Quite an easy one today, though there are a couple of names that may have beeen unfamiliar to some. Thanks to Maskarade.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | COMMENT | Maiden with chaps in bed – ‘Here’s How’ in French (7) M (maiden [over], as in cricket) + MEN in COT |
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| 5 | PARSNIP | Vegetable to cut, cut and cut (7) PAR[e] (cut, cut) + SNIP (another cut) |
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| 9 | IGLOO | One grand by John Snow house (5) I + G + LOO (toilet, john) |
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| 10 | KILOMETRE | Juliet’s follower encountered sapper at a distance (9) KILO (follower of Julet in the NATO alphabet, though the correct spelling of the latter is “Juliett”) + MET + RE (Royal Engineer, sapper) |
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| 11 | WASHINGTON POST | March newspaper (10,4) Double definition – a March by John Philip Sousa, and the newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos, which disgracefully caved in to Trump during the 2024 presidential election by not endorsing any candidate |
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| 13 | ERNE | Sea eagle in summer nest (4) Hidden in semmER NEst |
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| 14 | TELEMANN | Composer who repairs the box, we’re told (8) Sounds (a bit) like “telly man” |
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| 17 | MEDIATOR | Press and TV nonsense repelled broker (8) MEDIA (press and TV) + reverse of ROT |
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| 18 | STOA | Walkway seen from Piraeus to Athens (4) Hidden in piraeuS TO Athens |
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| 21 | CORNISH PASTIES | Eats with chips.? No sir! Not normally oggies (7,7) (EATS CHIPS NO SIR)* |
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| 23 | LIE IN WAIT | New militia lacking its leader is deployed to ambush (3,2,4) Anagram of NEW [m]ILITIA |
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| 24 | PETAL | Piano, not in time, backing viola’s piece (5) P + reverse of LATE, with viola referring to the flower |
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| 25 | INDWELL | Forever remain popular, a touch dizzy and healthy (7) IN (popular) + D[izz]y+ WELL |
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| 26 | EXPRESS | Train former journalists (7) The former journalists are EX-PRESS |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | CRIB | Copy in bed (4) Double definition |
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| 2 | MY LEARNED FRIEND | Description of lawyer meanly inferred, possibly, by defendant, initially (2,7,6) (MEANLY INFERRED)* + D[efendant] |
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| 3 | EPOCHS | Record expressions of impatience for ages (6) EP (record) + OCHS (Scots expressions of impatience) |
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| 4 | TAKING | Receiving thanks, man! (6) TA (thank you) + KING (chess man) |
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| 5 | PALM TREE | Source of dates from Lampeter (4,4) LAMPETER* |
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| 6 | REMINDER | Memo – ‘What’s left when adult leaves?’ (8) REMAINDER less A |
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| 7 | NATIONAL THEATRE | Plays for England here – and the rest of us (8,7) This seems to be just a rather long barely-cryptic definition, though “plays for England” is trying to mislead us into thinking of sport |
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| 8 | PRETTY NEAR | Close partner, yet not so (6,4) (PARTNER YET)* |
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| 12 | VERMICELLI | Liver and lime mixed with cold pasta (10) Anagram of LIVER + LIME + C |
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| 15 | PATIENCE | Bunthorne’s Bride is game (8) Double definition – Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience is subtitled Bunthorne’s Bride , though in fact Bunthorne ends up still single; as others pair off, the company sings “Greatly pleased with one another/To get married they decide/Each of them will wed the other/Nobody be Bunthorne’s Bride!” |
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| 16 | MOTHBALL | Postpone work on aircraft delivery (8) MOTH (Gypsy Moth, early aeroplane) + BALL (delivery in cricket) |
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| 19 | WATTLE | What’ll suggest fencing material? (6) Sounds (exactly, this time) like “what’ll” |
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| 20 | STEP-UP | In haste, pupils advance (4-2) Hidden in haSTE PUPils |
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| 22 | PLUS | Additional luxurious fabric is trimmed (4) PLUS[h] |
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Apropos of nothing, there is slip-up hidden backwards in 20d.
