Life
Bridge | 8 October 2022
The bridge world is experiencing an explosion of junior talent and enthusiasm. One of the very best is Sweden’s Sanna…
British Gas has turned the builder boyfriend into a socialist
A cleverly worded email has arrived from British Gas to explain why, despite the Prime Minister’s announcement, my gas and…
Spectator competition winners: poems about Her late Majesty’s favourite things
In Competition No. 3269, you were invited to write a poem about Her late Majesty’s favourite things. Alongside the more…
Is Russell Brand really so dangerous?
Once the dust has settled over the government’s mini-Budget, another big political battle looms: the Online Safety Bill. This is…
Why ‘pop’ is popping up everywhere
The Guardian kindly tells us that green is a colour whose time has come: ‘A blazer or a cotton shirt…
2573 - solution
The preamble referred to ten symmetrically placed unclued entries which spell out CURRENT PUZZLE NUMBER HAS PRIME FACTORS: THIRTY-ONE, EIGHTY-THREE.…
English rugby is in crisis
Make no mistake: the game of rugby, which many of us love so much, is in serious trouble: it will…
Girls compete
Judit Polgar, the strongest female player of all time, conducted an enchanting interview in the commentary room during the Chennai…
If Blairism were a carvery: the Impeccable Pig reviewed
Labour is 30 points ahead, and in honour of this I review the Impeccable Pig in Sedgefield (Cedd’s field), a…
Dear Mary: Why aren’t I getting more Instagram ‘likes’?
Q. As a novice user of Instagram I was flattered at how quickly I gathered followers – 200 already. Many…
The Battle for Britain | 8 October 2022
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2576: After Eleven
The unclued lights form five pairs, as suggested by the title. Across 6 Fashion blunted by useless needle (6) 10…
No. 723
Black to play. Giorgobiani-Sivanandan, Fide Cadets U8 Girls Championship, 2022. Black has a subtle winning move in this position. What…
My battle with an ant
At eight o’clock in the morning a nurse injected me with a radioactive marker and told me to go away…
Aussie life
Prior to the threatened rewriting of the Australian constitution can we stop re-writing the English dictionary and the meanings of…
Language
According to American journalist Kaylee McGhee White (writing in the Washington Examiner) it is now officially okay to use the…
No. 722
Black to play and win. A variation from the game Aronian-Ivanchuk, Julius Baer Generation Cup, September 2022. Ivanchuk could have…
Spectator competition winners: children’s stories get the horror treatment
In Competition No. 3268, you were invited to recast an extract from children’s literature in the horror genre. In the…
The lessons of Newmarket
The swallows who nest yearly in my garage have agreed that ‘that’s enough baby-making for this year’, and started their…
AA only admits the right sort of alcoholics
The support group groupies have issued another ban. They have attempted to slap an exclusion order on another long-standing member,…
The hidden benefits of smart motorways
In 2015, Holborn Underground station was suffering from serious overcrowding at peak hours, with a bottleneck forming in the space…
2575: Problem XIII
Singers will know that where ‘Q’ = ‘the number of’: Q34/22A x Q41/39/1D x Q3/8/38 = Q the 14. 41/39/1D…
Bridge | 1 October 2022
A beautiful Greek island; a warm sea; delicious al fresco dinners; and bridge from morning till night with Andrew Robson.…
The joy of morphine sulphate
Two football friends, brothers, Mick and Pete, came to visit last week. We’ve been going to matches together since 1969,…
Rupert Murdoch has nothing to fear from me
Harvard man Russell Seitz has sent me an extraordinary present as an object lesson in ‘what a magazine should be…
