Life
Mystery
In The Archers, Ambridge put on its own set of mystery plays dramatising the Nativity and Passion. BBC Radio 4…
Vintage years
Across oceans and continents, less favoured nations produce more history than they can consume. In these islands, the English —…
Making a meal of it
‘The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be…
Dear Mary: Your problems solved
Q. As if it wasn’t bad enough to overhear one side of a conversation as it’s bellowed into a mobile…
Steak Diane
Cooking for romance is no laughing matter. The stakes are high. Get it right and woo the love of your…
Love is …
In Competition No. 3236, you were invited to submit a poem that begins ‘Oh my love is like…’ . From…
Puzzle no. 670
Black to play. Shuvalova–Pavlidou, Women’s World Blitz Championship, 2021. White was winning, but has just played 89 g3-g4? No resignation…
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…
