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 7900/Monk

Thu February 9, 2012 at 12:08 pm by John

When I saw the rather strange grid, with six 15-letter words and only 22 answers, it immediately seemed that something was afoot, but I can’t see anything. Perhaps there is indeed something there, … Read more >>

Independent 7892/Anax

Tue January 31, 2012 at 11:46 am by John

Poor old Anax seems to be stuck with me at the moment and I probably don’t do justice to a beautifully-crafted crossword with some lovely clues. But this was tough. On several occasions I … Read more >>

Independent 7887/Crosophile

Wed January 25, 2012 at 11:36 am by John

A nice crossword from Crosophile today. He is doing a good job of filling the gap left by Dac on the last Wednesday of every month. Across 1 GIANTSCAUSEWAY — (casting)* au se{a}way … Read more >>

Independent 7882/Anax

Thu January 19, 2012 at 11:38 am by John

The usual outstanding crossword from Anax. Of course there are one or two about which I’m not quite sure, but that’s usual. There are some quite brilliant clues here. I’ve referred to one … Read more >>

Independent7877/Phi

Fri January 13, 2012 at 11:54 am by John

Unusually difficult for Phi today, I thought: on my first pass I solved far fewer clues than usual. Perhaps this was the result of my incompetence but one factor was the number of … Read more >>

Azed 2065

Sun January 8, 2012 at 10:40 pmSun January 8, 2012 at 12:02 am by John

After the hours I spent on the Christmas crossword two weeks ago, this one came as welcome relief. Not that it was easy: Azed never is, for me at any rate, but this … Read more >>

Independent 7868/Raich

Tue January 3, 2012 at 10:23 am by John

I posted the other day saying that in my opinion Raich’s puzzles were the easiest (but among the best) of those in the Indy. At first this statement seemed to be coming back … Read more >>

Independent 7863/Crosophile

Wed December 28, 2011 at 11:51 am by John

Crosophile has produced a very rare Wednesday crossword because Dac is having a well-earned rest, perhaps. I found this a little harder than the setter with whom I am always happiest, and no … Read more >>

Independent 7858/Morph

Thu December 22, 2011 at 11:16 am by John

Morph has produced a good crossword today, but I’ve never known him not to have a Nina and it is completely lost on me. All that effort and I didn’t even see it. … Read more >>

Independent 7853/Phi

Fri December 16, 2011 at 10:58 am by John

For some reason I was unusually quick on this crossword, solving over half the clues on an initial read-through, something that doesn’t often happen. So I would say what a nice crossword, wouldn’t … Read more >>

Independent 7844/Radian

Tue December 6, 2011 at 12:50 pm by John

Rather difficult today, I thought. It took me a while to get under way, but everything made sense eventually and there are some good clues here. The theme escaped me for a while. … Read more >>

Independent 7839/Tees

Wed November 30, 2011 at 1:50 am by John

Dac is presumably going to appear on Saturday, and instead of a fairly easy task I found that we have a setter with whom I usually have some trouble. But either I’m getting … Read more >>

Azed 2060 — Eightsome Reels

Sun November 27, 2011 at 12:02 am by John

Azed produces these specials on non-competition days from time to time. This is one of his regulars, none the worse for that. I found that it was possible to get started by solving … Read more >>

Independent 7834/Mordred

Thu November 24, 2011 at 11:09 am by John

A good crossword from Mordred today, although there was in my opinion too much checking of less than 50%, including two of the dreaded 2 out of 5s. Otherwise nothing very controversial I … Read more >>

Independent 7829/Phi

Fri November 18, 2011 at 11:16 am by John

One of those crosswords that repeatedly refers to a single clue, so one’s rate of progress depends on how quickly this clue is solved. 8 is quite easy, so the only difficulty was … Read more >>