Life
2543: Parts of speech
Unclued lights form a progressive set, plus the name of the speaker. Across 1 Talk shortly about present-day veg…
Low life
Early on St Valentines Day I walked down to the car park where the raindrops were knocking off the young…
The turf
Certain sections of the media love to run a knocking story and when champion trainer Paul Nicholls’s horses failed to…
Real life
‘Do you have any questions?’ said the man at the insurance company after an hour of me trying to take…
Contemplating loss
Contemplating a lost position is a bit like having sauce down your shirt. It is annoying in itself, but worse,…
High life
Gstaad I cross-country ski the old-fashioned way, not skating but on machine-made narrow tracks. It is known to be the…
Bridge
A couple of weeks ago, just as I’d begun to think that if I hadn’t got Covid by now I…
Battle for Britain
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Solution to 2540: Recycling components
Unclued lights (PLAY, WITH, HOLD, DOWN) comprise components for the unclued cyclic sequence PLAY WITH, WITHHOLD, HOLD DOWN and DOWNPLAY.…
Aussie Life
You’ve possibly heard of a ghastly woman called Patrisse Cullors. Her chief claim to fame is that she founded that…
Aussie Language
I have coined a potentially useful new expression: comatose bias. We are told that one of the great problems in…
Battle of the sexes
One tradition at the annual Gibraltar Masters is a high-spirited skittles match played in the evening between teams of men…
The hunt for breakfast
The centre could not hold, at least for Piggy’s. The drama of being the only greasy spoon in the West…
Is football missing a trick?
Well, there’s a surprise: Nike have cancelled their sponsorship of the Manchester United and England footballer Mason Greenwood, who is…
Pikey
A policeman sent a colleague who was house-sitting for him a WhatsApp message: ‘Keep the pikeys out.’ He was sacked…
2542: Wider II
Nine unclued lights (all real words) are the names of 35A with one letter misprinted. The correct letters match those…
Battle for Britain
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Real life
After most of Islington moved to Wales, it was foolish of me to think about following. But the need to…
Bridge
You may not have heard of Sue Johnson but she could be the fairy godmother bridge needs right now. Not…
Solution to 2539: Wider
The six unclued lights and PLAYWRIGHTS (35/26) are FETCHER/Fletcher (13), CHILLER/Schiller (22), WESTER/Webster (34), MEANDER/Menander (38), PRIESTLY/Priestley (6) and COTEAU/Cocteau…
A bit previous
In Competition No. 3235, you were invited to invent a prequel to a well-known work of literature and supply an…
Puzzle no. 689
White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Touw Hian Bwee, Schakend Nederland 1976. The first move allows…
The day Boris tried to bribe me
It’s not every day that a future prime minister offers you a bribe, but that’s what happened to me 38…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. My partner’s work involves him seeing and talking to people all day, every day. I booked us on to…
High life
Gstaad OK sport fans, have you been enjoying the concentration camp Olympics? I’m sure the Uighurs in the Chinese gulag…
