Life
The pain of being second-best
The boys at Radio 5, bless ’em, are now including the EU referendum as part of their sports trailers. As…
Confessions of an England fan
Listen http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/268140526-the-spectator-podcast-brexit-strategy-what-would-the.mp3 If you’re a proper football supporter, getting excited about England on the eve of a major tournament is…
Confessions of an England fan
Listen http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/268140526-the-spectator-podcast-brexit-strategy-what-would-the.mp3 If you’re a proper football supporter, getting excited about England on the eve of a major tournament is…
Girl power
How much strength do you need to win a horse race? Do women have enough? And if they don’t should…
Girl power
How much strength do you need to win a horse race? Do women have enough? And if they don’t should…
Bridge
Many top-class bridge players enjoy flirting with poker, making it their bit on the side. I can certainly see the…
Why I won’t be watching Wimbledon
Write about things you really know was the advice Papa Hemingway offered wannabe writers, so here goes: the French Open…
Zopiclone: drug of choice for monkeys and the French
Hours before boarding the cross-Channel car ferry, I received a text message from the company warning of severe fuel shortages…
The grass may have been tasty but it landed me in A&E
Turns out you can’t eat grass. A horse does something clever to it in its mouth that humans can’t. Fine,…
The first real gaffe of the EU referendum? It’s from Charles Moore
It was a famous American editor and columnist Michael Kinsley who once defined the political ‘gaffe’ as something that occurs…
Bridge
The Hubert Phillips Bowl is one of my favourite tournaments of the year: a friendly, knockout event with a rather…
Life on the edge
The grandmaster Nigel Davies has just written a new book on the Pirc Defence, a variation in which Black sacrifices…
No. 411
Black to play. This is from Cherin-Pedini, Italy 2016. Black has just sacrificed some material as he could foresee a…
The law is an ass
In Competition No. 2950 you were invited to propose a new and ludicrous piece of legislation along with a justification…
2263: Hurry
Each of twelve clues contains a misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell a four-word phrase forming…
To 2260: B & B
BUTTONS AND BOWS (1A) is a song in the film THE PALEFACE (10), sung by BOB HOPE (27). Other unclued lights…
The day I stopped believing in the friendship myth
Should we be surprised that friendship isn’t always mutual? That is one of the findings of a team of researchers…
Battle for Britain
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The monkey-brained case for Donald Trump
A few years ago I was asked to speak at a conference in New York. ‘Where would be the best…
Dear Mary: What can you do when your new neighbours stiff you on a restaurant bill?
Q. We moved recently and new neighbours invited us to join them for dinner at a nearby restaurant. I planned…
Adventures of a hell-cat in heaven
Over the weekend I officiated at a funeral. Earlier in the morning there had been lowering rain clouds, but by…
Include me out of this grammatical atrocity
Just as, in writing, many people use an exclamation mark to indicate that they have made a joke, so there…
Battle for Britain
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
Life on the edge
The grandmaster Nigel Davies has just written a new book on the Pirc Defence, a variation in which Black sacrifices…
No. 411
Black to play. This is from Cherin-Pedini, Italy 2016. Black has just sacrificed some material as he could foresee a…
