My plan this week was to write wittily, but modestly, about our rise from the bowels of relegation after the first two disastrous weekends of the Premier League. I was going to tell you how important it is not to give up, to have faith in yourself and your team-mates and to keep on fighting
In Kurosawa’s samurai warrior classic Sanjuro, the hero, a wandering Ronin played by Toshiro Mifune, ends the film in a face-off with his mortal enemy Hanbei Muroto. For a long moment the two martial swordsmen face each other in total immobility. Then, in a flash, a movement known by Samurai as Debana-Waza, Mifune slices his
In Competition 2823 you were invited to submit a school essay or poem written at the age of eight by a well-known person, living or dead, entitled ‘My Pet’ . Those of you who chose to step into the childhood shoes of well-known writers faced the tricky challenge of pulling off an element of pastiche
Nine unclued lights can be separated into three groups; each group consists of three definitions of one of three words into which the remaining unclued light can be separated. Across 1 Estate wild spree devastates (8) 6 Bird with tail obscured by country shrub (6) 10 Fellow, one feels sadly,
Six of the unclued entries contained the Cluedo character surnames; the remaining unclued entries were therefore a murder weapon and location from the game. First prize Michael Hawkins, Matlock, Derbyshire Runners-up Ferdinand Dobbs, London SW1; C.R. Haigh, Hassocks, West Sussex
White to play. This position is from Anand-Ding Liren, Alekhine Memorial, Paris 2013. White’s next destroyed the already compromised black position. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 19 November or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer
