I write to you from a pit of despair. Years ago, before Covid, the FT Weekend Cryptic Crossword was the cultural highlight of my week.
I became good at it (I won it seven times, back in the day when one could post it back and win prizes) and enjoyed the cerebral wrestling match that would occupy me, sometimes for days.
Two great minds, grappling like intellectual titans, generating mental energy so bright that the neighbours would stand in the street and gasp in awe at the fireworks flying out of the windows like sparks from Vulcan’s anvil . . . Now I do it with one hand, using the other to translate Icelandic sagas into medieval Persian, all the while bouncing a ping pong ball up and down on my foot.
To quote Steve McQueen at the end of The Sand Pebbles: “What the Hell happened?”
Tim Davies
Cardiff, Wales, UK
