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 9286 / Tees

by

Tees makes his occasional (nearly monthly) appearance today.       Well, there’s no subtlety about the theme – pigs and one alleged pig-associated incident.  I suspect the associated theme will delight some solvers … Read more >>

Azed 2301

by

A plain Azed puzzle this week with the usual mix of obscure words, Scottish words and everyday words.  We also needed a bit of French.       There were a couple of … Read more >>

Azed 2295

by

A plain Azed puzzle this time generating the usual challenges.       There were three compound anagram clues this week (13 across [NIKAU], 34 across [REDD] and 21 down [EJECTA].  They are … Read more >>