All Shook Up by Henri – Nottingham S&B puzzle – 7 June 2025

Henri (aka Rob T) has kindly provided a puzzle for the enjoyment of attendees at the 2025 Nottingham S&B, although unfortunately he couldn’t be there himself, to receive the bouquets (or brickbats?!) from said attendees. For those who weren’t at the event, there is a copy <here> for you to download and solve before reading the blog, if you so wish…

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Best Sellers by Fez

It’s Joyce again. As time was against us, I did not solve the puzzle before blogging so I cannot comment on how difficult or easy the puzzle was. There were a couple of words that I didn’t know – one of which I would have struggled to solve from the clue.

 

Click HERE for a pdf of the puzzle.

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Write the real title here by Komornik

After scheduling this blog, I decided that I had to come back and add something –  it is our 800th blog on 225!

It’s Joyce blogging again. I have to admit that I did not attempt to solve the puzzle before blogging. Last year Komornik set a puzzle which took us ages to unravel and we had to cheat at the end. We found many of the clues were challenging to say the least. As Bert and I have ended up blogging five puzzles between us, I decided to look at the parsings for each clue as I progressed through the blog and work out whether I would have had any chance of solving them.

So…. here’s the false title that Komornik submitted with the puzzle plus the preamble:

Puzzle that conveys vital information, contrarily expressed as a number of letters (for want of a proper title) by Komorník

All seven-letter entries (one thematically always found abbreviated) and 40% of five-letter entries exemplify what has often entertained us (three words, ignoring an article). All other clues contain a surplus word, whose initial letters define the theme. Solutions include a trade name and several very well-known proper names. You may, if you wish, write the real title here:

and the puzzle…

S & B 2024 Komorník

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S&B 2024 – another by A. Bailey

Adrian Bailey (not sure if he has a setting monicker) has kindly sent a couple of puzzles for the York S&B meet, even though he couldn’t make the event himself. This one could be said to be ‘on the money’… (For anyone who wasn’t there but would like to try the puzzle before reading the blog, it should be at this link here)

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