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Time Pressure by Mr Magoo

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Time Pressure by Mr Magoo

A period off work led me to resuscitate a long-considered idea to apply to appear on Countdown. An emailed entry form soon led to an invitation to attend a local ‘audition’ for the show, and when that came round I found myself in a room with five other hopefuls, tackling six word rounds, two numbers rounds and three conundra.

I was annoyed to find I had missed a maximum on the first round EEPICETRS (more…)

The Times Crossword’s 80th Anniversary

Sunday, January 31st, 2010

February 1st 1930 saw the publication of the first Times Crossword, and this event is commemorated at least twice in the media this year. Firstly the Times is publishing three historical puzzles to intrigue its readers, from 1940, 1960 and 1980, and then The One Show, a daily BBC documentary magazine, is looking at the mystery of the cryptic crossword. (more…)

Duplicity by Arden - the setter’s secret revealed

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Starting from the idea of the same clues and same grid producing different solutions in different bases, the initial question was - how (more…)

Fashioning an Abraxas stone – A Setter’s Blog by Harpy

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

This puzzle was developed by the two of us – Charybdis (C) and Ploy (P) – entirely by email. In fact, over 50 emails were exchanged between conception and submission!
It started when P chanced upon the ABRAXAS entry in Chambers. (more…)

Crossword by Chorybdis — a setter’s log

Monday, February 2nd, 2009

Providing an almost respectable excuse to seek out and digest arcane information is a seldom recognised benefit of solving and setting thematic crosswords. A crucial step for the setter is assessing interesting titbits as possible themes, and while with sufficient guile any subject can be worked up thematically, some topics seem to cry out for such treatment. The ogham (or ogam) theme sits in the latter category (more…)

The Puzzle With No Name

Friday, January 30th, 2009

The editors created a puzzle for the annual Magpie party. If you want to have a go at it, download the puzzle with no name here.

The solution is also available.

Greenland… Land of Magpies by Chris Boyd

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

Greenland: where better to escape from everyday life? Or so I thought in early August, as I looked forward to a group walking holiday in the Tasiilaq area (more…)

Mind Your Ps and Qs – Oyler’s Blog

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Thanks to the clairvoyant genius of Mark and Simon in publishing the Quadratum series of puzzles I have the dubious honour of introducing Magpie solvers to the delights of Sudoku before it was popularised in The Times. (more…)

So Near and Yet So Far by Ten-Four - Setting the Scene

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

This puzzle came about because I was lucky enough to be in Washington DC on business earlier this year. Whilst there I spent a free afternoon at the Smithsonian (more…)

Mark Goodliffe’s Times Crossword Championship Experience

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

This narrative is pretty close to the thought processes involved during the final of The Times Crossword Championship 2008. (more…)