John's avatarJohn

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.

Independent 8222/Dac

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Sorry this is a bit late, at any rate later than it would have been. The online crossword when I switched on around 9.00 was yesterday’s Tees, so I had to go out … Read more >>

Independent 8217/Eimi

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There I was when I found a word repeated in the answers thinking that Eimi had been a bit repetitive, and quite failing to realise that today has a special meaning (although, to … Read more >>

Independent 8203/Anax

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Yes I was right yesterday when I posted and said that I suspected the Raich crossword was easier than whatever I was going to be blogging today,  but although this was on the tricky side all … Read more >>

Independent 8198/Dac

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The usual excellent puzzle from Dac. No problems that I could see — some might object to his use of r = recipe, but that seems to me to be quite OK — … Read more >>

Azed 2119

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The usual excellent crossword from Azed and as usual I won’t give detailed descriptions of all the very unusual words, in the knowledge that anyone interested enough in this crossword to look here … Read more >>

Independent 8193/Rorschach

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A crossword today from Rorschach that I at any rate found particularly hard, not helped by its thrice vanishing into the ether so that I had to restart.  Some of the clues are … Read more >>

Independent 8188/Phi

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As always on Fridays a good puzzle from Phi.  More than the usual number of words were at least unfamiliar, and in one case I had to cheat and click ‘Reveal’, but the clueing was … Read more >>

Independent 8179/Raich

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A well-constructed crossword from Raich which for some reason I found a bit harder than usual.  Can’t see why now, because the clues all seem to be straightforward.  On this particular day you’d think that … Read more >>

Independent 8174/Anax

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A nice crossword from Anax themed around 16ac and 6dn that so far as I can see, apart from the fact that 16ac is often a Christmas show, has no connection with the season. … Read more >>

Independent 8170/Scorpion

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A very good crossword from Scorpion today, full of excellent clues, and hardly anything to quibble about. It also has a theme of which I approve — it is possible to solve the crossword … Read more >>

Azed 2113

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Again a lovely sound crossword from Azed. I won’t waste time by copying out Chambers but as usual will confine myself to trying to explain how the clues work, something that wasn’t always … Read more >>

Independent 8156/Scorpion

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A crossword with a theme that will not be approved of by everyone, since 8/12 should in some people’ s views be written out of history, certainly not given unwarranted publicity. Not perhaps … Read more >>