duncanshiell's avatarduncanshiell

Born in 1948. I retired from full-time work in May 2007, after 37 years with Ordnance Survey and associated bodies and now have time to devote to crosswords, something not available for many years. Product of 17 years in the Scottish education system, but lived overseas or in southern England for virtually all of the time thereafter. I moved back to Scotland in 2010. Regular road runner and recently returned to orienteering and golf after a 35 year gap. Developed interested in cryptic crosswords in the mid 1960s (Scotsman, Sunday Express skeleton), but working overseas and then raising a family, meant dropping out of crossword solving for about 30 years. Now a regular solver of Times, Guardian, Independent, Inquisitor, Listener and Magpie crosswords. Reasonably regular finisher of the first four. Started blogging in late 2007. Any solving ability far outweighs any clueing ability. Krypton Factor contestant 1983; eliminated in the first round, but the obstacle course finish made good television!

Azed 2641

by

A plain puzzle from Azed this week.       This was a standard Azed offering with precise wordplay and interesting surfaces hiding plenty of misdirection. As ever, my vocabulary increased as a … Read more >>

Azed 2636

by

It’s the Azed Christmas special this week.       There was quite a lengthy preamble explaining what solvers were asked to do and stating that some entries would not be found in … Read more >>

Independent 11292 / Gila

by

Gila fills the Wednesday Independent slot this week.       Terminology in wordplay construction should warrant an academic treatise.  Today we had ‘frequently‘ in the clue for 1 across and ‘occasionally‘ in … Read more >>