Sad news

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I’ve just heard from Grant Baynham’s partner, Moira, that Grant passed away last week.

Grant blogged the FT puzzle every Tuesday. As far as I can see, this was his first blog published in May 2016: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2016/05/17/financial-times-15242-by-neo/

Here’s Grant’s mini bio from Fifteensquared:

Grant Baynham
My father and I were G&S fans, singing along with the D’Oyly Carte LPs and attending local performances. One evening we saw “Patience”. The next day, Dad showed me a clue in the Telegraph: ‘Ability to endure operetta (8)’. Thus it began.

I solve the Independent and Guardian most mornings. On Tuesdays I blog the Financial Times, one of the more straightforward week-day puzzles. Mycroft and I may have a crack at Enigmatic Variations on weekends. I recently won a Women’s Institute Monthly Magazine cryptic prize, a valuable and life-changing electric mountain bike. This quietened my partner’s grumps about obsession and postage costs.

For 35 years I’ve worked as a musician and broadcaster including a four-year stint as one of Esther Rantzen’s ‘Autocuties’ on “That’s Life!”. My USP is as a pianistic guitarist and writer of elaborate comic songs. Many of these have (I hope) unexpected twists which I now think of as ‘ninas’.

24 comments on “Sad news”

  1. Very sorry to hear this. I met Grant at a crossword do a few years back and talked crosswords and music with him over a beer. Nice guy with a good sense of humour, great musician and a good blogger, too. Condolences to those close to him.

  2. This is sad news indeed. Grant’s blogs were something I looked forward to very much as they had real personality; often witty, always insightful. I have learned so much from him in the relatively short time I’ve been solving FT grids and am grateful.
    He will be very much missed by all of us here.
    Sympathies to his nearest and dearest.
    RIP Grant Baynam.

  3. Sad news indeed. I can’t recall meeting Grant at any S&B events although our paths might have crossed at one. But his blogs of the FT were always well-constructed and, particularly if we’d failed to parse something (or failed altogether), helpful. We shall miss him.

  4. I do remember meeting Grant in Macclesfield I think just before he started here. Another gone too soon.

  5. That’s very sad news. I never met Grant – I just missed him at one of the Macclesfield meets: I wasn’t at the Friday night music do and he couldn’t make the Saturday because he had a gig. I always enjoyed reading his witty blogs, though – the last one just a couple of weeks ago. I echo Diane’s thoughts and add my sympathies to hers.

  6. Very sad news indeed – his blogs were always excellent – pretty sure I never met him – was not able to go to any of the Macclesfield S&Bs. Sympathies to his relatives and friends.

  8. A sad loss indeed. He was an excellent blogger who always had something constructive to say. Condolences to his family. The FT solvers on 15squared will miss him. I learnt a lot from his comments.
    RIP.

  9. Very sorry to learn this sad news. His blogs were a model of fairness, and he will be sorely missed here. RIP.

  10. Very sorry to hear this out of the blue.
    I’m probably not the only one who thought ‘*that* Grant Baynham?’ when seeing his name at the top of a blog for the first time, and I was delighted to find out it was. His meticulous and good-humoured reviews were a pleasure to read.

  12. I’m very sad to hear this and will miss Grant’s regular contribution here which had become a constant of the week for me. Grant came across as a very nice bloke and his blogs invariably contained a spice of wit and style. It’s ironic that this has been announced on Grant’s FT day at Fifteensquared with Hamilton, one of his great sparring partners over the years, as the setter.

    My condolences to Grant’s family and friends.

  19. As one who is usually published in the FT on a Tuesday, so I would usually be blogged by Grant. I was very sorry to read the news, and my sincere condolences to his family and friends.

  20. I am sorry to hear this, Grant’s blogs were always clear and well seasoned with wit, and I particularly liked his willingness to state when he was not so familiar with some term or usage: it did not happen that often, but had the effect of giving me confidence that the many gaps in my own knowledge need not be an insurmountable barrier to solving. Condolences to all who knew him.

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