The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

The Sunday Times November 28, 2021 39

NEWS REVIEW

CODEWORD

KENKEN

TETONOR

58 x 2 14 + 4 14 x 4 1 + 23

5+53x3010+102+58

30 + 3 16 x 1 10 x 10 14 + 5

1x235x51+1614x5

56 24

10 90 20 60

116 18

100 19

23 25 17 70

33 16

SUDOKU 1458

SUDOKU WARM-UP

KILLER SUDOKU

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTIONS

Stephen Hogg Bog Standard Deviation My four toilet rolls had zigzag- cut remnants (not unlike that shown). Curiously, each polygonal remnant had a different two-figure prime number of sides, each with a

TEASER 3088

Sally Brock

digit sum itself prime. Calculating the average number of sides for the four remnants and the average of their squares, I found that the average of the squares minus the square of the average had

a value whose square root (the “standard deviation”) was a whole number. I also noticed that a regular convex polygon with a number of sides equal to the average number of sides would have

This year the English club knockout competition for teams-of-eight (the Garden Cities) was played online on RealBridge. Today’s deal is from the semi-final of that event.

Neither vul, Dealer West

Imagine you hold that South hand and hear the bidding go: 3H — Pass — 4H to you. Would you dare bid? “Yes”, said English expert Jon Cooke. This was the auction:

West led ace and another heart. Declarer surveyed the rather good dummy. He ruffed the second heart, played two rounds of trumps ending in dummy and played the queen of clubs. East won the ace and played a third round of trumps. Declarer now played two more rounds of clubs. When West showed out on the third round, declarer had a complete count of the hand and knew that East had started with ace-doubleton of diamonds. So he ruffed his

CHESS

Ian Nepomniachtchi is an unusually dangerous opponent for Magnus Carlsen. I was present in 2002 when the pair first met over the board, and I watched in awe as the Russian swept away his Norwegian rival. The next year, Nepomniachtchi again defeated Carlsen as I observed from an adjacent board. From that point, the two players followed different career trajectories. Carlsen swiftly rose to the top, while Nepomniachtchi struggled to break into the elite. Nevertheless, the latter inflicted two further losses on Carlsen, in 2011 and 2017. The world championship, a marathon 14-game classical match which began in Dubai on Friday, promises to be the defining moment of Nepomniachtchi’s career. He can claim a psychological advantage over the current title holder, while it is clear he has never felt stronger. Carlsen’s sole classical triumph against Nepomniachtchi arrived in 2019. The course of the game gave an insight into the type of position each competitor favours. White: Ian Nepomniachtchi Black: Magnus Carlsen Grand Chess Tour, Zagreb 2019

The position is noticeably blocked. Carlsen made several earlier decisions to ensure Nepomniachtchi — with his combative, dynamic style — was frustrated in his attempts for activity. 23...b5 Allowing the game’s first pawn trade. Carlsen plans to eventually break through towards the stranded white king. 24 axb5 axb5 25 Kf2 c4 26 Bxf4 Reluctantly freeing the g7- bishop’s diagonal. 26 dxc4 bxc4 27 Bxc4 f5! 28 exf5 e4 is unappetising for White. 26... exf4 27 Rad1 f5 28 gxf5? Nepomniachtchi is more comfortable attacking than defending. 28 exf5 was essential: 28...Qe3+ 29 Kg2 Qe2+ 30 Kh3. The white king finds shelter. 28...g4 29 d4 Qh4+ 30 Ke2 Qh2+ 31 Rf2 gxf3+ White resigns White loses a rook, for example 31 Kxf3 Qxh5+. Spot the Move 1299: Black to play.

Howell-Carlsen, Oslo 2021. Can you spot how Carlsen clinched victory in this friendly blitz game?

Send your solution (first move only), to Sunday Times Spot the Move 1299, The Sunday Times, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ, or email to [email protected]. The first correct answer drawn after next Saturday wins a £20 Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

David Howell BRIDGE

♠ A Q 5 2 ♥ 5 2 ♦ Q 8 5 3 2 ♣ Q 10 N W E S

♠ 10 ♥ A Q 9 8 7 6 4 ♦ J 6 4 ♣ 7 6

♠ 7 6 4 ♥ K 10 3 ♦ A 7 ♣ A 8 4 3 2 ♠ K J 9 8 3 ♥ J ♦ K 10 9 ♣ K J 9 5

W________W áW4WDW4Wi] àDWDW1pgW] ßp0W0WDW0] ÞDW0B0W0P] ÝPDWDPhPD] ÜDWDPDPDW] ÛQ)PGWDWD] Ú$WDWIRDW] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

________W árDW4WDkD] àDWDWDp0p] ßpDWDpDPD] Þ1WDW)WDP] ÝWDWhWDWD] ÜDWDW!PDW] ÛW)BDWDWD] ÚDKDRDWDR] ÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈ

West North East South 3 ♥ Pass 4 ♥ 4 ♠ All Pass

an odd whole-number internal angle (in degrees). Give the “standard deviation”. Send your solution to: The Sunday Times Teaser 3088, PO Box 29, Colchester, Essex CO2 8GZ or email [email protected]. The first two correct solutions opened after next Saturday each win a £20 Waterstones voucher. Open to 18+ UK & ROI residents only.

last club winner and played a low diamond from the dummy. Whether East went in with the ace or not, declarer was home without needing to guess who had the diamond jack.

Last week’s problem

South’s three no-trump bid was based on a long diamond suit. West leads the six of clubs to the jack, and your queen. You continue with the club king, also ducked as West plays the three. What now? If you continue with a third club, declarer will win and run his diamonds, on which you will be hopelessly squeezed. Your best hope is that declarer started with a singleton heart. In that case the defence can prevail if you cash the ace of hearts and then play a third round of clubs. Declarer will not be able to get to dummy’s king of hearts and you will make your king of spades and a fourth club.

♠ Q 7 5 ♥ K 9 7 4 3 ♦ 8 7 6 ♣ J 10 N W E S

♠ 10 6 3 2 ♥ Q 8 5 2 ♦ 5 ♣ 7 6 5 3

♠ K 9 4 ♥ A J 6 ♦ J 3 2 ♣ K Q 9 8 ♠ A J 8 ♥ 10 ♦ A K Q 10 9 4 ♣ A 4 2 West North East South 1 ♦ Pass 1 ♥ Pass 3NT All Pass

ample, aplomb, beep, bleep, elope, employ, employable, lamp, lapel, leap, lope, maple, maypole, mope, mopey, mopy, myope, opal, pale, pall, pally, palm, palmy, paly, payee, peal, peel, pele, play, plea, pleb, plebe, ploy, poem, pole, poll, pollee, polly, poly, pombe, pome, yelp, yomp

MEPHISTO 3195 Across: 1 Gluten, 5 Morgan, 10 Canto fermo, 11 Stop-go, 13 Mudir, 14 Oreides, 15 Asana, 16 Pangene, 17 Netting, 23 Aerator, 25 Attract, 28 Uptie, 29 Cerumen, 30 Drant, 31 Feisty, 32 Imparlance, 33 Chaste, 34 À terre Down: 1 Gasman, 2 Lotus-eater, 3 Tap into, 4 Engrail, 5 Moorage, 6 Often, 7 Renig, 8 Grader, 9 Norsel, 12 Ten-pointer, 18 Nacelle, 19 Prudent, 20 Caprice, 21 Tactic, 22 Atropa, 24 Re-type, 26 Rudas, 27 Amort

WEATHER

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE JUMBO CROSSWORD 293 Across: 1 Bute, 3 Stretti, 7 Vinegar, 12 Barbiturate, 13 Feyenoord, 14 Étang, 15 Roy Barraclough, 17 Desmond Llewelyn, 19 Homer, 20 Fourth Estate, 22 Pibrochs, 24 Principality of Sealand, 27 Keelboat, 29 Goose pimples, 33 Nasal, 34 Three Mile Island, 36 Flying Fortress, 38 Hegel, 40 Puissance, 41 Eleanor Bron, 42 Stewart, 43 Astarte, 44 Rand Down: 1 Bob Geldof, 2 Tartars, 3 Sturridge, 4 Ready, 5 The Man with Two Left Feet, 6 Infirmly, 7 Vaya con Dios, 8 Non-kosher, 9 George Michael, 10 Ryde, 11 Diagnostic, 16 Prasad, 18 Little, 21 Universal Time, 23 Bonsai, 24 Peking, 25 Plantagenet, 26 Atmosphere, 28 Baltic Sea, 30 Pleasance, 31 Sidelined, 32 Arboreta, 35 Algeria, 37 Emeer, 39 Opus

POLYGON

Winners Crossword 4980 N Allan, Kentisbeare, Devon, S Bohin, Frocester, Gloucestershire, J Denman, Tonbridge, Kent, J Harris, Reading, Berkshire Mephisto 3193 P Harmer, Hertford, I Clark, Luton, Bedfordshire, M Lawlor, Middleton, Greater Manchester, B Smith, Brighton, East Sussex, A Veal, Sunningwell, Oxfordshire Teaser 3085 G Hart, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, W Slusar, Cambridge Chess 1296 D Hough, Hindley, Greater Manchester Sudoku 1456 M Willis, Little Milton, Oxfordshire

