Berezovsky had a doctorate in applied mathematics and fancied himself Sumption's intellectual sparring partner.

Erasmus remembered Serena Butler, the human female he had admired as an intellectual sparring partner.

What I loved the most was the intellectual sparring as we debated the future of MCI and the telecom industry.

She was wont to sit at her spinning-wheel regarding this intellectual sparring with grave interest, as a peculiar phase of the human mind.