Phi Crosswords

Some sort of flu (but not Covid) has sent me to and from bed for the last couple of days, apart from snatching a few minutes to do things like this update.

Puzzles coming up: Pangakupu in The Guardian on 14 December, Phi in The Independent on 15 December, Kcit in the Enigmatic Variations series on 17 December, and the regular Independent slot on 22 December aligns with a seasonally themed puzzle in the Church Times that day as well.

Hope to return with a new puzzle on the site the weekend before Christmas. Now back to the cough mixture and tissues.

I found myself looking at a date on a proof and thinking ‘That says December’ followed by the awful awareness that Christmas is upon us. Then I received notification of a puzzle appearing beyond Christmas. How am I supposed to think that far ahead?

I should have twigged earlier, of course, not least because I have completed seasonal puzzles for The Independent, BBC Music Magazine and Church Times, but it was that date that sprang the trap. It also means the annual APEX puzzle will be typed up and sent out in three weeks or so.

Not much time today so just a note that today’s puzzle is an IQ from 2019: A Growing Population. The recency of the puzzle means that there’s a fifteensquared blog on it as well, as well as my own setter’s blog here, but you know the drill regarding peeking.

There’s a new Inquisitor puzzle coming up soon as well, but let’s get them in order: a Times puzzle on 28 November, a Kcit Toughie on 30 November, the usual Friday Independent on 1 December and then Phases in the IQ series on 2 December. After that busy week, the following week only has the regular Friday slot for The Independent. But there’s an EV on the horizon, of which more anon.

When the servers were restored after the outage at our hosts the other week, it appeared to lead to the loss of the puzzle I’d put up a day or so earlier, so I’ve made it the puzzle this time round instead. It’s a BBC Music Magazine puzzle from November 2019. Apologies that there is no interactive version. The software was due to renew today, and works on the date on my computer. The renewal process is based in the UK and works on the date there. So far it hasn’t seen any need to worry about things yet, and somewhere something has fallen between the cracks.

According to NZ Post, the cup left from Auckland on November 1st and has yet to land again. Just my luck to end up on the plane attempting a new world record for a delivery service. Will keep checking.

Forthcoming puzzles: the usual Friday dailies in The Independent are augmented by a Times Jumbo on November 18 and another outing for Pangakupu in The Guardian on November 24. Just in case I don’t get round to an update promptly next time I’ll also mention an appearance in The Times on 28 November. 

I have the Azed Cup on the desk beside me as I type, and I have its box on the other side as I await confirmation of the address of the winner.  The PDF of the Azed puzzle that goes up on the Observer site each Sunday is rather unreliable as to the details of prizewinners. For many a week, Namey Namey won all three prizes, while recently the focus has been on Narberth in Pembrokeshire.

I did say I would try and replicate the picture of Wellington visible from Petone that we took in 2009, but instead we headed north, over the Remutaka hills into the Wairarapa. Here we are at the remote Oystershell Road outside Martinborough.

 

It’s not very clear why somewhere so definitely inland should be called Oystershell – fossils, perhaps. Then we went on into Martinborough itself:

Excellent range of gin at the hotel, by the way.

It’s probably best to concentrate on the cup in the pictures. You aren’t seeing my best side (that is, the outside). One final picture from last night of the cup where it has perched on a shelf in my office, menaced by some sort of Lego Aztec (Mayan? Incan?):

The puzzle this time round is a Church Times puzzle from 2019. When I said last time that I’d had two sets of Christmas crossword proofs to work through, the Church Times puzzle was the other one, appearing just a couple of days before Christmas. A reminder nearer the time, of course.

Forthcoming puzzles are demanding a bulleted list again, though the latter half of November is quieter:

• 1 November: Pangakupu in The Guardian
• 1 November: Pedro in The Times Quick Cryptic
• 2 November: Kcit in The Telegraph Toughie
• 3 November: Phi in The Independent
• 6 November: a Pangakupu Guardian Genius
• 10 November: Phi in The Independent

I think that might be the first definite logjam of my pseudonyms. There have been some throughput issues at The Guardian which explain the re-emergence of Pangakupu in the Genius slot quite so immediately – there should now be a decent respite (if nothing else, I haven’t written the clues for the next one yet…)

And just as I finish, Marjorie has sent through one last image of the trophy, in front of a clock kit I put together a couple of weeks ago: