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 probably never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Have been doing Azed monthly for some years and entering his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, have had 36 VHCs and 138 HCs — yes, I keep 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.

Azed 2287

Sun April 10, 2016 at 12:05 am by John

The usual Azed. A whole lot of rare words (how does he know them?) all accurately clued and perfectly straightforward once one has the answer, although getting it in the first place is … Read more >>

Independent 9,198 by Klingsor

Thu April 7, 2016 at 10:27 am by John

This is quite extraordinary: if you ignore the Saturday Prize Puzzles you have to go back to last August before you find a Klingsor that hasn’t been blogged by me. He must be suspecting some collusion amongst the people who organise these things, and must be crying out for someone else. So far as I’m concerned, however, it’s fine: I’d happily blog a Klingsor every time, with a few of the others thrown in for good measure. He always gets it just right — hard enough but he always loses gracefully, after presenting us with some very nice clues.

Definitions underlined. I have settled on maroon for them in my past few blogs as this seems best, but if anyone thinks otherwise then please do say so.

Independent 9,193 by Phi

Fri April 1, 2016 at 11:07 amFri April 1, 2016 at 10:16 am by John

Well I can see that today is April Fool’s Day, a day on which there is not much point in reading the newspapers since all the writers will be vying with each other to find the most amusing non-story. …

Independent 9,184 by Radian

Tue March 22, 2016 at 10:21 am by John

I found this extremely difficult. The clues are all quite understandable once you know the answer, but to get there is often very hard, so far as I can see, there being so many options for the wordplay and the definition.

Definitions in maroon and underlined.

Independent 9179/Dac

Wed March 16, 2016 at 12:43 pm by John

My apologies to everyone; this is very late. I had computer problems and, having done the blog once but failed to post it, started all over again and used the old system, which … Read more >>

Independent 9,174 by Klingsor

Thu March 10, 2016 at 10:37 am by John

I always enjoy Klingsor’s crosswords. Neat cluing and nothing too controversial. This one was on the easier side for him I think, since there have been times in the past when he has taken ages; but not this time thank goodness.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

Independent 9,169 by Phi

Fri March 4, 2016 at 10:19 am by John

One of Phi’s easier offerings I thought (but none the worse for that). On the first pass through I, unusually for me, solved nearly half of the clues, which are as usual excellent.

Definitions underlined and in DarkMagenta, which I fear will look a bit odd but let’s see.

AZED 2,281

Sun February 28, 2016 at 12:05 am by John

I always cheat when doing Azed. In a normal daily cryptic this would be unforgivable until perhaps the very end when one is stuck, but with Azed I always say to myself that the words are so weird that one needs help. You may say that I should persevere and try to do it all from the wordplay and only then look up the word to see if it exists, and yes I do sometimes do that, but the wordplay itself also often makes reference to some impossible words and I’d never get anywhere. At least I would. but it would take me about ten times as long as I normally spend.

As always everything, with its neat clueing, is perfectly clear after the event.

Definitions underlined and in maroon.

Independent 9,160 by Hieroglyph

Tue February 23, 2016 at 10:49 am by John

Rather hard today, but I suppose it is Tuesday and we have to be prepared for this. Plenty of good clues here, which often didn’t yield initially but afterwards were obvious enough. From time to time Hieroglyph requires us to split one word into two, something that not everyone is happy with and not something one often sees in the Indy. I have no objection to it myself, but it would be nice to know that it either is or isn’t standard practice at the Indy.

Definitions underlined and in chocolate today. Which at the moment (before publication) looks like bright orange. I’ve never eaten chocolate of that colour.

Independent 9,155 by Dac

Wed February 17, 2016 at 12:52 pmWed February 17, 2016 at 10:17 am by John

As usual from Dac. I think this was on the easy side — I didn’t time myself but had no problems and by my standards sailed through it. Which isn’t to denigrate it: it’s well up to the level we have come to expect from this setter.

Definitions underlined and in SaddleBrown today. As usual I had to make amendments so 15ac and 22dn aren’t quite the right colour.

Independent 9,150 by Monk

Thu February 11, 2016 at 10:37 am by John

Monk always offers up challenging crosswords and at the end there are always a few things which one is not sure about, but as usual you will I am sure come to the rescue and I shall see how my misgivings were not in fact justified. Actually this one was less devilish than some of his, so far as I could see.

Definitions underlined and this time in maroon (except for one of them, which I forgot; I had to insert the colour by hand later and couldn’t get it to match the others).

Independent 9,145 by Phi

Fri February 5, 2016 at 10:12 am by John

So many of these clues can be neatly and simply parsed that sometimes I feel as if I’m not doing the job properly. Some would say that I should be taking three lines to expound everything that’s happening, but I’m afraid I take the view that anyone who has got as far as reading this blog will have some ability at least to cope with the inclusions, synonyms, etc and if it can be explained simply then that is actually clearer.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 9,136 by Scorpion

Tue January 26, 2016 at 10:55 am by John

Despite my misgivings over the spelling of the answer to 24ac (yes I know. Language does move on and we can’t just go along with what people said some while ago. But a pity that this moving on is dictated by someone in television making a mistake) this is a very pleasant crossword, accessible, with good clues — the one that I don’t understand will I trust be explained by someone.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 9,131 by Dac

Wed January 20, 2016 at 10:19 am by John

Whatever else?

Definitions underlined and in red; not sure I like this but it’ll have to do. I’m not going to go through it all and change them by hand.

AZED No. 2,275 Plain

Sun January 17, 2016 at 12:05 am by John

When I first solved The Listener crossword I was pleased with myself, then went to a website that discussed it and everyone said how easy this particular puzzle was. This was rather dispiriting … Read more >>