Life
Bridge
We all need time off from our addictions and August is my annual holiday and break from bridge. One of…
Miles gloriosus
England’s leading female player, Jovanka Houska, recently called for a memorial to the late Tony Miles. The timing is fitting.…
Puzzle No.278
White to play, a variation from Speelman-Miles, London 1975. White has two pieces forked. What is the most accurate continuation…
Pretentious, moi?
In Competition 2809 you were invited to submit a letter liberally sprinkled with evidence of an imperfect grasp of foreign…
2125: Nil desperandum
‘1/5/28’ (five words in total) is part of a quotation in ODQ and suggests how to find the common element…
Solution to 2122: Theme and Variations
The theme word is GRAVES: 19, 34 and 40 are famous cemeteries; 17, 28 and 39 are wines from SW…
The myths of the English countryside
One of the great things about spending the summer holidays in England is that it gives you an opportunity to…
Football’s still the big boy in the playground – even when the big boys aren’t playing
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Dave
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Dear Mary: How can I tell her that her table manners are disgusting?
Q. My mainly male colleagues and I were happy to learn that an attractive young woman would be joining the…
‘Like a concentration camp run by KFC’: Tanya Gold visits Shake Shack
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Mind your language: Frack vs frag
‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a frack,’ replied my husband unwittily when I asked how he’d feel if shale…
World shaking
Shake Shack is a hamburger restaurant in Covent Garden market. It came from New York and it is as needy…
Speculation season
It’s been a long, hot, soccerless holiday. There has been football about — the women’s European Championship, for example, and…
Taki: What Roger Federer and Anthony Weiner have in common
Gstaad One possesses youth, talent, fame, even beauty, the other none of the above except arrogance, physical repulsiveness and…
His first night out in three weeks and Jeremy Clarke failed to pull
I haven’t been out for three weeks and I’m up for a big night. To prove it I’m wearing my…
Melissa Kite is punished for ignoring the Madonna of the sea
‘Benvenuti alla Small Cluster Band!’ And about time, too. We had been sitting in the Castello in Castellabate for half…
Why don’t the Italians ask me to translate their restaurant menus?
When we bought the farmhouse in Tuscany, where I am now, more than 40 years ago, there were only two…
Qataris invest heavily in British bloodstock
A fresh new breeze is wafting through British racing. Led by the enthusiastic Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, the Qatar ruling…
Bridge
I haven’t played rubber bridge for a few years now (the demands of young children), but recently I’ve been hearing…
Il miglior fabbro
Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster, the world’s greatest collector of chess books and the only arbiter trusted by Bobby Fischer, died…
no. 277
White to play. This position is from Keene-Eley, Whitby 1964. White’s next move won at once. What did he play?…
The new black
In Competition 2808 you were invited to invent a new addition to the genre that already includes Tartan Noir and…
2124: Pack
Seven unclued lights are words that may be regarded as 13 18. The remaining unclued light supplies the material with…
Solution to 2121: Take Care
All the unclued lights mean ‘Goodbye’. First prize Alan Donovan, Croydon, Surrey Runners-up Mary Varela, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex; Geoffrey…
