Life
Aussie Life
The voiceover says new ABC series Ms Represented is all about Australian women in politics but really it’s all about…
Aussie Language
When Kaylee McKeown won Olympic gold her comment on worldwide television became the headline. Her sister and mum were watching…
No. 665
White to play. Adhiban–Delgado Ramirez, Sochi 2021. White has more than one good move, but Adhiban found a spectacular way…
The Fide World Cup
As I write this, the Fide World Cup is underway in Sochi, the Black Sea resort in Russia which hosted…
What would Avery Ice Age have made of the Tokyo Olympics?
Avery Brundage was known to his enemies as Avery Ice Age — and to quite a few of his friends…
2518: Make a run for it?
11 Across (three words) is a phrase suggested by the puzzle’s title explaining how to arrive at the other unclued…
Have my suits shrunk in lockdown?
I hadn’t noticed how much weight I’d put on during lockdown until I went out for a business lunch a…
The Battle for Britain | 7 August 2021
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Dear Mary: How do we tell our interior designer relative we don’t want her doing up our house?
Q. I’ve just completed a six-month paid internship for a hedge fund manager. I was mostly in his private office…
2515: Paragon - solution
The name was Margaret, whose various versions are suggested by THE SPECTATOR (1: Mag), BARN OWL (10/36: Madge), LEAD HAMMER…
Spectator competition winners: poems inspired by the phonetic alphabet
In Competition No. 3210, you were invited to provide a poem or a piece of prose containing words from the…
Bridge | 7 August 2021
To be a killer bridge player, you need to be aggressive. Many of us are hampered by timidity, especially when…
The art of losing your hair
Although fatigued to the point of catatonia, and sitting there like a 19th-century Fang funeral mask, I am glad to…
An elegy on yachting
Patmos A very long time ago I wrote in these here pages that spending a summer on the Riviera or…
Proper racing is back at last
At last proper racing is back. Through the long days of lockdown horses and jockeys have still given their all…
The lost dogs of Surrey
The woman pulled up in her flashy 4×4 which was meandering along the farm track in that way people have…
The dirty truth about ‘wash-up’
‘They asked me if I wanted to wash up before we even went in to dinner,’ my husband recalled with…
High on the hog: The Pig at Bridge Place reviewed
The Pig at Bridge Place is not a pig in possession of a country house, but I would be for…
Aussie Life
For obvious reasons, lockdowns have been much easier to deal with for Australians who live alone. Not for them the…
Aussie Language
Edward de Bono—the inventor of ‘lateral thinking’—died recently. I interviewed him a number of times on my radio show (he…
2517: Final line-up
The unclued lights appeared at the start under the shaded squares reading row by row from top to bottom (two…
The king of no castling
In the body of chess rules, castling is a clumsy protuberance. Once per game, you get to move king and…
No. 664
White to play. Greco–NN, 1620. The centre is a dangerous place for the king. Which move does White play to…
Spectator competition winners: Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of a Tory MP
In Competition No. 3209, you were invited to provide Shakespeare’s Seven Ages of a Tory MP. Inspiration for this challenge…
2514: Welcome Back - Solution
Unclued lights were stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes. (The Adventures of the: EMPTY (41) HOUSE (2), DANCING MEN…
