I too like entertaining and humorous crosswords, preferably with less convoluted preambles and more contemporaneous themes. This one was not the most accessible of puzzles (to say the least) but it was satisfying in the end – if only for my personal discovery that Gloucestershire had three crickters named Grace in their line up (and the fact that the scorecard for a game played around 150 years ago could be found on the internet). The subject matter was from my perspective obscure but the whole was satisfying – possibly quite in tune with many a stereotypical Telegraph reader. As to the puzzles ability to lure more people to this form of crossword, I suspect it was low to zero.

I’d have turned it down for Inquisitor, and suspect the Listener would have had serious reservations. I prefer crosswords to be entertaining, rather than an ordeal.

Thanks to twenceslas for surviving it!