Life

Hope springs eternal: a 1954 Morris Minor at a Catholic mission station in Moipo, South Sudan

Having oozed optimism for a decade, I am a bit down about the Hopeful Continent

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Juba I discovered a 1954 Morris Minor parked outside the Catholic mission station in Mopoi, South Sudan. The car had…

Bridge

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Before returning to Australia about a decade ago, Michael Courtney spent several years playing high-stake rubber bridge in London. Those…

Tradewise

14 February 2015 9:00 am

The Tradewise Masters in Gibraltar has been won by the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, with the British co-champion David Howell…

No. 349

14 February 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This position is a variation from Bellin-Georgiadis, Gibraltar 2015. White has given up his queen. How does…

Hair brained

14 February 2015 9:00 am

In Competition No. 2884 you were invited to submit a poem in praise or dispraise of beards. The beard has…

2198: Tuck in

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Each of sixteen clues contains one misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell the name (three words)…

To 2195: In question

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Material from superfluous words in clues gives ‘fingers on buzzers’ (describing 2/20 and 8/33), ‘your starter for ten’ (indicating 31,…

Immigration, not money, will improve Scotland's most deprived schools

14 February 2015 9:00 am

I suppose we should be thankful that Nicola Sturgeon has acknowledged there’s a problem with Scotland’s public education system, even…

Battle for Britain

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.

From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major, the truth is often very strange

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…

What do you do about a friend who cannot make a request directly?

14 February 2015 9:00 am

Q. I have a friend with multiple sclerosis. She lives alone in the countryside. There is no bus service and,…

Why soldiers are the funniest people

14 February 2015 9:00 am

We were discussing wit. I uttered a self-evident truth which proved gratifyingly controversial. Of all the people I encounter, the…

That annoying ‘likely’ is more old-fashioned than American

14 February 2015 9:00 am

What, asks Christian Major of Bromley, Kent, do I think of ‘this new, I assume American, fad for using the…

Wits on parade

12 February 2015 3:00 pm

We were discussing wit. I uttered a self-evident truth which proved gratifyingly controversial. Of all the people I encounter, the…

From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major

12 February 2015 3:00 pm

Are you sitting comfortably and wearing your tinfoil hat? If so, open YouTube and watch a full-screen version of the…

Hope springs eternal: a 1954 Morris Minor at a Catholic mission station in Moipo, South Sudan

Wild life

12 February 2015 3:00 pm

Juba I discovered a 1954 Morris Minor parked outside the Catholic mission station in Mopoi, South Sudan. The car had…

Taki’s recipe for the survival of the Greek nation

7 February 2015 9:00 am

The good news is that a Greek suppository is about to relieve the EU’s economic constipation. The bad is that…

My initiation into the fellowship of wine (I swallowed)

7 February 2015 9:00 am

This month’s wine club lecture was on red burgundy. The members were settling themselves at two large tables when I…

118 000 is, I now realise, the number of the beast

7 February 2015 9:00 am

‘Orange 1-1-8 thousand how may I help you?’ said the cheerful voice. Carefree as you like, I asked for the…

The Shading Out of Poetry by Deadline

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Like old-time washerwomen floodwater is sousing trees and shrubs out on the drainage. Floating wrack dribbles seaward from their labour.…

This autobiography written by a horse that is not as offputting as it sounds

7 February 2015 9:00 am

Banks only lend money to those who can prove they don’t need it and it has not been a happy…

Bridge

7 February 2015 9:00 am

There is something decidedly Groundhog Day about the international bridge calendar. The second weekend of January is TGR’s Auction Pairs…

Sixes and sevens

7 February 2015 9:00 am

The veteran world championship contender, Victor Korchnoi, has accused the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of hypnotising his opponents. Plainly unimpressed by…

No. 348

7 February 2015 9:00 am

White to play. This position is a variation from Nakamura-Topalov, Gibraltar 2015. Topalov has already resigned this game as he…

Your problem solved

7 February 2015 9:00 am

In Competition No. 2883 you were invited to cast a well-known writer, living or dead, in the role of agony…