Life
Spectator competition winners: Ebenezer Scrooge asks for a loan
In Competition No. 3265, you were invited to submit a letter to a friend asking for a loan as it…
2572: Blown up
Around the perimeter, beginning at square 1, is a line of poetry (seven words, in ODQ) followed by the title…
2569: Anadad - solution
The quotation was ‘I WAS BORN TO SPEAK ALL MIRTH AND NO MATTER’ from Much Ado About Nothing (II.i.321) by…
Dear Mary: Was I wrong to tell my friend’s boyfriend he was snoring?
Q. I have had an email inviting me to an old girls’ reunion, class of 1976. The organiser suggested we…
How science became politicised
Here’s a paradox. Over the past two-and-a-half years, a cadre of senior politicians and their ‘expert’ advisers across the world…
The Conservative case for remote working
Some years ago, an Australian neurologist was in the habit of walking barefoot across his lawn. This being Australia, the…
Match of the half-century
They called it the Match of the Century. A full 50 years has passed since Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky…
The Battle for Britain | 3 September 2022
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A toast to the field marshals
August may not be the cruellest month but it is often the most dangerous one. Now that it is over,…
The changing language of ‘mental health’
It is easy to laugh at young people asking for sympathy because ‘I’ve got mental health’. I think I heard…
2568: Next door... - solution
The unclued lights were characters in Neighbours, paired at 12/19, 14/20, 16/19 and 32/20. First prize Peter Taylor-Mansfield, Worcester Runners-up…
Goodwood was glorious but it highlighted the range of problems facing the sport
Irish trainer John F. O’Neill owes the stalls handlers at Goodwood a good drink or two. In Ireland this season…
Spectator competition winners: surreptitious sonnets
In Competition No. 3264, you were invited to submit a poem in response to the following journal entry by Wallace…
No. 718
White to play and win. Composed by Alexey Troitsky, Novoye Vremya, 1895. Trapping Black’s queen looks unimaginable on such an…
How to make a true apple strudel
It’s possible that, like me, your first encounter with the Grande Dame of the Austrian pastry world, the apfelstrudel, was…
2571: 10”
The unclued lights (one of two words) are of a kind. Across 1 Bringing down plane that was used…
My mare has had a ‘misalliance’ with a pint-sized stallion
My favourite vet came to see Darcy and immediately put his finger on the problem. Dusk was falling when he…
My unforgettable night with a musical genius
Nostalgia barged in like gangbusters. What brought it on was a brief article about the most charming and enchanting of…
Bridge | 3 September 2022
The beautiful city of Wroclaw in Poland is currently teeming with bridge players, all of them there for the 16th…
Aussie life
Anthony Albanese’s republican sympathies were a matter of public record when a Voice to Parliament wasn’t even a whisper in…
Woke language
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) once said: ‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’ And if the woke…
Bridge | 27 August 2022
Do we need complicated bidding systems to reach the best contracts? The Portland Club (men only) operates a no conventions…
No. 717
White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for…
It’s back to the 1970s
Gstaad As the great Yogi Berra explained: ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’ The great one also contributed the following…
I can trace all our problems back to Frankie Dettori
‘If you think about it, Frankie Dettori is to blame,’ said the builder boyfriend, because when things are really bad…
