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.