John

Born 1946. Since retiring (maths teacher) have spent an increasing amount of time on crosswords, something that was impossible before – am not in the sub-ten minutes league and surely never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Did Azed monthly for some years and entered his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, had 38 VHCs and 140 HCs — yes, I kept a record, sad isn't it) but not enough for my liking. I've set a few crosswords: five in Oxford Today, a few on Derek Harrison's website, and five in The Independent, under the name Vernon. Also play a lot of chess and golf, although as I age I'm getting weaker at both.

WHEELTAPPERS AND PUNSTERS by Burrows

Sun October 25, 2026 at 9:05 amSun October 25, 2026 at 12:21 am by John

A largely sound and pleasant crossword from Burrows. He does use one or two devices with which I’m not familiar so either he is using things that setters nowadays and in the future will be using or he is making the odd mistake. Being a dyed-in-the-wool Ximenean I’m less than happy with the fact that several answers have less than 50% checking.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)* and their indicators in italics. Deletions indicated [like this] and homophones “like this”.

Gemelo No. 51

Sun October 25, 2026 at 7:27 pmSun October 25, 2026 at 12:09 am by John

What a good crossword Gemelo has set. The surfaces are convincing and read sensibly, and the crossword gave me much pleasure to solve.

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*

Everyman 4,172

Sun October 11, 2026 at 10:31 pmSun October 11, 2026 at 12:59 am by John

What has now become a typically good and sound Everyman crossword with generally nice surfaces. Some of the answers are quite easy to find, so I think he is becoming more user-friendly for those who are not yet all that familiar with things.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Everyman 4,168

Sun September 13, 2026 at 12:12 am by John

I thought this was on the easy side for Everyman, but everything is good and sound (apart from one or two small criticisms). There are some excellent clues with convincing surfaces and the usual Everyman trademarks indicated in colour below.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Azed No. 2,783

Sun September 13, 2026 at 12:51 pmSun September 13, 2026 at 12:05 am by John

Several clues where I’m not 100% sure, and one that at the time of writing quite defeats me. However, I’m sure that all will be explained.

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Everyman 4,164

Sun August 16, 2026 at 9:25 amSun August 16, 2026 at 12:20 am by John

The pleasant crossword from Everyman that we are now used to. There were some nice clues and one or two I found tricky at the end; as it should be.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Gemelo No. 42

Sun August 2, 2026 at 12:32 am by John

The very pleasant crossword that we have come to expect from Gemelo. There are several misleading and intricate pieces of wordplay.

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Everyman 4,160

Sun July 19, 2026 at 1:38 pmSun July 19, 2026 at 12:52 am by John

As we nowadays expect from Everyman, a sound and pleasant crossword. How Everyman manages week after week to produce a grid with all those things (highlighted) in it I don’t know.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Everyman 4,156

Sun June 21, 2026 at 12:49 am by John

Most of the usual things are here and highlighted in the grid. A pleasant crossword from Everyman, and the only criticisms are not very major and indicated in the blog.

Definitions in crimson (?? It looks as if I’ve made a mistake in setting things: the answers are in crimson but not the definitions; sorry), underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Gemelo No. 37

Sun June 21, 2026 at 12:33 am by John

An excellent crossword, not easy but — as should be the case — its difficulties were conquerable with some persistence. It seems to me that, with one or two very very slight exceptions, Gemelo has been scrupulous in his accuracy.

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*

Everyman 4,152

Sun May 24, 2026 at 11:59 amSun May 24, 2026 at 12:45 am by John

All the usual Everyman things are here and indicated (except that I’ve missed one square, which won’t bother you) in the grid. Nice crossword despite a couple about which I’m unsure.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Financial Times 18,377 by GAFF

Wed May 20, 2026 at 1:48 pm by John

My apologies. This is dreadful. I’m standing in for today and it completely slipped my mind until late in the morning. Then I had trouble with the software and after almost completing the crossword it froze on me and I had to start all over again. But I’ve at least just about finished (the ones I’m unsure about I hope I’ll manage as I finish this off, or at any rate you will I’m sure help me with). To make it worse, I was very slow to finish this since I had MINICAB at 5dn.

Triplejumper@1 tells us this crossword is related to Cher.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*.

Azed No. 2,779

Sun May 10, 2026 at 11:59 amSun May 10, 2026 at 12:26 am by John

A medium-difficulty crossword from Azed. There seemed to me to be lots of answers where the parsing involves an anagram, but now I count them it’s not so excessive (25%).

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*

Everyman 4,148

Sun April 26, 2026 at 12:02 pmSun April 26, 2026 at 12:49 am by John

It seems that Everyman is now a solid setter and this is typical of his nice output. Although I am in a little doubt at times there are no weak clues. The usual trademarks are there and indicated by colours in the grid, which has an addition: the long one-word anagram. [I missed one of the rhyming pairs.]

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, hidden, containment, anagram, juxtaposition, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Gemelo No. 28 – Plain

Sun March 29, 2026 at 1:27 pmSun March 29, 2026 at 12:37 am by John

After the brilliant Gemelo 27 with its Spoonerisms etc, we are now back to a plain Gemelo, and it seemed to me to be harder, possibly because I was solving at the computer (the software that I normally use has been tripped up by The Observer’s changes and this blog will look a bit different) with my reference books on my lap — I hadn’t learnt how to print a pdf, which thanks to The Observer I know now. There are two whose parsing is at present beyond me and which I hope to understand while I’m doing the blog. [Later: no].

My guess is that anyone who does these crosswords will have a copy of Chambers to hand and so won’t need everything to be spelled out. In the parsing I have confined myself to explaining when the wordplay is not immediately clear.

Definitions in some sort of red, underlined. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*