Life
‘Your guts will form a stinky pool’: Roald Dahl explains Covid-19 to children
In Competition No. 3153 you were invited to recruit a well-known children’s writer to explain Covid-19 to their young audience.…
Chequered histories
As statues are scrutinised, the tensions that existed within historical figures are thrown into relief. You can admire Churchill’s leadership…
Bridge | 20 June 2020
I am so useless in defence it’s embarrassing. My partners all say the same thing: slow down and think. I…
2462: Over and Out?
The seventeen entries with definition-only clues are to be treated according to a symmetrically disposed theme which has to be…
No. 609
White to play. Tolush–Aronson, Moscow 1957. Strangely, this quick win was once wrongly attributed to Alekhine. How did White exploit…
2459: 22 down solution
22D was TABLEWARE, and the quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson reads: ‘The louder he talked of his honour, the faster…
The Battle for Britain | 20 June 2020
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No. 608
Black to play, Ding Liren–Daniil Dubov, Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge, May 2020. Dubov’s rook is under attack, but his next…
Bridge | 13 June 2020
Have you ever been at a bridge event and heard someone exclaim: ‘He Grosvenor’d me!’ They are referring to a…
Lindores Abbey online
The Lindores Abbey Distillery in Fife, Scotland was an idyllic setting for an exciting rapid event last year, won by…
The pleasure and pain of staycations
In Competition No. 3152 you were invited to supply a poem about the joys — or otherwise — of the…
Recollections of Burgundy
More than two months: who would have thought it possible? Before the great closure, I had been trying to decide…
2461: Hot off?
The unclued lights (individually or four pairs) lead to a word or phrase which includes a thematic component. Across 1…
An elegy for Vienna
Vienna Somebody once described Vienna as a top opera performed by understudies. The remark was unquestionably witty, but utterly false…
My hairdresser cured my depression
I walked to the salon in fiery sunshine. Gorgeous, zaftig Elody was wearing a short satin dressing gown of silver…
What should you charge for a virtual conference?
From time to time, every industry must adapt to some inconvenient technological advance. Suddenly, some part of what you offer…
The protestors have brought down the lockdown
I wasn’t surprised to see that a woman whose father died at a care home in Bicester in April has…
Dear Mary: How do I greet friends without hugs or handshakes?
Q. Now we are instructed to mingle again, I’m sure I’m not alone in being surprised to find an awkwardness…
There were horses loose in a Public Sex Environment
The two horses looked like they had never seen anything like it. They had wound up in a dark car…
The Battle for Britain | 13 June 2020
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2458: Bardicarum solution
The unclued lights Across are Shakespearean LORDS and the Down ones are LADIES. (The plant ‘lords and ladies’ is an…
Horse-racing has made a triumphant return
Horse racing, it turns out, wasn’t the first sport back in post-lockdown action: that distinction went to pigeon racing when…
Where did ‘taking a knee’ come from?
That sympathetic physician, Sir Thomas Browne, thought himself austere in conversation. ‘Yet, at my devotion,’ he confessed in Religio Medici…
Famous writers get to grips with DIY
In Competition No. 3151 you were invited to imagine famous authors reflecting on their struggles with DIY. Highlights in a…
2460: Sleaze
The same word appears as seven headwords in Chambers. Unclued lights (including two pairs and one of three words, one…
