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 7276/Dac

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As usual, what can one say, apart from perfect smooth surfaces and hardly anything to whine about? Dac’s crosswords never have those rough edges where words like ‘of’,  ‘with’ and ‘by’ are used … Read more >>

Independent 7272/Phi

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The usual good product from Phi. Several enormous anagrams — he must have been out with his Scrabble tiles. Across 1 ‘S A MOA — I think, although ‘s for it’s I’m not … Read more >>

Independent 7264/Dac

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The usual lovely thing from Dac. There’s really very little to say because everything fits so well and the clues are almost all clearly-constructed and faultless. Across 1 CO(MIC)OPER A 6 PEER — … Read more >>

Azed 1964

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It can hardly be that I am suddenly becoming quicker at these, but I found this unusually easy. Apart from the strangeness of some of the words, it presented no more problems than … Read more >>

Independent 7257/Mordred

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Mordred’s crosswords are for some reason unfamiliar to me, but this one contains plenty of very nice clues, one or two of which I found difficult.  There must be some sort of a Nina here, with the … Read more >>

Independent 7254/Phi

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The usual nice Phi, not too hard but one or two tricky ones.  I think the little Nina is just that 10ac refers to 11ac and 26ac refers to 25ac. Across 1 MO(V AB)LES — my … Read more >>

Independent 7246/Dac

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As always with Dac, a whole lot of transparently simple and elegant clues that leave one (me, at any rate) wondering how it was that they ever presented any problem. Yet some of … Read more >>

Independent 7229/Dac

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As always Dac’s clues are simple and elegant and have lovely surfaces. Time after time the immediate reaction is to say how lucky he’s been that everything has fallen out so neatly. But … Read more >>

Independent 7222/Punk

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Punk has clearly been very clever getting all those 13 24s in, but unfortunately I’m not the person to appreciate all his subtleties. Most of this seemed very good, but the odd one … Read more >>

Azed 1957

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As always with Azed apparently complete soundness in the wordplay of his clues; there are one or two places where I’m not sure how to explain this, but I suspect someone will do … Read more >>

Independent 7217/Dac

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Dac just goes on producing crosswords with clues that run so smoothly you think he must have been lucky. Well the only way he may have been lucky is in having the ability … Read more >>

Independent 7213/Phi

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As usual a pleasing efficient crossword from Phi. Not much to say really — it all fits together very well. Across 9 HER(M)ITAGE  — this museum 10 Y(E)ARN 11 ALGE(B)R{I}A 12 DATA SET … Read more >>

Independent 7204/Virgilius

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U.K. Prime Ministers: I think there are ten of them (Major, Eden, Canning, Aberdeen, Wilson, Derby, Melbourne, Brown, Heath, Grey), which explains 17dn. We’ve become used to Virgilius cleverly fitting them in and … Read more >>

Independent 7199/Dac

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I’d expected something to do with Remembrance Day, but no, Dac as usual and up to his usual standard; however, when is he ever not up to his usual standard? This seemed to … Read more >>