Never knowingly undersolved
Admin The announcement for this event has been updated.
The announcement for this event has been updated.
The Nottingham S&B announcement has been updated to include further details.
A message from John Henderson (Io, Enigmatist, Nimrod et al):
Here’s my annual spring announcement, regarding what will be our fourth autumn S&B weekend get-together in York, proposed dates: Friday evening 27th October to Sunday lunchtime 29th October. Much of what I said last year applies again:
Nottingham – 13th May 2017 London – 16th May 2017 Macclesfield – 7/8th July 2017 Manchester (Inquisitor) – 22nd July 2017 ………….York – 27/29th October 2017
08/07/17 – an update from John
All looks to be shaping up nicely for the event. As far as I can make out from postings and replies, our numbers will include all four members of the blogging team (from around 2:30pm), our proof-solving team and over a dozen compilers. With solvers, WAGs and HABs looking to be well-represented, it should be a pleasant mix.
Please follow these instructions:
1 Pre-noon: Buy the i.
2 Noon, enter pub. Grab a pint (or similar), a puzzle (or two) and a name badge.
3 Mingle, engage in solving, banter and revelry.
4 Go to 3.
I have reserved the downstairs area from noon until 7pm. See you there!
A message from John Henderson (Enigmatist):
I’d very much like to invite Inquisitor solvers to The Vine Inn in Kennedy Street in Manchester on July 22nd for a gathering to mark the publication of the 1500th puzzle in the Inquisitor series. As far as I’m aware, it will be the first such celebration of this puzzle which, over the years, has undergone several changes of name (and numbering!). All four of our regular bloggers will be in attendance, together with the members of the checking team and several compilers, so it will be an opportunity for solvers to find out more about behind-the-scenes goings-on.
The move to a new server at the beginning of last month has not been a success so we are moving again next Sunday afternoon. To avoid the possibility of them being lost, … Read more >>
26/6/17 – An update from Dean:
We don’t really do a final call for these things, but this is just a reminder to let me know if you intend to join your fellow solvers/setters in Macclesfield on 7th/8th July.
Friday evening includes musical entertainment in the form of a disco/funk/soul/Motown covers band, and on Saturday there will be a Q&A session featuring a trio of established editors/setters.
Timings:
Friday’s music will start at 9-ish but everyone is welcome from 5pm.
The Saturday Q&A will start around 2pm and continue for as long as people have questions!
The Snowgoose is open for breakfast from 8:30am, so Saturday is an all-dayer. The Q&A session is the only part which has a start time, but even this is movable depending on the vibe on the day.
The Snowgoose has an eclectic menu of its own (vegetarians are well catered for) but there are restaurant alternatives nearby. The venue – on Sunderland St – is also very close to Macclesfield railway station and a Travelodge; both within 5 minutes’ walk.
A message from Dean Mayer (Anax, Elkamere, Loroso)
As for last year’s debut event, this will be held at the lovely Alpine-themed Snowgoose Cafe on Sunderland Street. This is within 5 minutes’ walk of the railway station and Travelodge.
A gathering of crossword setters and solvers will take place in London, following on, as in previous years, from the annual lunch for Times setters. The venue will be The George, Borough High … Read more >>
There appears to be a problem with the server at the moment. Apologies if you are experiencing long page loading times and/or HTTP500 errors. I am pursuing this issue with the hosting company. … Read more >>
A further update: As indicated in my comment #7, this problem was caused by the addition of some text to one of the site’s configuration files last week in an attempt to mitigate … Read more >>
Update: The site has now moved to its new home. Unfortunately the downtime was not minimal (~1½ hours), my apologies for that. However, the new IP appears to have propagated quickly so I hope all is well. If you encounter any problems during the next few day please let me know either via email (admin{at}fifteensquared{dot}net) or by adding a comment below.
Update: I am now confident that the response time issue will be resolved before next Monday (the extended page loading times are most prevalent at the beginning of the week) because the hosting company has now accepted that other accounts on the shared server are affecting its performance.
A number of people have mentioned that, since Tuesday morning, they been unable to access the site or have needed to refresh a page before it displays correctly (i.e. the home page has all the latest post summaries and individual posts have all the comments). Some server modifications were made on Monday evening to try to rectify, or at least reduce, the response time issue but the hosting company has informed me that these should not have caused the access/display problems. If you continue to have access or display problems please let me know either via email (admin{at}fifteensquared{dot}net) or by adding a comment below. I would also be interested in receiving details of any problems experienced during the last couple of days.
I have received the following from Alan Conner (the blue italics are my additions):
“A quick heads-up to say that there’s a programme on BBC Two tomorrow (28/2/17 at 10pm) which I suspect will be of interest to all people 225. It’s a one-off episode of Inside No 9 (a 30 minute dark comedy): the lead character is a cryptic setter (Professor Squires) who is visited by a woman called Nina, and the whole thing is based around a puzzle. (Disclosure: I feature briefly and needlessly in the credits as “crossword consultant” or similar.)”
A post covering this puzzle will appear in due course. The scheduled blogger had to go out to a hospital appointment before he was able to finish his solve (well, it was a little … Read more >>