I enjoyed TELEMANN
Thanks, both
I occasionally read on here of people claiming to have done a “write-in”, never thought I would do one of those! Today was my first, more or less. Liked wattle, although indwell was a jorum for me. Fun start to the day.
Crosswords like these feel purer. You can see the wordplay, appreciate the misdirection and the smoothness of the surfaces. I like a challenge too, but a puzzle like this is a joy.
I liked PARSNIP, KILOMETRE, PRETTY NEAR and MOTHBALL (also Tiger Moth)
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Very pleased to have one I could finish fairly quickly, after my long and largely fruitless struggles with Paul’s yesterday!
Dave @1: I entered “slip-up” thinking of “advance” as a reversal indicator. It got killed by a “T” crosser… Didn’t know MOTHBALL or WATTLE, had to look up the opera and oggies, – outside my GK… Pleasant solve overall; also liked TELEMANN.
For NATIONAL THEATRE, I thought of it as a double definition, the second part referring to something like “on a national stage”.
“Caved in to Trump by not endorsing any candidate” is funny (don’t want to start a political debate). Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Nice to be reminded of Bob Smithies, aka Bunthorne.
Didn’t know the word INDWELL, though the wordplay made the answer obvious. Otherwise not too much to detain you, though needed the crossers for CORNISH PASTIES and for PATIENCE, not being a G&S aficianado, so thanks to the blogger for the explanation and slight correction. Liked WASHINGTON POST. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew
Very non-spiky for a Wednesday.
Of course, I misled my self by putting Pushback for 16d. But that’s my failing, as usual.
On the other hand, 7d seemed so simple I wasn’t sure I had the right idea.
In the spirit of glass half full, at least it wasn’t a jigsaw 🙂
I liked PARSNIP
Cheers A&M
MCourtney @8. I was hoping it was Thursday today.
Good spot, Dave E @1, missed that.
I know it irks some newcomers when others crow how easy a puzzle was… so I won’t.
I enjoyed this very much, many thanks Maskarade.
LIE IN WAIT and PRETTY NEAR were my favourites. I am not a fan of ‘from’ as an anagram indicator in PALM TREE – I see no sense of disruption or change in the word and if the setter’s able to use it in this context then why not dispense with other indicators, shove in ‘from’ and let the solver work out for themselves which device is being used.
Thanks both
The bottom left held me up with several unfamiliar things – Bunthornes bride, oggies and indwell.
New for me: INDWELL.
Have seen Bunthorne in a cw context but never wondered about its origin and, like Tomsdad @7, not up with G&S [despite singing the judge part in T by J at school]. As for others today, nothing too gnarly here, although i did look up oggie, and dnk about wattle fences (here, settlers’ cottages had wattle-and-daub walls). All good, thanks EnA.
“oggies” were new to me (and I assume the extra full stop is a typo?) and I am another who is not up with the G&S works so clues about them are as opaque to me as cricket is to some others. “Washington Post” is one of those double definitions which is not really a double definition as the march was written for the newspaper and named after it. A snatch of it appears in Sondheim’s “Assassins” (in the song “How I saved Roosevelt” along with another Sousa piece) which made it familiar.
I thought “indwell” a very fair example of cluing a word the setter would know to be unfamiliar. Some lovely anagram spots and I too went for “slip up” with no clear parsing before the crossers put me right. I await a clearer explanation of National Theatre – all I have is a vague definition intended to mislead. Who are “the rest of us”?
All good fun, fair and clear and thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew
Not hard, but pleasant.
“Oggies” reminded me of the “oggie-man”, who used to sell them from a market stall in Barnstaple’s Pannier Market.
Incidentally, CORNISH PASTIES weren’t a rural delicacy. The were invented for tin-miners’ lunches. There was a potato/meat mixture at one end and something sweet – jam for instance – at the other. The miners held them by the ridge, which was then discarded as it would have been contaminated by the possibly toxic muck on their hands.
