Life
Low life
After circuiting Spain by train, I went east to Italy, stopping on the way at the French border town of…
Meet with
Don’t tell my husband, but I have been having doubts. (He never reads this column, so our secret is safe.)…
Real life
Someone has given the builder boyfriend an iPhone and things will never be the same. Until now, he has always…
Was it football or just mutimillionaires cheating?
Few sporting events in history have been greeted with such swivel-eyed, table-pounding hysteria as Barcelona’s comeback to overturn a 4-0…
The weird ways in which people avoid cleaning up after their dogs
One of the most important debates in Britain’s history took place in Westminster earlier this week. The issue was absolutely…
The turf
If the championship for training jumpers went to a set of gallops rather than to a trainer it would not…
Gettysburg revisited
In Competition No. 2989 you were invited to submit a version of the Gettysburg Address as it might have been…
2301: Age of extremes
Eight unclued lights are of a kind; the remaining two complete four words from a quote, which is appropriately positioned…
to 2298: NOИ
The unclued lights are titles of Russian novels minus their ‘and’ (И in Russian): 17 CRIME and 9 PUNISHMENT (Dostoevsky),…
Dear Mary
Q. Living in a large house in the country within striking distance of a motorway, we get a lot of…
Norse code
Aquavit is a ‘uniquely Nordic–style’ restaurant in the St James’s Market development between Regent Street and the Haymarket. This development…
Bridge
Tournament bridge players do not expect, or get, much in the way of luxury. I have played in some of…
Oxford v Cambridge
The 135th Varsity Match hosted by London’s Royal Automobile Club last Saturday resulted in a narrow win for Oxford, who…
no. 448
White to play. This is from Horton–Murphy, Varsity Match 2017. Can you spot White’s winning coup? Answers to me at…
The Battle for Britain
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Bridge
There are plenty of bridge professionals who believe in flattering lesser players (whether they’re clients, friends or spouses) by exaggerating…
The Battle for Britain
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Mutkin’s masterpiece
This Saturday, 11 March, the annual Oxford v Cambridge Varsity match is being hosted by The Royal Automobile Club Pall…
no. 447
Black to play. This position is from Kozera-Wang, Varsity Match 2016. White has powerful threats and Black has only one…
Mark making
In Competition No. 2988 you were invited to compose a poem making the case for a national commemoration day for…
2300: The law
Each of ten clues comprises a definition part and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter.…
to 2297: Thoroughly
Corrections of misprints in clues give INSIDE OUT. Thematic entries at 2, 15A, 25, 30 and 39 are defined by…
Dear Mary
Q. Most of my friends have small children and being mostly media types in west London, have given them silly…
A vintage that tastes of Old Possum
Eliot. After 50 years trying to make sense of his verse, and at the risk of admitting to rampant philistinism,…
High life
A lousy fortnight if ever there was one. Two great friends, Lord Belhaven and Stenton and Aleko Goulandris, had their…