Amsterdam 6C sl Athens 18 s Auckland 24 f Bangkok 31 f Barcelona 11 f Beijing 10 f Belgrade 15 sh Berlin 3 f Bogota 19 th Boston 5 f Brussels 5 sh Budapest 9 r Buenos Aires 21 th Cairo 29 s Calgary 7 sl Cape Town 22 sh Caracas 23 th Casablanca 16 f Chicago 3 f Dubai 27 s Dublin 5 sh Geneva 1 sl Gibraltar 12 s Guatemala 23 th Helsinki -4 f Hong Kong 23 f Istanbul 17 sh Jersey 7 f Johannesburg 28 f La Paz 15 th Lagos 29 th Lima 22 f Lisbon 15 sh

London 4C f Los Angeles 25 f Madrid 9 f Mexico City 20 f Miami 25 s Moscow 4 sh Nairobi 19 sh New Delhi 26 s New Orleans 14 sh New York 8 f Oslo -3 f Panama 28 th Paris 7 sh Prague 1 sl Rio de Janeiro 26 th Rome 12 sh San Francisco 18 s Santiago 27 s Seoul 9 f Seychelles 28 th Singapore 28 th Stockholm 0 f Sydney 19 sh Tel Aviv 26 s Tenerife 16 sh Tokyo 14 s Toronto -1 sn Trinidad 28 th Tunis 17 sh Venice 10 th Vienna 2 sl Warsaw 4 sl Washington DC 11 f

AROUND THE WORLD

Key c=cloud, dr=drizzle, ds=dust storm, f=fair, fg=fog, g=gales, h=hail, m=mist, r=rain, sh=showers, sl=sleet, sn=snow, s=sun, th=thunder, w=windy

¬ Spells of rain spreading into northern areas of Spain and Portugal, turning wintry over high ground, but staying dry and sunny in the south ¬ Frequent showers or longer spells of rain in the Balearics, Sardinia, Sicily, mainland Italy, the Balkans and Greece, heaviest in western areas ¬ Outbreaks of rain, sleet or snow over France, the Alps,

the Low Countries and Germany, as well as some drier and brighter intervals ¬ Areas of rain, sleet or snow will spread over Poland, the Czech Republic and into northeastern Europe ¬ Spells of rain in parts of southeastern Europe, but many areas remaining dry ¬ A few snow flurries across Scandinavia, but mainly dry

EUROPE

THE WEEK AHEAD

Monday Rain, sleet or snow in the northwest, drier elsewhere. Max 11C, Ireland

Tuesday Rain, heaviest and most persistent in the northwest. Max 11C

Wednesday Rain clearing eastwards to leave a bright, showery day. Max 10C

Thursday Wintry coastal showers, but brighter inland. Max 7C

Friday Rain spreading eastwards, turning wintry in places. Max 11C

Saturday Wintry coastal showers, longer spells of rain in the west. Max 10C

SUN, STREET LIGHTS & MOON

NIGHT SKY

Aberdeen 08:17 15:35 08:19 --:-- 14:01 Belfast 08:18 16:05 08:19 --:-- 14:11 Birmingham 07:51 15:59 07:53 --:-- 13:52 Bristol 07:49 16:07 07:51 --:-- 13:53 Cardiff 07:52 16:09 07:53 --:-- 13:55 Cork 08:15 16:28 08:16 00:04 14:17 Dublin 08:13 16:13 08:14 --:-- 14:10 Glasgow 08:18 15:51 08:20 --:-- 14:07 London 07:40 15:57 07:41 --:-- 13:43 Manchester 07:57 15:56 07:59 --:-- 13:55 Newcastle 08:02 15:46 08:04 --:-- 13:55 Norwich 07:39 15:46 07:40 --:-- 13:39 Plymouth 07:51 16:18 07:52 --:-- 13:57

Sun rises

Sun sets/ lights on

Lights off

Moon rises

Moon sets

13

2 11

6

3

10

1

17

13

17

14

6

1

6

8

3

26

5

4

9

22

10

9

11

24

34

10

8

6

7

28

18

6

4

7

22

33

9

10

6

8

22

36

9

6

9

25

TODAY’S WEATHER

UK and Ireland forecast A cold, frosty start for much of Scotland, England and Wales, while rain, turning wintry in places, affects Ireland at first. As the day progresses, an area of snow across Scotland will move southwards towards the Midlands, turning to rain or sleet. Elsewhere, most areas will be bright with a few wintry coastal showers. Winds will be mainly light and variable, stronger along the east coast at first and in western Ireland later.