Layman@5. ‘The rest of us’ as in non-English UK nationals? Bit lame but only sense I can make of it
Enjoyable, but I needed to come here to clear up a few things. Oggies were unknown — and not in Collins, but Google found them. Unaware that the Scottish “och” signified impatience. WASHINGTON POST came quickly but I was unaware of the march. Never heard of STOA. Does “comment” mean “Here’s how” in French? Or am I missing something?
Sharing a house with a Cornishman fifty years ago came in handy – he cooked us a ‘tatty oggie’ – delicious it was too. And he told me muffin’s story @17 as well. I was another SLIP UP and needed help on G&S. Otherwise very smooth. Thanks, Maskarade and Andrew.
Lots of new words/people here – Oggies, Stoa, Erne, and Telemann all previously unknown but that’s part of the fun!
Living in Scotland I’m not sure I’ve actually heard any Scots use “Och” as a way to express impatience, but ultimately it doesn’t really matter.
Nice puzzle, a lot simpler to get into the mindset when compared to yesterday’s.
The surface of 9a refers to John Snow, ex England fast bowler.
Muffin @22 I thought the surface of 9a referred to the Game of Thrones character, Jon Snow, who is in the House of Stark (apparently, never watched it).
Geoff @19 We only had a STOA 3 weeks ago from Paul (at which point I didn’t know it either). You must have been away that day.
Martin, I only attempt Paul’s when I’m feeling courageous, and only if I’ve had plenty of Vegemite on my toast.
Almost a write-in, but I had to look up Bunthorne (I could only think of the setter going by that pseudonym).
Slightly irritated by 7d. Surely the NT serves the UK as a whole rather than specifically England, or am I wrong?
Since last week I am off work on Thursdays, so now I can do the puzzle in the morning. So I may come here more often on Thursdays! A few unknowns for me (oggies, indwell), but was familiar with “och”, as I have lived in Scotland now for nearly 20 years.
Geoff@19: “Comment” meand “How” in French. That was my FOI
It would have been a quick solve if I could remember how to spell TELEMANN which led to a failure today.
Very heavy on the anagrams today which made this otherwise fairly plain sailing. They were pretty neat though especially CoRNISH PASTIES.
Thanks Andrew and Maskarade
I’ve seen an amateur performance of “Patience”. I wouldn’t say it’s one of G&S’s best.
As I solved 15d I confused ‘bunthorne’ with ‘Bunbury’ from The Importance of Being Earnest. I could see (with a couple of crossers) that the ‘game’ was probably PATIENCE and just assumed that she must be mentioned somewhere in the play and bunged it in, thinking no more about it – until I came here and realised that I’d carelessly scored a dnf on a very gentle puzzle. Oh, well.
Thanks for the enjoyment Maskarade and for the blog, Andrew.
I’ve been a keen birder for 45 years and I’ve only ever seen ERNE in crosswords. Didn’t know the Sousa march so was baffled but bunged the POST in because it fitted. BTW, Sousa also wrote the Monty Python theme Liberty Bell which also gets played at US presidential inauguration.
Thanks both.
And, of course, Telemann, pronounced the German way, does not really sound like “Telly man”
Might be fastest finish for me. Thanks.
This would have been perfect as a Quiptic, or perhaps a Monday offering, but on a later weekday I would normally have hoped for more of a challenge.
I didn’t have time to contribute yesterday (touring Iceland, lucky me!) but I thought Paul’s puzzle yesterday was a delight, and was disappointed to see the quantity of whingeing in the comments here. There are setters that I don’t greatly enjoy, but I am usually content to keep my counsel.
Thanks, DutchGirl@26.
Poc@28, I took “and the rest of us” to mean the other UK nations.
Muffin@22
I well remember the fast-bowling John Snow, but my first thought was the physician who identified the source of cholera.
Defeated at the SW corner. Bunthorne’s Bride said nothing to me at all, NHO INDWELL and not entirely convinced by MOTHBALL (although I do understand the parsing set out here). So not as easy as our blogger thought, for me at least.
