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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!

Inquisitor 83 – Rockery by Charybdis

Fri August 8, 2008 at 7:00 am by duncanshiell

The preamble for this puzzle was fairly short, comprising only two sentences. We were told that eight unclued entries were all instances of the second half of 45 across. One of the instances … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 6 Comments

Inquisitor 80 – Topical Request by Loda

Fri July 18, 2008 at 2:47 pmFri July 18, 2008 at 7:00 am by duncanshiell

Anyone for tennis?  This puzzle was published on Ladies Finals Day at Wimbledon. We were told that 14 of the 44 clues contained a misprint with the correct letters spelling out the topical … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 7 Comments

Inquisitor 78 – Closely Packed by Kea

Fri July 4, 2008 at 7:00 am by duncanshiell

We were told that the answers to five across clues had to be jumbled before entry. To complicate matters further, we were also told that the letters in these five answers would share … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 6 Comments

Inquisitor 74 – A Quotation by Schadenfreude

Fri June 6, 2008 at 6:00 am by duncanshiell

This puzzle was presented as a 10 row *11 columns jigsaw within a frame of 12 rows *13 columns such that the outer rim was independent of interlocking words. The central square in … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 2 Comments

Inquisitor 70 – ‘Armless Fun by Loda

Sun October 26, 2008 at 6:35 pmFri May 9, 2008 at 12:01 am by duncanshiell

This was a very enjoyable exercise in ‘thinking outside the box’. Solvers were told that by disregarding convention they would discover three words, and were told further that given the position of any … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 1 Comment

Inquisitor 69 – Progressive Consumption by Schadenfreude

Sun October 26, 2008 at 7:55 pmFri May 2, 2008 at 12:01 am by duncanshiell

Solvers were told that nine answers represented a song sequence, in clue order, but with a different and much happier ending.  The preamble also stated that the first answer, representing the eventual target, … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 1 Comment

Inquisitor 60 – Proceedings by Zero

Thu February 28, 2008 at 11:59 pm by duncanshiell

The title – Proceedings – alludes to ‘Carry on’, so this crossword was an entertaining romp down the history of ‘Carry On …….’ films, of which there were twenty-nine original and one compilation … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor

Inquisitor 58 – EVE by Schadenfreude

Thu February 14, 2008 at 11:59 pm by duncanshiell

The preamble to the puzzle indicated that it included 12 unclued entries, four of which (11a, 35a, 22d and 24d) would represent a recent sequence in the correct order. Four pairs of the … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 2 Comments

Inquisitor 54 – Seasonal Show by Loda

Thu January 17, 2008 at 11:59 pm by duncanshiell

The clues for this Seasonal Show were presented in three blocks: Firstly, an unnumbered set of clues to the whole of each of Rows 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 with the … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 3 Comments

Inquisitor 50 – Who’s Who by Dimitry

Thu December 20, 2007 at 11:59 pm by duncanshiell

There were three important parts to the preamble: 1. Every across clue lacked a definition and the wordplay generated a word which could be associated with the entry at that number – i.e … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 5 Comments

Inquisitor 47 – Missing Letter by Schadenfreude

Thu May 18, 2023 at 12:04 pmThu November 29, 2007 at 11:59 pm by duncanshiell

The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different.  The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as … Read more >>

Categories Inquisitor 5 Comments
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