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The invasion of Ukraine – the chess angle

Yesterday was spent in front of the television watching events in Ukraine unfurl. I opted for Sky News. The adverts were irritating – and the photo footage repeated – but they pulled in the important personalities, starting with Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, and were across the big [...]

February 26, 2022 // 0 Comments

Defence: what’s it really for, exactly?

It seems to me that more than anything – never mind the current Russian invasion of the Ukraine, let’s go back and reference its seizing of the Crimean Peninsular in 2014 in furtherance of President Putin’s loony attitude to Euro-Russian geo-politics and power-balancing – the vexing subject [...]

February 26, 2022 // 0 Comments

Kiss Myself Goodbye/Ferdinand Mount

This is the story of the aunt of Ferdinand Mount who was the former editor of the Times Literary Review and advisor of Mrs. Thatcher. He called her Aunt Munca but she gave herself many names in her life journey from childhood in a poor part of Sheffield to a suite in Claridges and a house in [...]

February 25, 2022 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Fulham 2 Peterborough 1

The score-line might suggest a closer match than the reality as, but for some excellent keeping by Peterborough’s Stephen Benda, the final result might have been 5-1. Time and time again Benda produced world class saves often in one-on-one situations. Alex Mitrovic scored a brace. The first came [...]

February 24, 2022 // 0 Comments

Sport- the great leveller

Yesterday I had two morning visitors both by coincidence called Phil. The first Phil owns a glass company and – like me – is a member of the Sussex CCC players club whose does very nicely thank you when a lusty-hitting batter smashes a glass window or door as happens not infrequently. [...]

February 24, 2022 // 0 Comments

Prague Fatale (Philip Kerr) and Berlin Nightfall (Jack Grimwood)

It is the best testimony to the writing of Philip Kerr that after reading a few chapters of Prague Fatale I realised I have already read it. I was sufficiently engaged and engrossed to continue to its end. It’s set in the Nazi Protectorate of Bohemia when Reinhard Heydrich, the ruthless [...]

February 23, 2022 // 0 Comments

Bamber Gascoigne

I met Bamber Gascoigne twice in my life: the first was when I was first reserve of our Magdalene College University Challenge team. Gascoigne had attended  the same college and spoke to us after an ignominious defeat by Hertford Oxford. He was a courteous  man and a clever one too as he composed [...]

February 22, 2022 // 0 Comments

My golfing weekend

The Genesis at the Riviera  Course Los Angeles was won by the young Chilean Joaquin Niemann by two strokes from Collin Morikawa. Niemann, like the Mexican Abraham Ancer, reflects the youthful upsurge in Central and South American golf. He impressively hung onto his lead for 4 days. I was on Victor [...]

February 21, 2022 // 0 Comments

Whatever happened to “customer service”?

One of the banes of modern life has been the deterioration in customer service that that has bedevilled the United Kingdom over the last three decades. I don’t know who or what deserves to field most of the blame for this – sub-contracted call centres situated in all four corners of the Earth, [...]

February 20, 2022 // 0 Comments

The Tanner Report: Fulham 1 Huddersfield 2

Is there cause for concern after Fulham’s third defeat at home? I read a post in one of the more incisive Fulham websites [www.hammy.com] that in 1982-83 season we had a 6 point lead over Leicester at this stage of the season but it was the Foxes who gained promotion. Huddersfield came to the [...]

February 20, 2022 // 0 Comments

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