Life
2454: 17 Across
Thirteen unclued lights are of a kind (all singular, not plural) and confirmed in Chambers. 17 across gives the puzzle’s…
Anniversary clerihews
In Competition No. 3145, to mark the 10,000th issue of The Spectator, you were invited to submit clerihews (two couplets,…
Puzzle No. 601
Black to play. Sjugirov–Carlsen, Chess24 Banter Blitz Semi Final. In this wild position, Carlsen’s next move put the result beyond…
FantasticStar beats MagzyBogues
‘I’m just completely collapsing in these games… unbelievable.’ World Champion Magnus Carlsen didn’t hide his anguish after losing a game…
Furlough
In July, in its ‘Guess the definition’ slot, next to the day’s birthdays, the Daily Mail asked its readers to…
The Battle for Britain
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If you really want to lose friends, start a magazine
I’m more impressed than most that The Spectator has racked up 10,000 issues, because I used to be a magazine…
Bridge
The Alt Invitational is the online tournament that is attracting some of the best players on earth. When the whole…
Fare game
A fictional Spectator restaurant critic called Forbes McAllister appeared on Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. He was played…
Sacrifice and resurrection
I cannot remember a prettier Easter, or a more frustrating one. This was no time to be in town. But…
Puzzle no. 600
Black to play. Andrew Stone–Martin Jogstad, 4NCL Online, April 2020. The queen is trapped on f4, so 1…Rxg5 looks worth…
Stir crazy
My husband left a copy of The Spectator open on the table by his chair, next to the little cardboard…
To 2450: Titled Men
Alexandre DUMAS père wrote The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, whose eponymous characters were Athos, Porthos, Aramis…
Alphabetical
In Competition No. 3144 you were invited to submit a poem, six lines at most, containing all the letters of…
Introverts, your country needs you
Once we’ve flattened the curve of infection with mass self-isolation, the next debate will concern how to soften the restrictions…
Dear Mary
Q. Each day while working from home, I have at least one hour-long meeting via Zoom. One of my colleagues…
The turf
Sport may well be ‘the great triviality’ as Timeform founder Phil Bull once put it, and racing as trivial as…
Bridge
While chatting on the phone to my friend Alex Hydes a couple of weeks ago, I asked whether he was…
Low Life
In a cave once used as a stable and now abandoned, I found a wooden crate containing a dozen tiny…
Stinky Malinky is growing on me
Since the beginning of the lockdown, Caroline has been congratulating herself for having bought a puppy ‘just in time’. She…
High Life
Gstaad So the days — and months — drift by. This once peaceful Alpine town is packed with rich refugees…
Real Life
The toad who lives at the bottom of the garden in the pile of bricks beneath the potting table was…
The Battle for Britain
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2453: All right?
Unclued lights, five of two words and two pairs, have something in common. Elsewhere, ignore one accent. Across 1 Keep…
Old wine, new bottles
‘Old wine in new bottles’ must be the most protean idiom in the English language. I encountered it a few…
