Spectator competition: About turn

In Competition 3352 you were invited to submit a passage about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, or vice versa. Hitler, the Hindenburg, tiddlywinks and chess all featured, as did Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak, and it was sad not to have room for D.A. Prince’s cat having victory literally snatched from its jaws. Other mentions should go to the two Franks (McDonald and Upton), to Basil Ransome-Davies, to Kelly Scott Franklin and to Brian Murdoch for his retelling of David and Goliath in which David mainly excels at his own PR. The entries below win £25.

Arrived late for interview, unkempt, barren of optimism following earlier failures. Disdained to apologise. Panel the usual Mount Rushmore of antediluvian officials: civil servant, judge, bluestocking. Questioned on my curriculum vitae, I responded loudly if tersely, précising rather than embroidering its damning contents: succession of borstals, military career distinguished by initiative misconstrued insubordination, British Intelligence career squandered achieving ends democracy can’t sanction utilising means only psychopaths dare deploy. Even my brief sojourn as an impatiently vindictive – punctilious, my gloss – traffic warden for a local authority was raised, as were eyebrows. Unanimity of appalled silence from panel. On my feet making for door when nuclear attack warning sirens commence a mournful wailing outside. Panel Chair coughs. Brusquely concedes no time for subsequent interviews. Notes my sociopathic tendencies, almost managing to convey approval. Appoints me, with immediate effect, Governor (Southern England) with requisite draconian emergency powers. Skies outside redden, darken. I beam.

Adrian Fry

Paris proved a formidable fencing opponent. Encountering him outside the Capulet family crypt, Romeo had anticipated a quick victory. But the other youth was a strong, disciplined swordsman, and Romeo had to spend precious minutes lunging and thrusting in the dim light before his foe lay dead.      Only then did he put aside his blade, enter the tomb, produce the poison he had brought with him from Mantua and turn to address his valedictory words to his dead bride.