Highlight – Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Nuala Considine (Excalibur)

Updated 30th July 2018


Chris Lancaster posted the following tribute on Facebook:

“Sadly, Nuala Considine passed away earlier this week, aged 90.

“Nuala had her first crossword published in the Irish Times in 1946, and carried on compiling until the time of her death, so was a professional compiler for 72 years.

“She compiled for many national newspapers, and had her first puzzle published in the Telegraph in 1986.… Continue reading

Cryptic Crossword Research – that PDM

“The Penny Drops”

by Kathryn Friedlander and Philip Fine

Philip Fine and I have just published a second article on cryptic crosswords – this time on the ‘PDM’, and how cryptics might help us, as psychologists, to understand the processes behind insight moments. The link is here and the article is free to read on-line or to download as a pdf.… Continue reading

GDPR Compliance

As from today, anyone leaving a comment or contact message will need to tick the checkbox “By using this form I agree with the storage and handling of my data by this website” as part of our GDPR compliance. Some regulations, while meaning well, are a confounded nuisance and I apologise for making you do this.

Update – 02 June 2018

Plugin disabled as it might be resposible for the recent performance problems.

New Telegraph Puzzles Editor

New Telegraph Puzzles Editor

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Some of you may have already heard that Phil McNeill is retiring as the Telegraph Puzzles Editor at the end of January 2018.  Phil took over from Kate Fassett just a few weeks before I started the Blog back in January 2009. … Continue reading

BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2018)

BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2018)

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The BBC CiNA (Children in Need Appeal) 3D Calendar Puzzle for 2018 is now available. Each day has a clue. Each month has a 3D grid to complete. Some of the best setters in the UK have given of their genius freely to provide us with enough clues to solve to keep us out of trouble for most of the year.

Continue reading “BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2018)”

BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2017)

BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2017)

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The BBC CiNA (Children in Need Appeal) 3D Calendar Puzzle for 2017 is now available. Each day has a clue. Each month has a 3D grid to complete. Some of the best setters in the UK have given of their genius freely to provide us with enough clues to solve to keep us out of trouble for most of the year.

Continue reading “BBC CiNA 3D Calendar Puzzle (2017)”

Cryptic Crossword Research (Update – May 2016)

Cryptic Crossword Research
by Kathryn Friedlander and Philip Fine

Many of you kindly helped us in our research by completing a very detailed survey of personal background and solving habits, advertised via this board in 2010. We’ve just published some of the results from this large-scale survey in the Open Access international journal ‘Frontiers’, and a link is available here for anyone who is interested in downloading and reading the findings (click on the Download Article button for a pdf).… Continue reading

Performance Problems – an Update

As I’m sure you are all aware the site has been suffering from poor performance for a long time. Evohosting, the previous hosting company, recommended that I switch to a Virtual Private Server (VPS) provided by Daily Internet, their parent company. I decided instead to move the site to a VPS from SmartHosting over the weekend of 27th/28th February.… Continue reading