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 8347/Radian

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Radian has given us a good crossword themed around this week’s big golfing event, The Open (at Muirfield, which has attracted adverse publicity because of its exclusion of women). At least I’m pretty … Read more >>

Independent 8342/Dac

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What does one ever say about Dac’s crosswords except that they are as always quite delightful? He endlessly manages to produce clues that are pithy and smooth (an adjective that is often used in … Read more >>

Azed 2143

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As one always gets with Azed, a thoroughly sound solving experience and one or two that baffle for ages. If this had been a competition crossword I wouldn’t have dared to submit 29dn … Read more >>

Independent 8337/Monk

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Monk has certainly not disappointed us. Here is a nice crossword with some lovely clues and well-concealed definitions and anagrams. Some of the answers were very simple anagrams yet this was not immediately … Read more >>

Independent 8332/Phi

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As we always have on Friday, a good offering from Phi. He has used as his theme the cringeworthy 13ac, which is a way of using an idea that is very simple but … Read more >>

Independent 8323/Radian

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A good, slightly tough but not very, workout from Radian today. Some of the clues (especially 18ac) are excellent. There are one or two which I’ve not yet parsed. Let’s hope the penny drops … Read more >>

Independent 8318/Dac

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As always a smooth operation from Dac. He has the ability to find the most straightforward parsing of a word, as witness the number of answers that are blogged here without comment. Which … Read more >>

Independent 8308/Phi

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Phi continues to produce nice Friday crosswords. He is always a bit tricky to get started on, then once one is going it all falls into place fairly quickly. The sign of good … Read more >>

Azed 2137/’Spot the Theme’

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Usually when I blog an Azed puzzle everything is straightforward enough — do the puzzle, do the blog by Monday evening and schedule it for appearance the following Sunday. This one was different: … Read more >>

Independent 8299/Radian

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Radian has given us a difficult but good and sound puzzle today. The theme is based on someone whose birthday I just looked up, but today isn’t some great anniversary. Perhaps it is, though, … Read more >>

Independent 8294/Dac

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The usual very nice crossword from Dac, although this one contained some words that I found a bit tricky, and two of the answers, although confirmed online, are not clear to me. Across … Read more >>

Independent 8284/Phi

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It isn’t giving anything away to the casual reader of this blog to say that all the across clues are of two words. I found it rather hard to get started on this, … Read more >>