REGIONAL FORECASTS London, SE England The odd shower, but mostly dry, bright and chilly. Light to fresh northwesterly winds. Max 5C. Tonight, frosty. Min -3C Midlands, E England A few wintry showers, especially later. Light to fresh northwesterly winds. Max 6C. Tonight, mostly dry. Min -4C Channel Is, SW and Cent S England, S Wales The odd shower, but mainly dry. Light to moderate west to northwesterly winds. Max 8C. Tonight, mist or fog. Min -3C N Wales, NW England, Isle of Man Spells of rain, sleet or snow moving southwards. Mainly light northwesterly winds. Max 7C. Tonight, cold and frosty. Min -7C Cent N and NE England Bright spells and wintry showers. Light to moderate west to northwesterly winds. Max 4C. Tonight, mainly dry. Min -5C Scotland Spells of rain, sleet or snow and bright periods. Mainly light northwesterly winds. Max 5C. Tonight, mostly dry. Min -7C N Ireland, Republic of Ireland Spells of rain at first, wintry in places. Light to fresh winds, variable in direction. Max 10C. Tonight, rain arriving. Min -1C

7

4

6

1

2

10

17

28

25

13 moderate

rough

TODAY’S SOLUTIONS

CONCISE CROSSWORD 1757 Across: 1 Password, 5 Naff, 8 Opposing, 9 Otto, 11 Funny business, 13 Howzat, 14 Sultry, 16 Psychological, 18 Fool, 19 Hypnotic, 21 Leer, 22 Freeload Down: 1 Proof, 2 Sap, 3 Wishy-washy, 4 Run out, 6 Authentic, 7 Frowsty, 10 Divulgence, 12 No way Jose, 13 Hopeful, 15 Player, 17 Lucid, 20 Too

SPOT THE MOVE 1298 1 Bf5! wins: 1...Qxf5 (1...Nxf5 2 Rc8+ leads to mate) 2 Rc8+! Nxc8 (2...Kh7 3 Qg8 mate) 3 Qxf5 and Black’s position collapses TEASER 3087 16

CROSSWORD 4982 Across: 1 Eolian, 4 Curassow, 10 Bric-a-brac, 11 Truce, 12 Winchester rifle, 13 Ooze, 14 Aphoristic, 17 Manor house, 19 Taxi, 22 Biological clock, 23 Ghana, 24 Initiated, 25 The Sting, 26 On edge Down: 1 Elbow room, 2 Leibniz, 3 Apathy, 5 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 6 Asteroid, 7 Snuff it, 8 Where, 9 Presupposition, 15 Chickadee, 16 Arrogant, 18 Neonate, 20 Adopted, 21 Action, 22 Begat

SUKO CELL BLOCKS

Venus, brilliant but very low in the SW at 5.30pm, appears a crescent in binoculars. At the same time Jupiter is conspicuous and 20° to 25° high in the S while Saturn is below right of Jupiter in the direction of Venus. Orion rises in the E by 8pm and is unmistakeable in the S in the early morning. Parts of Antarctica enjoy a total solar eclipse next Saturday. Alan Pickup

and some winter barley. But no spring barley at all. I don’t know why beer has to be made from barley that’s planted in March rather than September, but it does. And Charlie had left it out. “You’ve left out the spring barley,” I said. “I know,” he replied. “It’s always dis- astrous on your farm, so I didn’t think we’d bother any more.” At this point I pulled my special crest- fallen face and explained that I’d just invested in a brewery that would use my barley and that we had a name and every- thing. “Ah,” said Charlie, before gently rolling his eyes and rhythmically banging his forehead on the table. It turns out that spring barley is fickle. It gets stroppy if the weather’s too cold or too hot or too wet or too dry. And it really doesn’t like the brashy soil on my farm, so growing it is a risk. It’s also susceptible like a sickly child to all sorts of disease, and if there’s too much nitrogen in the finished product, it will be rejected by the grain merchant and will have to be used for animal feed. So you work hard all summer nurturing the bloody stuff and then you end up selling it for 3p. Last year I was lucky. It didn’t grow to be especially tall, and there were plenty of bare patches in the fields where I’d planted it. But I got a good price of £205 a tonne. Or at least I thought it was a good price until I discovered that the brewery is paying £580 a tonne. So I take all the risks, I do all the hard work and I get less than half what the maltster is paid for wetting the grain a bit to make it germinate and then heating it up to make it dead again. So many farmers round here are so outraged by this that we are having a meeting to discuss setting up a co-operative malting opera- tion. Shouldn’t be difficult to find a prem- ises. Every village has a house called The Maltings in it. But that’s then and this is now, and

