BD’s XVIth Birthday
Teams link is here
https://teams.live.com/meet/9392488449100?p=AHh3AnVcqP3JZ5Om46
I hope to be online soon after noon UK time – The 2K’s have set an alarm to arrive about 2pm
25th January 2025
The Bridge House
13 Westbourne Terrace Road, Maida Vale, London W2 6NG
Now that Elgars Double Toughie perimeter message has revealed the venue I can remind you of the Sixteenth Birthday Bash
The Blog will celebrate its sixteenth birthday next January 28th, 2025. With help from the Guardians of the Blog (Cryptic Sue, MrK, Gazza, and Prolixic) and 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 attendees. If you wish to bring a puzzle along about 20 or 30 so copies should be sufficient. If you are unable to attend I will print out copies in most formats ( .doc/ .docx / .pdf /.rtf or crossword compiler ) if you send them before Thursday 24th. In an effort to reduce spam, I won’t post my email address here, but I will respond with it to any message left here.
In the past, several attendees have used the Paddington Novotel, I have booked for Mama Bee and myself already through hotels.com. We will be staying Friday and Saturday night. You should be able to catch us in the bar but on Friday evening I will be dining with Mama Bee at the Cheese Barge in Paddington
The main get-together event will be at The Bridge House in Little Venice during the day. There is a wide-ranging menu here. Their website indicates they should be open 10:30 to 23:30 but they have suggested that they open at noon, which is the time I will be there. I will be bringing a cake (similar to the one pictured. Attendees will be invited to take a selection of macarons away with them) In the past we have moved on around 7 pm. A few hardy souls have gone on to an evening meal at The Pearl Liang near the hotel, 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 was hoping to provide a Zoom link but my basic account is only good for 40 mins. I can do an unlimited Teams link and if you wish to try this out I hope to be “open for business” between noon and 17:00 on the 12th 18th and 19th for you to try. If I am not online leave a message with a time you would like to try. There is public WiFi at The Bridge House but I am unsure if there will be enough bandwidth so please be patient.
This is the link to the Teams meeting;
https://teams.live.com/meet/9392488449100?p=AHh3AnVcqP3JZ5Om46
If you leave me a message here I will have your email if I have to change it.
You could also try it now as I will be online until Tomorrow’s Sunday Toughie drops!
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 in person or via Teams and await your comments…
I have just “seen” and spoken to the 2Kiwis all the way from New Zealand, so the teams links appears to work,🤞🤞 fingers crossed it does so on The Bridge House’ public WiFi.
I’ll be there, Sloops, with bells on. Hopefully, I won’t disappoint…
I look forward to your cake which, of course, won’t be a patch on Sue’s ‘Naughty step’ delights.
Just like Sue, they are naughty….but nice.
I didn’t realise you were a Morris Dancer 🔔🔔 I look forward to how your Morris “side” interpret a crossword through the medium of folk-dancing 😉
An extremely bizarre statement, SJB, but……I love it!
Natch
“I’ll be there, Sloops, with bells on…”
What else did you mean?
Morris Dancing is truly bonkers.
I wonder if any of the solvers ‘giv it sum’ around a pole on a regular basis.
I don’t know about the solvers, but I can tell you that at least one of the compilers takes part in morris dancing! (Not me, btw).
Wow! Now that little gem of information is ripe for investigoogling.
It is great to see you on the blog again.
Mr Plumb with the stick with bells on in the Library would be my guess
Oh, you tease, Ancestral!
You HAVE to tell us now. If not, then we will corner Silvanus Saturday week.
Me thinks Mr Smooth will take the fifth….
Here’s a clue that can be improved…
Mrs Rio (6,6)
Gotta luv a reverse anagram or should that be….’margana’?
I can’t stop myself….nurse!
Love that!
Nice to see you here, Chris. Please can you mention the Birthday Bash to the Telegraph Puzzles team and your setters?
I completely understand why they wouldn’t wish to attend, but in case any do, it’d be a shame if they only learnt of its existence too late.