PostMark @13: with tongue firmly in cheek, I would offer that a butterfly comes from a chrysalis, and that’s pretty transformative, wouldn’t you say?
Offspinner @36
Yes – he removed the handle from the Broad Street pump.
Both the Game of Thrones character and the journalist (who has not been suggested for 9A) are Jon Snows rather than John so I think it is either the bowler or the physician – take your pick.
DutchGirl @31: In English I pronounce the name closer to “tellerman” so maybe a vote counter rather than a TV repairman (if such things even exist these days). I appreciate that in German the first vowel is different too, so it would even be a passable match for “tailorman”! But I have learned that all homophones have to be taken with a pinch of salt – they are more like puns than actual homophones – and when Paul is involved often to be taken with an entire salt cellar.
Bodycheetah@9 – well said!
Crispy@10 – so was I!
(Five minutes of my time I’ll never get back … and after yesterday’s joyous Paul, nothing makes sense anymore!)
Fairly straightforward but enjoyable solve. I liked the telly man (well, that’s how I pronounce it although the ODE seems to like tail a man [or tailorman]), the good surface and anagram for MY LEARNED FRIEND and another anagram for PRETTY NEAR.
Thanks Maskarade and Andrew.
Crispy@10, Lucky me, I’ve had a pleasant surprise.
Um. Plays for ENGLAND at the NATIONAL theatre?
That said, I did enjoy seeing “This England” there, not least as there were clearly a lot of people in the audience who had come for the football and it made for a livelier audience.
A fun crossword with some words that were new to me but obtainable from clues and crossers.
poc@25: the National Theatre in London is funded by Arts Council England as its flagship theatre for England, while Scotland and Wales have their own national theatres, funded by their own Arts Councils, and the Lyric Theatre in Belfast is the unofficial national theatre of Northern Ireland. Like Eoink@35, I assumed “the rest of us” to be the other UK countries.
I though this was a very fun puzzle from Maskarade, and my brain needed a rest after the wonderful and ingenious offering from Paul yesterday. Many thanks to M and A.
AllyGally@45 I’ll concede the point about “the rest of us”, though also note that there is no state funded Welsh National Theatre any more, which is why Michael Sheen is having to create an independent version.
Poc@25 sorry I missed your original point, I was also a bit miffed.
Very enjoyable. Favourite was PARSNIP. Had never come across INDWELL before but very clearly clued. Thank you to Maskarade, and Andrew for the blog.
A pleasant puzzle. Favourites 5a PARSNIP (except for the missing Oxford comma), 11a WASHINGTON POST (nice and concise, took me longer to solve than it should have!), 12d VERMICELLI (quite the recipe!), 2d MY LEARNED FRIEND (I have a small role in Agatha Christie’s “Witness for the Prosecution”, so I’m hearing this one a lot lately), 8d PRETTY NEAR (nice smooth surface), 16d MOTHBALL (ditto)
A rare early start for me, and a fairly early finish too. I nearly misled myself by thinking that ‘oggies’ might have been one of the names for the marbles used in school playground games, but a B in 20d didn’t look very promising so I waited for some crossers and then cracked the anagram.
I thought ‘expressions of impatience’ for EPOCHS was clever – didn’t John Laurie say “och!” quite a lot in Dad’s Army?
Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
G and S were never my thing, so stumped by 15d and the intersecting rather awkward word INDWELL. Also, surprisingly didn’t have the PATIENCE to twig that C-I- had to be CRIB. Apart from those, enjoyable and plain sailing for me today, even if a DNF…
Nice to learn what Oggies were, too.
Maybe some have heard of an indwelling catheter?
Thanks, Masquerade and Andrew. Big tick for PARSNIP: generally speaking for me, the shorter the clue the better, so I liked this puzzle a lot. I think INDWELL is more often used by evangelical Christians than anybody else: the Holy Spirit does it in true believers.
I started so confidently with my foi, Copy in bed = TWIN! That meant the crossers for 1a could only yield “torment”, which of course I could not parse. That caused some…er…torment. Indwell a fairly defined Jorum for me too.
Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
When I saw oggies, my first thought was that we’re looking for a term that is also a canine missing its first letter, but of course, no. So figured out the anagram and checked.
The other misdirection I played with was STARK. Since star and one are both synonyms of ace, and grand can be K (1000), you could make a (weak) case that it answers “one grand”. But again, no.
I was wondering, what is a write-in, exactly? In all these years, I’ve never seen a definition. Is it solving each clue at first glance without the need for crossers, as the name implies, or just a quick solve with a bunch of those? Tx
“M,James Bond here.Mission successful today.I cracked the pesky code in 30 minutes.I’ll have my Martini now,shaken not stirred”
DrW@55 I was wondering too. For me it’s a clue that takes longer to read than to solve.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who stumbled to find a better parsing for NATIONAL THEATRE. But the rest went in OK at a fairly gentle stretch for a Thursday.
I might add, in endorsement of Andrew’s remarks re WASHINGTON POST, that I cancelled my sub to that once-august publication over a year ago – as did many others. It used to be one of the best newspapers across the Pond – but alas no more!
With CORNISH PASTIES, I felt that the word ‘oggies’ must surely be right – but only dimly recalled. It appears to originate from a Cornish word ‘hoggan’. For anyone familiar with the word the clue must have been a snip.
MY LEARNED FRIEND is the set phrase which should be used in the House of Commons by a member, when referring to another member in the same party who happens to also be in the legal profession. For instance, “As my honourable and LEARNED FRIEND the member for ——- has remarked…” Formality rules UK!
Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
I assumed John Snow to be the Broad Street physician – mostly because I happen to be reading a book about him this week. The pub in Broad Street (the only building still standing from the days of the cholera outbreak) is now named after him.
I found this pretty straightforward, though there was quite a bit of GK needed and I didn’t know WASHINGTON POST was a Sousa march. I was another who spotted SLIP UP before STEP UP and had to backtrack.
I’ve heard a lot of OGGIES lately – went to watch the Great River Race, a 21-mile rowing marathon on the Thames which usually sees a lot of Cornish pilot gig crews come to London to compete. It’s a tradition to perform the Oggy-oggy-oggy/Oi-oi-oi chant at every bridge they pass under, all the way from Docklands to Richmond.
Genuinely, the first Maskarade I have engaged with both successfully and enjoyable – not sure why, but a delight. Many thanks to all
Gladys@59…strangely, I was out for a drink yesterday evening with a neighbour across our street. He too had been in a boat following the rowers in that race last week, but never mentioned hearing the Oggi-oggi etc chants as the Cornish crews went under each bridge. Otherwise I would have known the answer to 21ac straight away.😁
Another G and S ignoramus here. As a result, knowing that there once was a setter called Bunthorne, spent too long trying to make a clue for bride.
I finished this puzzle in bed last night — almost never happens. (A bit of a disappointment — I like having a few leftovers to chew on over breakfast.)
Do they still call opposing counsel “My learned friend” in court? Apparently they still do in Parliament, which I didn’t know.
“The Oggie Man” is a song by one of England’s finest songwriters, Cyril Tawney. I’d give a link, but there doesn’t seem to be one in the upper line, so I’ll suggest you google “The Oggie Man” and play one of the offerings, especially the one sung by Cyril himself or the one sung by June Tabor. It’s a sad song of lost love and changing times.
Andrew, re the “homophones” at 14a TELEMANN and 19d WATTLE, I would argue that, since the majority of such words are not exact homophones for all English speakers, it is more accurate to characterize all these clues as puns or other aural wordplay. That way, individual accents, ways of speech, etc. become irrelevant to the interpretation of the clues. Just because many people pronounce the h in “what’ll” doesn’t make the clue flawed.
Thanks both.
