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 7599 / Dac

by

The usual smoothly-operating crossword from Dac today. Just when you think the great man has slipped you find that in fact he hasn’t and that you’re the one who is at fault. For … Read more >>

Independent 7594/Dac

by

After what seems to have been a succession of highly complicated and clever crosswords recently, it’s quite nice to get back to something vanilla. But what vanilla. The very best you can get. … Read more >>

Independent 7589/Phi

by

As always with Phi, a good crossword with no apparent weaknesses, all the clues utterly sound and satisfactory. No particular clue stood out for me, but that is often the case with Phi: … Read more >>

Azed 2018

by

Azed’s Plains are usually done at one sitting, even though that sitting can be very long indeed. This time. however, there were several clues that gave me trouble, both in getting them in … Read more >>

Independent 7575/Dac

by

As usual a lovely crossword from Dac, who week after week shows that it is not necessary to have difficult clues, simply ones that are perfectly formed. In fact the clues are so … Read more >>

Independent 7565/Phi

by

As always, a well-constructed and satisfactory crossword from Phi. The only clue that defeats me, at any rate from the parsing point of view, is 1ac. Probably utterly straightforward. Can’t see a Nina, … Read more >>

Azed 2012

by

We have had a plethora of Azed Specials recently, caused no doubt by things occurring at inconvenient times: first we has TWO THOUSAND, which was in effect the October competition and celebrated Azed’s … Read more >>

Independent 7551/Dac

by

Dac goes on and on, week after week producing crosswords full of clues with smooth surfaces and apart from one or two very small niggles below, a high standard throughout. I found this … Read more >>

Independent 7542/Phi

by

The usual high quality crossword from Phi. I found this a little harder than usual, but have no excuse for doing so: all the answers were perfectly obvious once you had them. I … Read more >>

Independent 7528/Phi

by

Phi on a Wednesday indeed. Something is afoot. No doubt Eimi or someone will amuse us on Friday with a theme that we can’t predict. And what Dac is doing I can’t think, … Read more >>