake; 16A teal; 28A redhead; 31A smew; …
Aussie Life
One recent golden morning, as I struggled to corral my customarily disordered senses into working order, I was suddenly hit…
Aussie Language
‘LGAs’. Since when did this ugly piece of bureaucratic jargon become part of everyday English? Because the bureaucrats keep rattling…
No. 667
White to play and draw. The conclusion of an endgame study composed by J. Hašek (1951). Black is preparing a…
Containment
‘Exchange chess’ (also known as bughouse) is the chess equivalent of a three-legged race. It is played in teams of…
2520: 5 4 3 2 1
The unclued lights, two of two words and the others as four pairs, are of a kind. Across 6…
A great contest without the skulduggery of the past
Taking a day off racing to enjoy Joe Root’s regal 180 not out against India on the third day of…
Why is an Athens paper going after my old friend King Constantine?
Gstaad It seems to be open season on the royals, starting with Prince Andrew and the charges against him by…
A tale of many swimming pools
My two grandsons are staying with us here in Provence for a week. Roman soldier Catriona flew from Marseille to…
I’m not ill but I’m not as I was: how Covid takes its toll
If it’s true that the virus finds your weak spot, it has lodged itself like an evil monkey in my…
Bridge | 21 August 2021
Live bridge is back. It kicked off two weekends ago with Eastbourne’s Swiss Pairs. I went with my friend Ollie…
