I just noted in an email that I have collected a wealth of material that is resolutely refusing to turn into a crossword despite a degree of lexical suitability.  I think that may be what is making it difficult to think of anything specific to say – turning the stuff over and over to see if an idea drops out uses up an amount of brainpower. Admittedly said brainpower is also engaged in assimilating Oppenheimer, even two days after seeing it. I can recommend going to an early showing; less enamoured of the IMAX format (though we were in the [supposedly] comfy seats far too close to the screen). 

The puzzle this time is a daily from 2019. What’s coming up: apart from the usual Friday appearances in The Independent, there’s a Times puzzle on 26 July.

Back in a fortnight. Might have seen Barbie by then…

Something a little different this time around.

The death of Margaret Irvine (aka Nutmeg) was announced recently. She set a lot of puzzles for the Guardian, as well as a dozen for The Listener (the most recent in February this year), and other barred puzzles elsewhere. The plain puzzles in the newspaper were an enjoyable solve, while the barred puzzles always had well-worked out themes that led the solver through the process of discovery.

I never met her, but I did collaborate on a puzzle with her, through the agency of Don Manley at the Church Times; Don himself contributed one-third of the clues. So, although last time’s puzzle was also from the Church Times, I’ve put that Christmas puzzle up as the latest on the site. The Church Times has a fortnightly puzzle, with a special – usually a Jumbo – at Christmas (there’s a Jumbo coming this year; you may want to consider how I know that…). This one, on the other hand, was a double puzzle, more along the lines of the Guardian specials at Christmas, Easter and other public holidays.

As a result, it’s also the first double puzzle I’ve put up. Not easy aligning the grids, I found – I followed the same process for both blank and filled grids (honest!), yet the solution page is a bit skew-whiff. I may go back and experiment further.

Talking of Guardian puzzles on public holidays…there’s one coming up on 14 July from Pangakupu. The Independent puzzle that same day is another that could be described as ‘in memoriam’. There’ll be the usual Friday Independent on 21 July, after which I’ll be back.

I hope to get round to putting a puzzle up over the weekend, but I thought it worth putting up an alert.

I would, in any case, have been telling you about my forthcoming Enigmatic Variations puzzle, Directors, on July 9 – except it is now coming forth on June 25. One of those rare events where a puzzle’s theme clashes with a sensitive news story – the puzzle originally intended for Sunday is being held over, and my puzzle has been moved forward in its stead.  Which meant a rather sudden bit of proofreading that I had been expecting in a week or so. My puzzle’s theme is unlikely to clash with any headlines.

With the Phi Inquisitor today that means there should be two forthcoming setter’s blogs – in fact, I will combine them and bundle in Friday’s Independent as well – that will be appearing somewhere around July 4 or 5.

So pop out and get your Sunday Telegraphs (or log on to PressReader.com) this weekend. Just in case I don’t find the time to augment this, let me quickly list the puzzles appearing over the next fortnight in addition to the regular Friday Independent slots: there’s a Pedro Quick Cryptic in The Times on July 3 and a Toughie from Kcit on July 6.

 
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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.