If someone had told me in February 2020 that virtually the whole world would be going into lockdown for well over a year, I would not have believed it was possible. But if someone had told me I would choose football over a bridge tournament, I would have laughed my head off. Well, I’m not
In his autobiographical book Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman! the late American physicist Richard Feynman described how he amused himself by cracking open the safes at Los Alamos, which stored design papers for the Manhattan Project. He started out picking locks, which he describes like this: Now, if you push a little wire gadget —
White to play and mate in two. Composed by Sam Loyd, Sunny South, 1885. Nearly all Black’s legal moves can be met by Qg8 mate, but White must prepare a response against 1…Rg7. What is the key first move? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 19 July. There is a prize of £20
In Competition No. 3207, you were invited to supply an extract from a thriller, written by a well-known politician, that contains clues to the identity of its author. This challenge drew a moderate-sized entry in which there was much to admire, including Janine Beacham’s fusion of Daphne du Maurier and Winston Churchill: ‘I might have
Unclued lights (including three of two words and two pairs) suggest various versions of a name given by a pair of successive clued lights which solvers must shade. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 12 Excited oxen pressing round me in poet’s garment (7) 13 Minotaur’s cross (3) 15 Believer in divine wisdom shows photo she
CHERRY, NETTLE, SMOKE, PLUM-PUDDING, BEES, EGG, SUNBEAM and WIND are the perimetric answers to riddles posed by NUTKIN in The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter. Nutkin’s brother is called TWINKLEBERRY (19/11) and Nutkin is a SCIURUS VULGARIS (33/35A) (red squirrel). Shaded squares give the letters of POTTER. First prize Mark Griffiths, Winsford, Cheshire