We were known as Rigs n Marlowe! The sticks hurt if they caught you across the knuckles?
I am hoping to come! I don’t do MorrisDancing but I can do the splits for you !
Woo hoo I am looking forward to it as well
It’s the only reason I’m coming.
It’ll get at least a million views on InstaGran.
Thank you John and others — looking forward to seeing people! I shall be there on the Saturday, though I may not make it for 12:00 because I’m catching up with a former colleague first.
A university friend is kindly putting me up, so I won’t be staying at the hotel, and I now have other plans for the Sunday.
Will there be lanyards and name badges? The gallery shows them at previous gatherings, and they seem like a good idea if suddenly being introduced to a few dozen people you’ve never met before.
I have the original lanyard with a handwritten lable by Big Dave himself. I don’t know what happened to any surplus lanyards but I will have some simpler nametags hopefully provided by Jetdoc (Mrs Elgar)
I have a pin on label worn at various other events – I shall bring one.
Handwritten by Big Dave Himself
I have the last lanyard Big Dave gave me. Bitter sweet.
I will be there. Looking forward to it. I will arrive at about 13.00 and will need to leave at 17.00 for another function in town.
Great – see you there
I plan to attend the Listener quarterly event for a bit first and then come across for mid-afternoon. Looking forward to catching up with folk and meeting some new faces!
Tim / Encota
I think “Elgar” will be there too; please feel free to drag any “Listeners” who may be interested along with you.
I thought the whole purpose of the event is to celebrate the Blog and Big Dave’s legacy. In no way should the occasion be “cliquey”, but it is not an especially large venue and I’m not convinced that those who neither read the Blog nor contribute to it in some way should limit space for those who do. I get the impression that some regard the event as just another S & B gathering, well it isn’t.
I was intending to come, but I’m now reconsidering.
Nonsense Silvanus. You must come.
The problem for you is that I have this image of what Mr Smooth should look like.
I’d love to find out your background as setting a crossy is a true skill. Many people can learn the craft but some are naturals.
I’ll be the one at the stage door with a handful of your crosswords and a pen, ready for you to sign.
The above has probably completely put you off coming.
Shut-up, Tom!
Well, I’m in quite a few of the photos from 2015-2020 in the Gallery, should your curiosity get the better of you. A little greyer since then, of course, but that probably applies to a lot of us.
I am just concerned that a specific BD Blog event could turn into a generic crossword event, that would be a pity.
Silver Silvanus it is.
I’ll be the one with the shiny dome.
Please reconsider your reconsideration, With the numbers suggested, I really dont think we are pushing the capacity of the Bridge House and I was certainly welcomed as a newbie the first time I came to the Birthday Bash.
SJB, I have no issue whatsoever with newbies, so long as they are Telegraph puzzle solvers/Blog users and contributors or partners/friends of same. Unless they have installed many more seats since 2020, the actual seating capacity (rather than the venue capacity) is quite limited, I recall.
I’ll make a final decision nearer the time.
Quite right – the BB should be considered a ‘private’ function limited to those described by Silvanus.
Crossword setters have attended past S&Bs and Birthday Bashes, but given the amount of stick some of them have received here lately, I wouldn’t blame them for staying at home
Contemplating the event’s whole purpose is too deep for me on a Sunday afternoon†, but I’m certainly coming because I want to meet in person people I’ve met on Big Dave’s Crossword Blog. As such, the event would be poorer without you Silvanus.
† I’m worried that if I think about it too much, I’ll conclude that none of this has a purpose …
Hello
I ca only make it for a couple of hours around 12.30-2.30 but I’d love to come along and meet people and say hello.
I will be MrGlad to see you!
You can’t get enough of wordplay, Sloops.
Us two will be standing in ‘Pun Corner’ along with Mr Cowling and others who like a ‘Groan/Stop it/Wey hey!’
