Phi Crosswords

phionline.net.nz

  • About me
  • Types of cryptic crossword
    • Solving crosswords
    • Outlets
  • APEX Crosswords
  • My other puzzles
    • BBC Music Magazine crosswords
    • Beelzebub Crosswords
    • Church Times puzzles
    • Enigmatic Variations
    • The European crossword
    • Independent Inquisitor
    • Independent: newspaper
    • Jumbos
    • Magpie
    • Other puzzles
  • Setter’s blogs
  • Book Reviews
  • Cats

And perhaps the first hints of winter

June 11, 2023 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

Some frosts this week – to be repeated in the days to come. We have gathered what must be the last of the feijoas (though I’ve said that before), and we still do not have the heating repaired, since it has proved impossible to get the parts delivered from Auckland in under a week. The ongoing chill and damp has set off bursts of bronchitis in both of us.

I hadn’t expected to get a puzzle up this weekend, but I have squeezed in a Church Times puzzle from 2008. 

There was a puzzle on Derby Day in The Guardian which packed an impressive number of names of past Derby winners into grid and clues – and it all passed me by completely, despite my having solved a few Derby-themed puzzles over the years. But the puzzle did it all without requiring knowledge of the theme (except for a slightly odd clue about The Scarlet Pimpernel, which made little sense without thematic awareness). That’s what should happen with themes, of course (let alone themes of racecourse), so all was good.

We’re back to bullet points for the plethora of puzzles coming up in the next fortnight:

  • June 13: Pangakupu in The Guardian
  • June 14: Pedro in The Times Quick Cryptic
  • June 16: regular Independent puzzle
  • June 16: Church Times 
  • June 23: regular Independent puzzle
  • June 24: an Inquisitor called Carte Blanche a Trois

And somewhere around June 24, I shall be here again. Meanwhile, pending heating restoration, I shall go and join the rest of the household huddled in a single room.

Share
Tweet
Pin

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Phi RSS feed

  • RSS - Posts

About me

This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

Blogroll

  • Alberich Crosswords
  • Alchemi's puzzles
  • Anax Crosswords
  • Azed slip
  • Big Dave's Crossword Blog
  • Boatman Cryptics
  • Crossword centenary
  • Crossword Centre
  • Crossword Club
  • Crossword Unclued
  • CrosswordMan: Crossword construction software
  • Crosswords by Chameleon
  • Crosswords by Hasslethymi
  • Fifteensquared
  • George vs The Listener crossword
  • Guardian Crosswords
  • Hoskins Crossword
  • Hubble Crosswords
  • idothei
  • Independent Crosswords
  • Listen with Others
  • Listener Crossword
  • Magpie Crossword Magazine
  • One Across
  • Peter's Cryptic Crossword Corner
  • Telegraph Crosswords
  • The Stickler Weekly
  • Times Crossword Club
  • Times for the Times
  • Undisclosed Enumeration

Comments

  • MARK WATSON on Getting old
  • Erin on The perils of abbreviations
  • William F P on Covid strikes
  • Phixwd on A forthcoming loss
  • David Thomson on A forthcoming loss

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in