Bridge
Before returning to Australia about a decade ago, Michael Courtney spent several years playing high-stake rubber bridge in London. Those…
Tradewise
The Tradewise Masters in Gibraltar has been won by the American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, with the British co-champion David Howell…
No. 349
White to play. This position is a variation from Bellin-Georgiadis, Gibraltar 2015. White has given up his queen. How does…
Hair brained
In Competition No. 2884 you were invited to submit a poem in praise or dispraise of beards. The beard has…
2198: Tuck in
Each of sixteen clues contains one misprinted letter in the definition part. Corrections of misprints spell the name (three words)…
To 2195: In question
Material from superfluous words in clues gives ‘fingers on buzzers’ (describing 2/20 and 8/33), ‘your starter for ten’ (indicating 31,…
The myth of the ‘London effect’
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon wants to improve Scotland’s education system by pouring money into it. It’s the wrong approach
From Umbrella Man to the Coughing Major
Who knew there was a surrealist protestor at the Kennedy assassination? Or a whole clique of professional game-show contestants?
Your problems solved
Plus: how to fend off a corridor-creeping host, and the difficulty of backseat kissing
Australian letters
Royal slip Sir: Philip Murphy’s ‘Sir’ Bob Carr of Italy article (Spectator Australia, 7 February) refers, in relation to Prince…
Hockey’s mojo
If we continue down that path, we are going to leave future Australians with a lesser quality of life and…
The Y.U.U.Y. disease
Mr Abbott’s problem is that he’s got ‘yielding’ and ‘unyielding the wrong way around
Oxford diary
Oxford students being the custodians of Western civilisation, I expect a big rollup of young tweed eager for a dose…
When it comes to free speech, we’re all hypocrites
From anti-terror laws to Section 18C, both sides of politics have a bet each way
Culture buff
He gave himself the name ‘Tennessee’; a creative and public relations masterstroke for a still unknown 28 year-old writer. Born…
Australian notes
Quos deus vult perdere, prius dementat – with apologies to Boswell. (‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.’)…
