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.

Independent 8,739 by Phi

Fri February 8, 2019 at 9:08 amFri October 17, 2014 at 10:10 am by John

Back to normality it seems: Phi has appeared for the last two Fridays.

There are two strange things about this typically pleasant crossword: the grid is strange and (yes I know he doesn’t always have them, but today surely he does) cries out that there is a Nina, but of course I can’t see it; and for the first time that I can remember Phi has departed from the Ximenean norm by having two answers (8dn and 13ac) with less than 50% checking. Not much less than 50% mind you, but still less.

Actually there is a third: Phi doesn’t so far as I can see have any recourse to an anagram in his clueing.

So come on Nina hunters, plenty of material there to work with.

I found this rather hard for a Phi, perhaps because there were no comparatively easy openers with anagrams. My excuse is the less than 50% checking on the two long answers, but that’s no good really.

AZED 2,209

Sun October 12, 2014 at 11:21 pmSun October 12, 2014 at 12:05 am by John

The first of Azed’s Letters Latent puzzles since VE(S)TAL in 2009. I won’t give the complete preamble since you have no doubt already seen it, but letters are missing from each answer whenever they occur and these missing letters make an appropriate seasonal quotation. The definition is to the whole word, the subsidiary indication to the word with letters missing. Two words are missing from this quotation and the first one is clued like all the rest in the puzzle; the second one is the competition clue-word.

In the answers I have given the omitted letters in lower-case.

The quotation (which I have to admit to finding using Google) was from Ernest Dowson: ‘pale amber sunlight falls across the [reddening October] trees’.

As with all Azed’s specials, this was much enjoyed.

Independent 8,730 by Punk

Tue October 7, 2014 at 10:23 am by John

A typically neat and pleasant offering from Punk today. It is themed around 11dn, which is to some extent my time, but I still needed Google to explain many of the answers. What … Read more >>

Independent 8,725 by Dac

Wed October 1, 2014 at 9:55 am by John

As always on Wednesdays, which don’t seem to be suffering the upheavals of the other days.

I sometimes wonder whether to feign ignorance of the parsing of some clues, so that people will respond and tell me how they work It’s the only way people will be prompted to post when it’s a Dac day, for everything is so tidy and uncontroversial, although in this one there’s a question about 5dn.

Independent 8,720 by Hob

Thu September 25, 2014 at 11:00 am by John

Poor old Hob — this is his third in a row that has fallen to me. Not that I personally really mind, for this was a very pleasant crossword. There are one or two clues about which I’m not sure but no doubt someone will come to the rescue.

Read round the unches from the bottom left in the two ways to the top right to get the Nina. It was published on September 17th 1954, so this is a few days late for the 60th anniversary. There don’t seem to be any references in the answers, but one of the clues mentions Jack, so perhaps there is something I can’t see.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 8,715 by Jambazi

Fri September 19, 2014 at 11:18 amFri September 19, 2014 at 10:42 am by John

Nowadays any day is as likely as the next to throw up a hard one; except perhaps Wednesday, where Dac still holds sway for most of the month. I found this crossword from Jambazi remarkably difficult and it took me ages, although most of the clues seem easy enough after they have been solved.

I get the impression that there is something going on: the members of some band from the 1980s perhaps or some such? [Leonard Cohen, who is 80 today, we are told by Geebs, to whom thanks]

My apologies for frequently mentioning Chambers. I know it is not the dictionary used by this paper, but a) I can’t remember what is and b) it is to hand.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 8,706 by Morph

Tue September 9, 2014 at 10:18 am by John

An enjoyable crossword as usual from Morph. There is one that I can’t parse but no doubt someone will explain.

I found this so difficult that by the end I was just relieved to be there, even though there were still one or two that I wasn’t comfortable with. By then all thoughts of hunting for a Nina, which I’ve now done unfruitfully, were out of the window.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 8,701 by Dac

Wed September 3, 2014 at 10:28 am by John

Dac never fails. His clues always have excellent surfaces and their parsing is straightforward and not open to argument.

Definitions underlined.

AZED 2,203

Sun August 31, 2014 at 12:05 am by John

Although the structure of most of these clues is fairly straightforward, as witness the number of them that can be parsed in one bit, I found this one of Azed’s harder crosswords, with many difficult words and shades of meaning. Coomassie blue and makunouchi aren’t things I talk about every day. Indeed there are red squiggly lines under two of these words and they won’t go away.

As usual I’m not going to explain all these difficult words. I don’t want to be up all night.

Definitions underlined.

Independent 8,696 by Hob

Thu August 28, 2014 at 10:16 am by John

For a long time — in fact until I actually did the blog — I thought that this was themed around 14ac 21dn and was prepared to apologise for my ignorance of his works. but it became clear that in fact the theme was more general. Hob has fitted in many answers with a link to the theme and I have probably missed some of them.

All very cleverly done and apart from my very occasional doubts, which are probably unjustified anyway, a pleasant crossword.

Independent 8,691 by Phi

Fri November 30, 2018 at 10:11 amFri August 22, 2014 at 10:23 am by John

Phi’s usual excellent offering. Most of these clues can be simply parsed, although they were not all that simple to get in the first place.

The radio this morning said that it was Debussy’s birthday, and knowing Phi’s musical leanings I half expected some reference to this, but I can see none. The checkers at the top and bottom might suggest something, but apparently no. My impression is that Phi started off with intentions for them but gave up and produced a ‘normal’ crossword instead. Probably there is something there, although Phi told us recently that his crosswords often contained no Nina.

Independent 8,682 by Hob

Wed August 13, 2014 at 10:56 pmTue August 12, 2014 at 10:34 am by John

As the laws of probability dictate, it sometimes happens that it falls to me, the most inappropriate person, to blog this sort of crossword. Hob has given us a crossword based on the 20 … Read more >>

Independent 8,677 by Dac

Wed August 6, 2014 at 10:29 am by John

An unremarkable crossword from Dac. By which I don’t mean that it is less than excellent, simply that it is just as usual. Nice clues, all so far as I can see perfectly sound.

I found this on the easy side for a Dac.

Independent 8672/Donk

Thu July 31, 2014 at 11:05 am by John

As is always the case with Donk a wonderfully imaginative crossword. One often struggles to understand how a clue works (in some cases here I’m afraid without complete resolution) and then says “My goodness, … Read more >>

Independent 8,667 by Phi

Fri November 9, 2018 at 9:30 amFri July 25, 2014 at 10:23 am by John

As always, a neat and pleasant crossword from Phi, with not a superfluous word so far as I can see (except perhaps in 4dn). I can’t quite see 16dn, but no doubt there will be plenty of suggestions.

Yesterday’s plea for fewer Ninas and more vanilla crosswords seems to have been answered very quickly. But a) if it is Nina-free then this is obviously a coincidence and b) I expect it isn’t really Nina-free. It seldom is with Phi.

Definitions underlined.