Life
2490: Arrangement
The unclued lights are all words of a kind arranged into anagrams (all are confirmed in Chambers: one is a…
History at Hastings
The Hastings International Chess Congress hasn’t skipped a year since the second world war, so I was delighted to learn…
Bridge
When lockdown began, all those months ago, I remember chatting to a few of England’s top players about the shift…
Low life
Here, as in Britain, everyone is a log expert. The woodman leaves a heap at the bottom of the drive…
Real life
Not long after he took on a smallholding for his cobs, the builder boyfriend found a couple walking through his…
The turf
Doing good doesn’t always work out as expected. A regular entering his local pub takes pity on an old lady…
Aussie Life / Language
Simon Collins Can you remember when ‘We live in interesting times’ was an acceptable response to the disruptions caused by…
2489: Fade away
Each of the unclued lights, (four of two words), individually or as a pair can be linked with an unclued…
My recipe for mayhem
Caroline was pretty heroic during the first lockdown. She’s used to having no children to deal with between the hours…
Naysayers
In Competition No. 3181 you were invited to submit a letter by a publisher rejecting a well-known literary classic. The…
Open that special bottle now
Losing your sense of smell due to Covid is no joke when you make a living in food and wine.…
Dear Mary
Q. My husband and I have two single friends who we believe should be introduced. In days gone by, we…
Performative
Veronica brought me a hundred newspapers so that I could check on one word. Well, she didn’t bring a wheelbarrow,…
Flights of fancy
Soon after the pandemic hit, the world’s airlines turned off their pricing algorithms and resumed pricing flights manually. Everything the…
Wild life
Indian Ocean coast ‘I love you’ became just ‘love’, and that was the last word Mum was able to say…
Real life
Never mind Clap for Carers, I’m trying to start a new weekly morale booster called Scream If You’re Going Round…
High life
Gstaad Lord Belhaven and Stenton, a wonderful man and the quintessential English gentleman, died at 93 just before the end…
Low life
A new year and another round of medical treatments in the French health system. On Saturday morning, needing a blood…
Bridge
’Tis better to give than to receive, the Bible teaches us. Well, not if you were me this Christmas, it…
The Battle for Britain
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to 2487: Birthday boys
December 12th was the birthday of Gustave FLAUBERT (1D) and Frank SINATRA (15). Examples of their work are MADAME BOVARY…
Puzzle no. 636
Gormally–Turner, Caplin Hastings Online 2021. Black looks safe, but Gormally’s next move forced a win of material. What did he…
Missed opportunities
In game 1 of his Airthings Masters Final against Radjabov, Aronian’s pawn push 21 e4-e5 (shown in the first diagram)…
Christmas Covid Outlaw
I was sitting with one other person in a sterilised public hospital reception area waiting to be tested for COVID…
Woke for kids
Now that hate-speech has been recognised as an act of physical violence, using non-problematic language has never been more important.…