everyone at Diddly Squat is fully engaged with the idea of diverting all our energy next year into careful spring barley farming. Even Charlie, who when I talked about it this morning said: “Oh God.” The next big issue was the recipe for the lager. It turns out that beer has only four ingredients — malted barley, hops, yeast and water — but it’s very easy to make a complete pig’s ear of it. See Bud- weiser for details. The first job was to work out what alcohol content we’d like. I consulted my 25-year-old son, who said that he favoured lots as he doesn’t have much money and wants to get as pissed as possible for the smallest possible outlay. Then I talked to my dry-stone waller and head of security, Gerald, who said that when he goes to the pub he likes to have a bath first and put on his smart clothes and it’s not worth doing that if he’s only going to drink a pint. He likes to have a good old natter with his mates and wants a gallon. So he wants the alcohol level to be as low as possible. “Grrr erdickle sisa- natious,” he said. Interesting dilemma. Who did we want

as a customer? Gerald or my son? We decided on both and therefore settled on an ABV of 4.8 per cent. That sounds like a nice number to me. You’d certainly want a car with a 4.8-litre V8. Luckily, Rick and Emma, the people who run the brewery, can handle requests like this. Rick is the boffin. You can tell this because he wears white wellingtons and has mad hair that I think he cuts himself. His wife, Emma, runs the business. And now they have me on board as well, so things should really take off. The start wasn’t smooth. We had a blind tasting in the summer and everyone agreed that our new lager was nowhere near as nice as the beer Rick and Emma had been making for years. So Rick went back into his room full of pipes and tanks and started again, and I’m not just saying this: now, it’s really good. So we had the beer and we had the name and we had a farm to produce the barley and we had plans to cut costs by axing the middleman. We’d even worked out that we could sell it in Lisa’s shop and on Jeff ’s website. The ad man even reck- oned he knew a few people in London who might stock it. So all we needed was a television advert, which I said I’d do. I booked the film crew, called the farmer who owns the land where the Hawk Stone stands and wrote the script. And this morning I received news from some lawyers point- ing out that you’re not allowed to say in an ad that “Hawkstone is just what you need before a hard day at work”. And neither can you take a swig and say: “F*** me, that’s good.” This, then, is the problem farmers face. They are told by government that to survive they must diversify. But when they try to branch out by turning their own barley into lager, they are forced by law to pull a po face and say it must be drunk responsibly.

Clarkson with the Hawk Stone and a pint of Hawkstone

A

s farming subsidies are very firmly on the way out, the nation’s tractorists must find new ways of keeping their heads above water. Which is why I’ve decided to turn a large chunk of my land into beer. Yup. I’ve invested in a brewery. I should explain that I’m not making what I like to call a “James May beer”. It’s not something that the Campaign for Real Ale would support, because it’s not brown and it does not have twigs and mud in it. Drinking stuff like that is like drinking a meat pie. So my beer is a lager. Choosing a name for it was the first problem. I wanted to call it Lager McLagerface. Or McFace for short. But one of my partners in the enterprise is an important London ad man, who said that McFace didn’t conjure up quite the right premium image. He wanted the Milk Tray chocolates man parachuting into a schloss, not Begbie and a mega mega white thing. Eventually we settled on Hawkstone, because there’s a neolithic standing stone of that name here in the Cotswolds. And it was the neolithics, 4,000 years ago, who invented barley farming. Weirdly, back then, they just ate it. They didn’t realise it could be con- verted into an alcoholic beverage, which is why, I suppose, they spent their even- ings upending rocks rather than getting pissed. These are the guys we have to thank on a summer’s day when we’re in the garden and all we want is a glass of cold, refreshing lager. But then, while we were celebrating our genius with the name, Cheerful Charlie, the land agent, turned up with the crop plan he’d devised for my farm this year. There were three types of wheat, two types of oilseed rape, echium, potatoes, grassland for the cows

Jeremy

Clarkson

Hic! Turns

out I can

organise

a piss-up in

a brewery:

my own

It’s easy to

make a pig’s

ear of lager.

You can see

Budweiser

for details

*

The Sunday Times - UK (2021-11-28)

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