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 2103 / Plain

by

This seemed to be a standard Azed puzzle with excellent clues and the usual mix of everyday and obscure vocabulary in the grid.       There was a good mix of clue … Read more >>

Independent 8085 / Dac

by

A pleasant crossword from Dac where the solution built up gradually with each further pass through the acrosses and downs.  I found the crossing letters particularlly helpful when solving this puzzle.     … Read more >>

Independent 8075 / Phi

by

I feel that this was a fairly standard offering from Phi today.  No themes, messages, or pangrams that I can see, just a sound national daily crossword puzzle that some solvers can complete … Read more >>

Independent 8066 / Samuel

by

I have blogged Samuel puzzles in the Saturday Independent Magazine Inquisitor series, but I don’t remember even seeing, let alone blogging a Samuel in the Independent daily series.       This was … Read more >>