John

Born 1946. Since retiring (maths teacher) have spent an increasing amount of time on crosswords, something that was impossible before – am not in the sub-ten minutes league and probably never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Have been doing Azed monthly for some years and entering his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, have had 36 VHCs and 138 HCs — yes, I keep a record, sad isn't it) but not enough for my liking. I've set a few crosswords: five in Oxford Today, a few on Derek Harrison's website, and five in The Independent, under the name Vernon. Also play a lot of chess and golf, although as I age I'm getting weaker at both.

Everyman 4,108

Sun July 20, 2025 at 1:53 pmSun July 20, 2025 at 12:30 am by John

A nice crossword from Everyman with all the usual features, which have been coloured. I imagine poor old Everyman every week thinking “what’s a long word or phrase which has the same number of letters as another one and rhymes or has some other connection with it?” and to manage to find a suitable pair is quite impressive. Many thanks to a friend of mine who explained two where I was lost.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophone, anagram, hidden, reversal, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words — and there aren’t many of them, a sign of good setting — in green.

Everyman 4,104

Sun June 22, 2025 at 11:05 pmSun June 22, 2025 at 12:47 am by John

I thought this was rather harder than usual, but perhaps that was because I was having dreadful trouble with my mouse. The blog took longer than it usually does. The usual rhyming pair, the self-referential clue and the ‘primarily’ clue are all as usual and coloured in the diagram. Some nice clues, one or two that I don’t understand, and one or two mild criticisms.

Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Indicators (homophone, reversal, anagram, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Azed No. 2,763 plain – competition puzzle

Sun June 8, 2025 at 12:42 am by John

The usual pleasant crossword from Azed. I have one or two slight questions about things but no doubt they will be explained.

Definitions in italics, underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.

Everyman 4,100

Sun May 25, 2025 at 12:57 am by John

A pleasant crossword this week from Everyman. No great problems and any (only very occasional and slight) grumble is mentioned in the blog. Nearly 30% of the answers are four-letter words, which are often (but not in this case) tricky; not perhaps the best of grids.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, of which there were more than usual, reversals, anagrams, first letters, juxtapositions, etc.) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Azed No. 2,757 plain

Sun April 27, 2025 at 12:50 am by John

This will be the last Azed for The Observer under present management, a plain that is probably on the easier side. Let’s hope that his crosswords can continue in their present form.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.

Everyman crossword No 4,096

Sun April 27, 2025 at 12:39 am by John

I think this is one of Everyman’s better efforts. There are some very nice clues and the surfaces (except for one of them, which I grumble about in the blog) are on the whole tight and sensible.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (homophones, juxtaposition, missing letters, reversals, anagrams, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Everyman 4,092 by Everyman

Sun March 30, 2025 at 1:14 pmSun March 30, 2025 at 12:05 am by John

A pleasant Everyman, of around medium difficulty in my opinion, except for the odd clue where we are treated to the sort of thing Everyman meets when doing The Listener crossword. All the usual trademarks, which are coloured (in random colours, simply those I thought were prettiest) in the grid.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, hidden, homophone, insertion, reversal etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated *(like this) or (like this)*. Link-words in green.

Azed No. 2,751 Plain

Sun March 16, 2025 at 12:16 am by John

A pleasant enough crossword from Azed this week, with no major comments to make, except that it has always struck me that his signposting of archaisms/obsolete words might be more consistent. We usually get things like ‘once’, ‘of old’, ‘no longer’ etc, but not always. Chambers tells us that the word is archaic or whatever but we are left to solve the clue without being aware of this.

Definitions underlined, in crimson. Anagram indicators in italics.

Everyman 4,088 by Everyman

Sun March 2, 2025 at 12:42 am by John

Everyman seems to have listened to us, or at any rate to someone, because this is a more straightforward crossword than some of his earlier ones. No major criticisms: perhaps the surfaces could sometimes have been honed a bit, but generally I think it’s pretty good and sound.

Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, hidden, homophone, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Everyman 4,084 by Everyman

Sun February 2, 2025 at 1:29 amSun February 2, 2025 at 12:47 am by John

Generally sound clues this week, usually fairly straightforward, but Everyman hasn’t been able to resist making one or two of them a bit tricky to disentangle.

Azed No. 2,745 – Plain

Sun February 2, 2025 at 12:17 am by John

Pleasant crossword from Azed this week. I didn’t think it was all that difficult by the usual standards, but would have appreciated a bit more guidance for words that are not in Chambers.

Everyman 4,080 by Everyman

Sun January 5, 2025 at 12:09 am by John

A nice crossword from Everyman. The clues are neat, often imaginative, and not tortuous, as they have sometimes been.

Azed No. 2,739 Plain

Sun December 22, 2024 at 12:51 pmSun December 22, 2024 at 12:59 am by John

A pleasant but not a terribly demanding Azed before the trials of next week’s Christmas competition. There are unusually several mistakes, which makes one feel that he’d have benefited from an editor, who could have noticed them. But who’d be Azed’s editor? What he says goes, and it’s amazing that for well over 50 years every week we’ve had a nice crossword with very few mistakes. I shall be surprised if next week we find any, even though it will no doubt be highly complicated.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.

Everyman 4,076 by Everyman

Sun December 8, 2024 at 12:35 pmSun December 8, 2024 at 12:42 am by John

Pretty difficult this week I thought — I often solve Everyman when I’m not blogging and it can be far easier than this. Why do I always get the tough ones? The usual Everyman trademarks are there and coloured above. It seemed there were more cases than usual of there being a need for explanation.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, reversal, hidden, homophone etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

Everyman 4,072 by Everyman

Wed November 13, 2024 at 3:23 amSun November 10, 2024 at 12:31 am by John

I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this very much. It was incredibly difficult; I used electronic aids quite freely once I became stuck, and some of the clues seemed rather clunky and impenetrable, but that’s probably just my incompetence. No doubt in due course all will be explained. (On the other hand one or two I thought were very good.)