My ten-year-old football-loving son thought I was making some silly joke when I told him last weekend that I was off to Manchester to play in the Premier League. No, I said, I’m serious: that’s what it’s called in bridge too. I’m playing in the Second Division. Three weekends of bridge, and at the end
In Competition No. 2972 you were invited to supply an ode on a Grayson Perry urn. Frank McDonald wasn’t keen: ‘Do Grayson Perry urns deserve an ode?/ Has modern art not shamed the Muse enough?/ That looks for beauty in a tortured toad/ And loads our galleries with frightful stuff?’ Elsewhere, the entry was chock-full
Unclued lights are three groups of three words of a kind, each group relating differently to a theme word. This theme word appears in the grid (8 letters, reading across) translated into the appropriate language and must be highlighted. The unchecked and cross-checking letters in the nine theme words are DARN HANDSOMELY arranged. Across
The perimetric quotation (referring to October), AMBIGUOUS MONTH, THE MONTH OF TENSION, THE UNENDURABLE MONTH’, is followed by DL, the initials of its author, Doris Lessing, a NOBEL LAUREATE (2/5). The source is the novel MARTHA QUEST (18/17). First prize Christopher Hanafin, Adare, Co. Limerick Runners-up Sara MacIntosh, Darlington, Co. Durham; C.J. Ellis, Rochester, Kent
Black to play. This position is from Nakamura-Carlsen, chess.com Blitz Final 2016. The position looks quiet but after Black’s next move White resigned at once. Can you see it? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 8 November or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer
