duncanshiell

Born in 1948. I retired from full-time work in May 2007, after 37 years with Ordnance Survey and associated bodies and now have time to devote to crosswords, something not available for many years. Product of 17 years in the Scottish education system, but lived overseas or in southern England for virtually all of the time thereafter. I moved back to Scotland in 2010. Regular road runner and recently returned to orienteering and golf after a 35 year gap. Developed interested in cryptic crosswords in the mid 1960s (Scotsman, Sunday Express skeleton), but working overseas and then raising a family, meant dropping out of crossword solving for about 30 years. Now a regular solver of Times, Guardian, Independent, Inquisitor, Listener and Magpie crosswords. Reasonably regular finisher of the first four. Started blogging in late 2007. Any solving ability far outweighs any clueing ability. Krypton Factor contestant 1983; eliminated in the first round, but the obstacle course finish made good television!

Guardian 25,397 / Crucible

by

The appearance of a Crucible puzzle in The Guardian today was flagged in the Fifteensquared comments on yesterday’s Independent puzzle from Radian. Crucible is The Guardian incarnation of Radian. Perhaps compilers could tell … Read more >>

Azed 2044

by

This is the first AZED puzzle I have blogged.  Azed was my introduction to barred puzzles many years ago, but I drifted away as I began to have a go at Listeners and … Read more >>

Guardian 25,326 / Araucaria

by

This was another eclectic offering from Araucaria, with its mix of literary allusions, foreign language, science and geography, all interwoven with the main theme. We were told that the four entries were unoficially … Read more >>