A date for your diary… Big Dave’s 16th Birthday Bash – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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A date for your diary… Big Dave’s 16th Birthday Bash

by Sloop John Bee  

25th January 2025

The Blog will be celebrating its sixteenth birthday next January 28th 2025. With help from the Guardians of the Blog (Cryptic Sue, MrK, Gazza and Prolixic) as well as John and Jane “Elgar”, I am reviving the Big Dave Birthday Bash and want to bring it to the attention of as many of you as possible.

If you would like to see what we have got up to in the past have a look at the gallery here

The nearest Saturday to the actual date is 25th January 2025, I have spoken to (well emailed) the venue we have used in the past, The Bridge House in Little Venice, and they are happy to reserve us an area in their recently renovated pub as in previous years.

I will also be looking at getting Setters, graduates from Rookie Corner or aspiring Setters to provide some puzzles to entertain attenders.

In the past, several attenders have used the Paddington Novotel, I have booked for Mama Bee and myself already through hotels.com. Whether to stay there is up to you, and other hotels and booking apps are available but I can put you in touch with the Group Booking Manager there if you wish.

The main event of the get-together will be at The Bridge House in Little Venice during the day. There is a wide-ranging menu here. I am hoping that Sue or one of our other keen bakers may wish to bring a cake or other sweetmeats to Celebrate our 16th Birthday. I have an idea for a Macaron “cake” but I may be more ambitious than my local patissier can manage.


I have an Android Phone and a rather antediluvian laptop but hope to provide a zoom/teams link so we can “meet” others who can’t attend in person. If there is anyone with more experience of such things I would appreciate assistance.

Afterwards, a few hardy souls have gone on to an evening meal at a Chinese restaurant and a very informal gathering before trains home on the Sunday. (the last such Birthday Bash I attended I spent a pleasant lunch solving the Sunday Times crossword with Dutch!)

I hope that there will be some crosswords to do and if there is anyone out there who wants to provide a puzzle (themed or otherwise) I will be able to print off most formats with enough notice.

Please use the comments to indicate if you wish to attend, would like to provide a crossword for attendees and any other suggestions you would like to see happen.

I hope to see as many of you as possible either in person or via Zoom/Teams and await your comments…

 

54 comments on “A date for your diary… Big Dave’s 16th Birthday Bash”

  1. Thanks, it’s gone straight into the diary. Looking forward to meeting up again! Tim/Encota

      1. Oh Daisygirl, is the pen mightier than George’s sabre?
        This sounds like a fun party, so it’s in my diary.

      2. Do you dare, DG! It is a myth, I say! I will refuse to acknowledge it is there! 🤣🤣

  4. I really hope I can come, only fly in the ointment might be a family milestone birthday on 26th. As I live barely 2 miles from Paddington it would be easy for me to get there. I’d love to meet everyone in ‘real life’, I wonder if it will be like seeing characters from the Archers who never look remotely like you’ve imagined them 😊

    1. Yes, MsGlad – we will all end up looking at each other wondering why. ☺️☺️

  6. In the diary. I’m so pleased the Birthday Bash is being revived David so enjoyed these.
    Look forward to meeting you all again.
    Carol – Big Dave’s Sister

    1. Welcome to the blog, Carol, and thanks for all your help in keeping the blog running.

    4. How lovely of you to pop in Carol, I remember our previous meetings quite clearly – those were the days!

  7. Hi there one and all, I am very pleased to see that the Birthday bash may be on again. It is approaching a year since Dad passed but I know he would be over the moon about it. Good luck with the organising and if I can get all my ducks in the same room, let alone in a row, I shall endeavour to pop along with Carol (BD’s lil sis)
    Best wishes
    Rich. ( son of BD )

    1. It would be great to see you both, I have fond memories of BD in Little Venice and afterwards at a Chinese Restaurant, where Dave almost drank them out of tea!

  8. We would have loved to come along and meet people but sadly we only return from Australia on that day. Hopefully another time

    1. That’s a pity but maybe another year, now it is being revived it will probably be returning around that time every year (the blog started on 28th Jan 2009)

  9. As happens every year, my own birthday is the day before the bash, and we will be away in Antigua for two weeks. I would have loved to be there and put faces to names as it were. I hope very much the turnout is strong to celebrate the event.

  10. Gosh I would love to go to the birthday party and put faces to names. I’ll have to work out how to get there. I really enjoyed this very straight forward guzzle, daisies for 9,12a and 8,16,17d. Favourite possibly 16d. I am impressed by the hinting, I didn’t actually need it today but was curious – I admire your energy, am I not right in thinking that you have young children Smyler? How many hours in your day? Anyway, thanks to you and Mr Setter for the diversion. I had a nice retired policeman here all morning alarming the house, what a wonderful service!

