Life
2768: Overheads
The nine unclued lights are all of a kind. Three are of two words. Ignore one apostrophe. Across 11 Contrary…
Spectator Competition: Down the middle
Comp. 3465 invited you to write a centre-aligned poem, with a hidden message running down the middle. The brief was…
No. 915
Black to play. Shogdhziev-Chauhan, Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, 2026. In a wild game between two exceptional young talents, Chauhan’s…
What Zanzibar could teach the C of E about slavery
I have a suggestion for those opposed to Project Spire, the Church of England’s plan to put £100 million into…
Grand Chess Tour Finals
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa continued his formidable run of form by taking first place, and a $200,000 first prize, at the Grand…
Aussie life
To the average Australian, Liddle is a typo. And even for most Brits, a surname which is a homophone of…
Language
The enemy of ‘common sense’ is ‘ideology’. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy says ‘ideology’ means ‘beliefs and values held by…
Taking on the Cornish culinary mafia: Four Boys reviewed
‘Expect David Cameron to be there.’ This was the main thing I had been told before I went to Four…
My cave house’s wonderful history
Provence Looking back on it, apart from this year’s wildfires, the stultifying heat of high summer in Provence isn’t so…
‘An Essex boy at heart’: VW Golf GTI reviewed
I have been waiting for the VW Golf GTI, because the boy – it would be a stretch to call…
2764: Place-names – solution
The unclued lights are boys’ and girls’ names which are also place-names. See Chambers 13th edition, p. 1833, et. seq.…
2767: Smoky
The unclued lights (including a pair) are of a kind and are located in the yellow squares (two words) when…
Spectator Competition: Ods against
For this Odyssey-inspired Competition 3464 you were invited to submit a passage or poem in which a modern man (or…
No. 914
White to play. Wojtaszek-Shankland, Rubinstein Memorial, Polanica Zdroj, 2026. Wojtaszek’s next move prompted Shankland to resign. What did he play?…
Sinquefield Cup
For the third time in his career, Wesley So has won the elite Sinquefield Cup tournament in St Louis, the…
Have we lost the plot when it comes to dogs?
Have you read your copy of Dogue, yet? It’s become an annual project: Vogue’s dog issue. Instead of hungry, cross…
Dear Mary: how do I tell friends I haven’t lost weight using Ozempic?
Q. We have made friends with a very unpopular local man and would like to skewer the myths about him…
Bring back the privileged class
It has become a summer ritual for the Young family to attend the annual tennis tournament in Hunstanton, a Victorian…
The real reason dating apps are so flawed
My father once attended a dinner for 12 where an intense argument arose over splitting the bill. After 15 minutes,…
I have more in common with Meghan than I care to admit
As seen in the Daily Telegraph Tis the end of silly season, when those of us who presume to scribe…
The internet is wrong about taxis
Error sticks to the word taxi like ants to an echidna’s tongue. Ten years ago I wrote here that I’d…
My radical plan for the House of Lords
A neighbour betrayed me to her 16-year-old son. ‘Lloyd knows about politics,’ she told the youngster. ‘He can help you…
Aussie life
The Australian War Memorial Council, under Chairman Kim Beazley, is proposing to include extensive coverage, in its new Pre-1914 Gallery,…
