Kenya’s monopoly of the Olympic steeplechase is not unequalled in track and field (Letters, 6 August). From 1896 until 1968 US pole vaulters won all the 16 gold medals available over that period. East Germany’s Wolfgang Nordwig broke the monopoly in 1972 in Munich. His win was not without controversy, because the IAAF banned the use of the new cata-poles, which were used by many of the leading vaulters, including defending champion Bob Seagren. Unsurprisingly, the original complaint was lodged by East Germany.
Richard Reardon
Carlisle, Cumbria
• In both the Guardian and Telegraph’s cryptic crosswords on 8 August the identical clue “Frightful house – I’d move” appeared. Was this a strange example ofchance or something more hideous?
Brian Simmons
Lincoln
• My pleasure in Leonard Cohen’s music is always enhanced by recalling Clive James’s heroic couplet: “Like a poet in a loft, like a sherbet growing soft”. The song, Doom from a Room, is on Pete Atkin’s LP Live Libel which, along with the half a dozen other albums they collaborated on, has been giving fans of Clive’s poetry joy for more than 40 years.
Tim Grollman
London
• As a lorry-driving Guardian reader, I object to being called a trucker (Why truckers are sick of chips with everything, G2, 10 August). Your style guide is silent on the subject, but Gov.uk uses “lorry driver”. Also (until and unless EU law is replaced, post-Brexit) drivers of large goods vehicles are known as LGV drivers. We haven’t been HGV drivers for over 20 years. (Although, perhaps confusingly, HGV is still a tax disc category.)
Chris Hughes
Leicester
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