Well I’d really really love to come!! Let me see if I can get Digs!! Would be amazing !! Happy birthday all! Xx 🎷💝
I rarely post here so most of you won’t know me but I do visit every day while doing the DT cryptic. I enjoyed the gathering in 2020 (see gallery) and hope to be along this time. But I have a few health issues at the moment so whether I make it depends on how I feel on the day (and that also means whether I do one of my Dave London walks beforehand). I expect to be there 1pm-3pm or so, quick lunch (the new Bridge House menu looks good but it has gone up in price…) and a pint and a chance to meet some of you then need to get back for some other things I am doing in the evening.
I seem to remember there were 20-25 there last time and we managed to sort ourselves out on one or two tables in the Bridge. The group on the adjacent table must have got confused, bet they have never met a group of cruciverbalists before! With people coming and going all the time we never got too big a group and hope people are not put off for this reason.
Hope to meet some new faces this time.
I look forward to seeing you there.
I think I followed a walk along the Regents Canal to Kings Cross once. I don’t think Mama Bee is up to much a stroll these days but the bit from Paddington to Little Venice is just enough.
Little Venice to Kings Cross is quite a stretch, five miles with a longish section at the Little Venice end with not that much to see until you get to London Zoo and Regents Park. I have done it in the past splitting it at Camden Lock. The short stretch down to Paddington is well worth it though and I may come this way this time.
Looking forward to meeting all the great and good of the Big Dave patrons. Hope to be there 1 o’clockish travel plans permitting.
See you there
Mrs YS and I will be celebrating my own birthday that weekend in Antigua, a trip we booked before John brilliantly and kindly organised the Birthday Bash for the blog. I shall be there with you in spirit if not in person as I know the venue well. Have a great weekend all.
We will raise a glass to you and Mrs YS (and Brian and his better half) too
Thank you so much.
Mrs B and I will be in Gran Canaria and we will raise a glass to you all.🍷
Big thanks to John for organising and the rest of the gang for keeping Big Dave’s blog going. Much appreciated! We have friends visiting that weekend otherwise I’d be tempted.
We intend to come. Coincides with the arrival of my 2nd grandchild in East London. Will join by Zoom as a backup (garyhow52@gmail.com). Gary and Val
Zoom only works for 40 mins so I will be using Teams
https://teams.live.com/meet/9392488449100?p=AHh3AnVcqP3JZ5Om46
If the link changes I’ll post a new one on the blog on the day.
Good luck with the arrival!
Wishing you a fun Birthday Bash. Sadly I cannot come as I live in Switzerland but I would like to say a big thank you to you all for getting me started on cryptics a few years ago. Your help has been invaluable.
Thanks for the thanks it is what we like to do ∆ putting the words to lights
So sorry I can’t be there (holidays, all jealously welcome) hope it’s a great day.
As I rarely take part / comment on the blog these days, I have no idea who’s who anymore. With that in mind, sadly, I won’t be attending the Birthday Bash at the Bridge. I have many happy memories of the previous functions but there are so many of those people who have moved on or, sadly, passed on. I hope that the ‘newbies’ (for want of a better word) will have as much fun as the Blog regulars had pre-Covid and that friendships develop keeping that spirit of BD’s wonderful blog alive. I hope all of you attending will have a super time and please, don’t forget to raise a glass to BD in thanks for
his contribution to budding cruciverbalists – “Absent Friends”.
Wise Words indeed
As well as honouring Big Dave himself for all the rookies and new setters that came through his devotions we have lost quite a few blog friends. It it the responsibility of us all not to forget our Absent Friends.
My thoughts will be with Big Dave, Robert Clark, Labradors Rule, Campbell, Dutch and most recently JB. I am sure each of you will have others to remember.
Well said both
I hope to come in person I am sorry I have been a rare contributor to the blog of late but I must be one of the oldest in both senses. I now see so many new names. I have not been commenting often lately for reasons some happy and some sad. For anyone worrying about the space please don’t. Sometimes we have squashed in and spilled out on to the canal bank. It’s more fun. The saddest was I think the last when weather and strikes kept many away.
Great — looking forward to meeting you!