    1. Thank you, Daisygirl — I didn’t notice your comment over here! Our children are now 12 and 10, so it’s their having so many clubs and activities and their gradually latening bedtimes that are eroding our evenings and reducing time for other things.

      Note you already pledged last April to attend the Bash — with pen! — so you are expected there!

    2. I seem to recall there was some trading of your excellent Olive Oil at my first Birthday Bash

      1. And delicious oil it is too. However, my recollection is of the exchange taking place at The George, following the Times championship?

        2. Hi Jane, thank you. We all miss BD for many reasons! If I can get to the birthday bash perhaps I will be able to work out a way of getting the oil to anyone interested (not at the bash, but later on) . I would particularly like to know if there is anyone who lives near Hanley Swan or Derby.

  12. Good afternoon

    It’s a possibility, although it clashes with a family birthday. I’ll have to think a little nearer the time.

  13. I hope to be there. I’ve just been looking at the photos from previous years. The last pre-pandemic one was sad as it turned out to be BD’s last. Numbers were also down due to the combined efforts of train strikes and terrible weather. I have kept the name label that Big Dave wrote out for us. The pub is easy to find from Paddington station. I say that although finding the right exit to get straight on to the canal can be a challenge. Have we heard from Jean-Luc recently? It was good to see him arrive with macarons? Some have come from far and wide I shall endeavour to remember my pen and notepad. It is only a ballpoint. The Mont Blancs were long gone! I very rarely enter and don’t think I have done so since I won. A friend in Cornwall used to win so regularly that he started to enter in the name of his 95 year old father.

    1. I remember the Macarons they were delicious and a French patissiere has brought his talents to Malton and a new shop in The Shambles in York
      See the pic above for what I plan to bring along
      There is also The Cheese Barge along the canal just outside Paddington and I hope to give that a whirl over the weekend

  14. I enjoyed this. Managed without hints or other aids. I think 22a my last one in was my favourite. I must look now at Saturday’s hints and comments. I could easily turn into Brian if I say what I thought of it!

  15. Excellent.
    Sadly we won’t be there in person but hope that we can pop in via a Zoom link, even if we have to get up in the middle of the night to do so.

  16. I attended the last one and hope to be there this time. Warwick Avenue tube station, next up on Bakerloo line, may be easier if you are coming by tube.

    1. That’s right I had forgotten that W Ave is just over the bridge that gives The Bridge House it’s name

  20. I’ve provisionally booked my accommodation but there are still a number of hurdles to overcome. Working on it.

  21. I’m planning on coming. I’ve just looked at train times and seen no service on the ECML to/from King’s Cross that weekend, so am working out alternatives.

    I’d be happy to concoct some quiz sheets if that’s still of interest and you give me an idea of how many to print.

    1. I will be revising the post soon to bring it to the top again. I have booked a train from York on the Friday (24th) ECML to KX but the return on Sunday is from St Pancras via Chesterfield and Sheffield.

      A quiz would be great, most people gather in groups for a quiz and I think 20 to 30 would be ample. Crosswords are often gathered by individuals to solve later (often on the journey home) so maybe a few more for those who want to provide a crossword. I have crossword compiler software so can print most formats with enough notice.

  22. I’m afraid I will not be able to make it. I had hoped to be with you all and I tried to arrange care for Mrs. C but, in the end, I feel I cannot leave her.

    I wish you all a wonderful time together.

    1. Thank you for trying so hard! It will be a shame not to meet you, but we completely understand why that won’t be possible.

    2. I will certainly miss you, but fully understand why. I think this trip is looking like the last time I will be taking Mama Bee to London.
      I am still hoping to do a Zoom link and hopefully I will have a link to a virtual meeting on the day

          1. Hi, SJB. I only saw your email just now and I tried the link. It didn’t connect but, at this time of the evening, I wasn’t expecting it to. However, it was doing all the same things that occur when I have Teams meetings with my colleagues,

            1. Save that link I’ll keep it and we can try to see it work over the next 2/3 weeks

  23. I can’t attend in person but if there is a Zoom or Teams link I would like to say Hello.

    1. I will have a Teams link on the day and now I have your email I’ll post it direct.
      It may be a bit dodgy as I am unsure if the public WiFi at the venue will have the bandwidth (here’s me sounding as if I know how it works 🤞)

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