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 2271

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An Azed plain puzzle this week       This was a fairly typical Azed.  The entries were the usual result of Azed’s trawl through the dictionary looking for a mix of well … Read more >>

Independent 9104 / Phi

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This is Phi’s final Friday puzzle before Christmas so there might be a message in it.       One of Phi’s more obvious messages today albeit in foreign languages (unless you speak … Read more >>

Independent 9085 / Tyrus

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Tyrus appears on average once a month.  I first came across him when blogging Independent Saturday puzzles.  I have always found his puzzles tending towards the harder end of the Independent spectrum.. I … Read more >>

Azed 2265

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An Azed Competition puzzle this week but it was a plain one.       There is one clue for which I can’t even begin to see the word play and that’s 12 … Read more >>