Life
Cirencester
‘Half! Half! Half!’ exclaimed my husband like a performing sea lion. Not that sea lions perform any more, but you…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My husband has developed an irksome habit whenever he goes abroad without me. We have cameras outside the house…
Solution to 2545: With a twist
Suggested by 41, the other unclued lights were worms entered backwards in the grid. To comply with the preamble, 6…
England-Sweden Challenge
Three summers ago, I was invited to the Swedish city of Eskilstuna, for a brief but exciting match against their…
Real life
The window of the new shop was as brightly coloured as a circus entrance, and stuffed full of items bearing…
Where Eddie Jones is going wrong
Rugby Union, bloody hell. We’ve got to talk about Eddie, but before that, what about something much cheerier? Just when…
2548: Poem VII
Unclued lights are nine words taken from a poem whose first three words (as quoted in ODQ) will appear in…
Puzzle no.695
White to play and mate in 2. Composed by Bo Lindgren, Probleemblad 1969. Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by…
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
The England U26 juniors have been flying high lately. A couple of weeks ago they won the Junior Camrose, and…
Low life
Speaking pretty good English, Dr Tayeb came straight to the point. Was I eligible for the ground breaking new cancer…
Aussie life
Prime ministers rarely lose elections by bungling a single issue. An obvious benefit of the four-year term is that if…
Language
According to news reports Vladimir Putin expected his invasion and conquest of Ukraine to be a ‘cakewalk’. This is originally…
Establishing Rapport
Richard Rapport took first place at the Fide Grand Prix in Belgrade last weekend. The Hungarian grandmaster is now almost…
High life
If western universities were not brimming with leftist professors, the present situation in Ukraine would surprise no one. History would…
Puzzle no. 694
White to play. Rapport-Rogic, Austria 2010. Black threatens Qa1+ and then Rxf2+, so Rapport must strike at once. Which move…
Bridge
I still haven’t got over the novelty of sitting down at home, opening my laptop, and – just like fantasy…
Doomscrolling
In 2019, Boris Johnson hit out at ‘the doomsters and the gloomsters’. I was surprised then to find that the…
Diplomatic distractions
My dear friend Richard Stow is a most congenial fellow. A serious financial entrepreneur, he is also a clubman and…
The Battle for Britain
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2547: Ascending order
The (unrelated) unclued lights (one of three words, four of two words, (one with an apostrophe), one pair and two…
How to create a bottleneck
I spend quite a lot of time attacking what I call ‘motorway service station’ path design. More attentive readers of…
The turf
You don’t always have to win to enjoy it. At the end of the £100,000 Paddy Power Imperial Cup at…
Dear Mary
Q. These days I am on a tight budget while many of my friends are still able to spend freely.…
Free speech, Facebook and me
By the time you read this the new draft of the Online Safety Bill should be on the DCMS website.…
