Big Dave's Crossword Blog

17 Comments

1. bigboab
   Posted February 23, 2009 at 6:54 pm | Permalink | Reply

   Very handy Dave, better than having your own Pears on the desk.

2. Big Dave
   Posted February 23, 2009 at 8:28 pm | Permalink | Reply

   And a lot cheaper, BigBoab!!

3. Peter Biddlecombe
   Posted February 25, 2009 at 9:50 am | Permalink | Reply

   Don’t know how far this trend has infiltrated the Telegraph puzzle, but elsewhere, “radio alphabet” stuff like Mike=>M and Golf=>G is getting to be quite popular. So maybe the whole lot from Alpha to Zulu.

4. Big Dave
   Posted February 25, 2009 at 9:54 am | Permalink | Reply

   I’ve got a list of possible additions, and that one has just gone straight in at number one. Thanks

5. Bellringer
   Posted March 30, 2009 at 8:36 am | Permalink | Reply

   Having used the NATO alphabet for most of my life I have no need of that, although I am sure others may. But, a sample of Riders & Horses would be good. Napoleon & Morengo for example.

   • Big Dave
     Posted December 16, 2011 at 9:02 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Bellringer

     It took me a while, but I have finally published the Horses and Riders page. Early drafts had over 600 entries, but I have whittled it down to about 100.

     • Bellringer
       Posted January 6, 2012 at 10:24 am | Permalink | Reply

       Ave! Dave
       I’ve been under the weather for a while and am only now catching up. Thanks for the list it should prove useful. But, I am sure that Turpin did not ride from London to York nor am I certain that his horse was Black Bess. I believe that this feat was achieved by another highwayman whose name escapes me for the moment.

       • Big Dave
         Posted January 6, 2012 at 11:28 am | Permalink | Reply

         I’ve added the word “allegedly” to the entry fro Black Bess!

6. Anncantab
   Posted September 1, 2011 at 3:08 pm | Permalink | Reply

   how about Hebrew characters, would be useful with the Toughie today!

   • Big Dave
     Posted September 1, 2011 at 4:55 pm | Permalink | Reply

     I’ll bear it in mind – the same thought occurred to me when “beth” came up.

     • Big Dave
       Posted December 19, 2011 at 6:21 pm | Permalink | Reply

       It’s now there!

7. Ian
   Posted October 28, 2011 at 7:17 am | Permalink | Reply

   Hi Dave,

   Could you please recommend some resources to read about crosswords statistics. Google and Yahoo! are pretty quiet about it.

   Thank you,
   Ian

   • Big Dave
     Posted October 28, 2011 at 9:07 am | Permalink | Reply

     Welcome to the blog Ian

     I’m sorry, but nothing comes to mind. What sort of stats are you looking for?

8. Neil
   Posted January 3, 2012 at 3:02 pm | Permalink | Reply

   How about a list of Shakespearean characters?
   Big thanks for the site BTW!!!

   • Big Dave
     Posted January 3, 2012 at 4:55 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Welcome to the blog Neil

     I’ll think about your suggestion. The problem is always where to draw the line on who to include and who not.

     I’m working on Heraldry at the moment, but it is proving to be a bigger task than I thought and I may have to whittle down over 250 entries to about 100.

   • Franco
     Posted January 3, 2012 at 5:03 pm | Permalink | Reply

     Neil, there are a lot of them!!!

     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shakespearean_characters

     • Neil
       Posted January 4, 2012 at 2:23 pm | Permalink | Reply

       Thanks to both of you!
       I live in Hong Kong and only get the puzzles when we come home and trawl through the back copies with my Father in Law from time to time. So I’m only on Sept 2011 at the moment!!!