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!

Independent 10722 / Hob

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Hob is the setter for this Tuesday puzzle     The poet John KEATS died 200 years ago today (23rd February 1821) and crossword editors rarely miss an opportunity to commission puzzles that … Read more >>

Azed 2540

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Azed presents us with a plain puzzle this week. Of course, Azed plain puzzles are not as easy as other setters’ plain puzzles. There were quite a few French references this week or … Read more >>

Azed 2534

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A plain competition puzzle from Azed this week       This was a week where I solved more clues on the first pass through than I usually do. We had the usual … Read more >>