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Chess defeat

Last night I played my second game for the Reform Club which ended in personal and team defeat. This was no disgrace as our opponents – the RAC – are the Manchester City of club chess.  They host the Varsity Match and their chess dinner usually attracts a British Grandmaster. Before my [...]

October 25, 2023 // 0 Comments

Farewell to The Stoop: Harlequins 22 Exeter Chiefs 14

Yesterday I made what in advance I had billed as “possibly my last-ever visit to The Stoop” as a member of a five-person contingent for the Harlequins home Premiership match against the Exeter Chiefs, eventually won by the hosts by the margin of 22-14. I don’t regard myself as generally a [...]

October 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Shakespeare on film

As part of its celebration of the Immortal Bard the BBC has been showing some of the more celebrated film Shakespearean film adaptations, notably 1950s Richard III and Julius Caesar. Richard III was produced and directed by Laurence Olivier who made the title rôle definitive although the accuracy [...]

October 23, 2023 // 0 Comments

Bad week for the Beeb

It’s hardly been a great week for ‘Auntie’.    The Reckoning was produced by ITV studios but broadcast on Mondays and Tuesdays on BBC 1. The final episode’s credits revealed that an investigation by Newsnight into Sir Jimmy Savile had been dropped. Next up was their coverage of the [...]

October 22, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Fabelmans (2022) – Sky Movie Greatest

When a great director reaches a certain age and status he/she can do pretty much what they like. Thus Steven Spielberg, probably the best ever director at making films for kids which their parents enjoy too, decided to make The Fabelmans, based on his own childhood and processing his feelings [...]

October 20, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Power of Sport

Let’s face it the news is pretty darn depressing these days: war in Ukraine, the Middle East a tinderbox and a terrorist atrocity on the streets of Brussels. Speaking to the Rust team, the only cheer and positivity  is on the sports desk. They report on  a late summer/early autumn of fine [...]

October 18, 2023 // 0 Comments

Yesterday on TV

Monday night is my quiz night on TV. Clive Myrie is now presenting Mastermind and Amol Rajan University Challenge. Both programmes tend to be associated with one presenter – Magnus Magnusson and Bamber Gascoigne respectively – but the two new boys have settled in well. On one episode of [...]

October 17, 2023 // 0 Comments

Sunday‘s quarter finals

Our readership has had plenty of opportunity to read of two more thrilling matches so I thought I would major on the coverage which, in my view, did not match the occasion. I was particularly irritated by David Flatman – the analyst for ITV’s coverage of France v South Africa. He [...]

October 16, 2023 // 0 Comments

The Saturday RWC quarter finals.

The two semi-final victories by Argentina and New Zealand prove that at the highest competitive levels it’s less about tactics and more about laying your body on the line for your country I remember the two football World Cup finals of 1974 and 1978, when Argentina beat Holland, the former had [...]

October 15, 2023 // 0 Comments

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