AI tells me De Havilland first produced the Moth aircraft in 1925. Subsequent variants were given the names of different species, such as Tiger Moth.
I’m not bothered when convention goes out of the window and puzzles of random difficulty appear across the week. This was not hard, but that’s a testament to Maskarade’s skill as he is also capable of setting tremendously difficult puzzles. In a very nice set of clues, my favourites were MY LEARNED FRIEND and PARSNIP.
Valentine@63 I don’t know about the UK, but in Canada I’ve attended some tribunal hearings where the two lawyers called each other “my friend”
[Valentine @63
I’m pleased you reminded me about Cyril Tawney. Do you know The grey funnel line?]
Don’t mind the wind or the rolling sea … of course I know The Grey Funnel Line. Well known among my folkie friends, who will produce lovely harmonies any time somebody starts to sing it.
Valentine @69
I had known the song for some time before I realised that the Grey Funnel Line was the Royal Navy!
I was hoping there was a part of NATIONAL THEATRE that we couldn’t see, but alas. Still a very nice puzzle. Mark me down for having assumed John Snow of broad st fame, but perhaps only because I don’t know the cricketer.
I’m not the only one confused about what day it is, if Valentine@63 finished it in bed last night?
Crispy@10 it’s Thursday here too.
Nice puzzle, confidence restored, thAnks to Maskarade
Always a pleasure to see Maskarade set a normal 225, and when he does he is usually in more gentle mode than at bank holidays ! A pleasant solve, IGLOO and KILOMETRE my favourites I think. Like many of us I had to look up “oggies”, but the solution was obvious once I had. The reference to “John Snow” initially set me thinking of Game of Thrones rather than cricket, despite the different spelling – I soon realised the error of my ways. Thanks to Maskarade and Andrew.
The two of us were in a production of PATIENCE last spring. (It was the fifth time around, as part of the rotation of The Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company here in Minneapolis.) So that answer wasn’t a problem. we did have to Google “Oggie” though.
Valentine previous
I wonder if the Oggie Man on Barnstaple Market was before or after the Cyril Tawney song. Google tells me that the song dates to 1959, but that still leaves it either way for my memory (I do remember 1959 well – it was the hottest, driest summer before 1976 and 2025).
Thanks for the favourable reception of my puzzle today. So why not order a copy of my All Squared book now which has recently been advertised on these pages.
It has already received plaudits from crossword editors and established compilers alike.
I am going backwards.
I could only solve 5 clues, and I used the check button liberally.
Thank you for the explanations.
PS – 76 Maskarade….is your book suitable for slow learners?
5a – how does PARE = CUT, CUT?
25a – how do you know only to take D from dizzy?
Steffen — PAR(e) = a cut version of “pare”, a word for “cut.”
“A touch” means just a little of D(izzy).
Chardonneret@72 The puzzle hits the Guardian site at 7pm my time (Eastern US), midnight in the UK. So I print it off and take it to bed. As far as I know it’s still Thursday.
Steffens @ 76
I
The book features some purely definitional and then easy cryptics as I was starting out as schoolboy compiler and I achieved success with puzzles in the Birmingham Mail especially.
Thank you
Maskarade @ 80 back in the day 20+ years ago when we lived in Bham we frequently solved The Bham Post prize puzzle, sent the solution in and three times won the Oxford Dictionary of English. This suggested to us that few correct solutions were submitted!
@Gladys Should you be interested the original Broad Street Pump has been saved and is on display for the public to view in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
C&R @82
If you mean the Autolycus puzzle in the Birmingham Post, then I agree. It was the most difficult series which I knew of and I won the competition on a number of occasions. I may be incorrect but I believe that Roger Squires compiled the puzzles.
C&R @82
If you mean the Autolycus puzzle in the Birmingham Post, then I agree. It was the most difficult series which I knew of and I too won the competition on a number of occasions. I may be incorrect but I believe that Roger Squires compiled the puzzles.
The apparently fiendish Autolycus was also the gentle Rufus? Will wonders ever cease?