Moi aussi…
You have had the pleasure before! I’m looking forward to meeting Mama Bee
I bet you won’t be as old as me, Wanda!
Nobody will.
No I don’t believe I am. Just trying to get a train. Inexplicably Nottingham to London has all trains full to get me there as soon as I wished. I may try at the station. No standard class available all day. Cheapest is 1st class with a travel card, the latter being pointless when I have an Oyster! I tried the East Coast line via Grantham but that is bus replacement. The last bash had diminished numbers due to weather and strikes. It occurs to me there may be a football match. Perhaps Big Dave should have an official birthday like Her Late Majesty.
I regret that I shall not be able to attend.
However, I have my own mental picture of my fellow bloggers (all good) and such illusions will not be shattered! You will all remain just as you are in my imagination.
Enjoy your day.
The differences between my imagination and reality was one of the charms of my first meeting, and none of the illusions were shattered
That’s a great shame, Pips.
Pun Corner will be rammed but who’s going to occupy Poet’s Corner?
I’ll see if, Mrs Ayres, the poor man’s Pip, can fill the gap.
Well disaster has struck. Went to bring the Freelander up to the house ready for 5:30 am start tomorrow and it wouldn’t start. Some problem with the steering lock sensors that cannot be solved.
As many may know we live in a very remote location in the Gargano and options to go to Pescara are limited to non-existant especially at that time of day.
I daren’t take the 27yo Mitsubishi pickup and anyway that would leave Mrs SW stranded. The trains are on strike! So I’m in a hole and afraid that I won’t make it.
Very disappointing and there’s a free room at the Novotel Fri & Sat!
Have fun!
Rats indeed! Such a pity, I’ll have to put up with Sainsbury’s EVOO!
Will send you something to entertain your attendees. Good luck with the event!
We are just about to set our alarm. Our plan is to get up at 3am our time so that we will appear on the Teams link at about 2pm your time at The Bridge House. This will give us a chance to say a quick ‘Hi’ to anyone who is there at that stage and then we can get back to our shut-eye. Let’s know if that timing is not convenient.
Looking forward to seeing lots of you soon.
Carol and Colin the 2Kiwis.
I’ll look out for you then
Huge respect to you both 👏👏
Wow, that is fantastic commitment! Looking forward to seeing you soon.
I’m sorry I won’t be there but I’m sure you’ll all have a good time. It’s now five tears since I took a sabbatical from blogging because of a health issue. Even though the health issue turned out to be nothing serious I never felt the urge to return to blogging. But I think you’ve done a fine job keeping the blog going after BD’s demise.
Pleased to hear your health is in good shape, Bufo. Please do return to commenting. You will be made most welcome. 👍
Hear, Hear
Just about to get sorted then off to the station at 9.30. Little walk around Picadilly/St James and should be at the Bridge around 12.30. Looking forward to meeting you all.
Good luck to everyone today. Sorry I can’t make it.
To all who follow Big Dave’s amazing blog, have a thoroughly enjoyable 16th Birthday celebration and raise a toast wherever you may be. I’m very sorry I can’t be at Bridge House but here at home I’m raising my cup of special matcha green tea!
I have followed the blog for many years, and I can’t begin to express how much it has meant to me. It has been a source both of joy and great comfort. It has been mentally stimulating and always most interesting. Enjoyment rating: superb!
My heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Cryptic Sue, Mr K, Gazza, and Prolixic, and also to all who give (or have given) so generously of their time and expertise, keeping this blog in tip-top shape. I’d like to say a very special and appreciative ‘thank you’ to Big Dave’s family for the blog’s continuance. What a splendid legacy Big Dave has left! I’m deeply grateful.
You have put that so well that I can only say “hear hear”
We’re missing you, Sloop John B
My little Pipette and me
Around Maida Vale we can’t roam
Thinking – all right
It isn’t a slight.
Well, I feel so broke up
I had to stay home.
So hoist up a glass for me
See how the absentee frets
Call for another once more
I’m stuck here at home
I’m stuck here at home
I feel so broke up
That. I’m stuck here at home.
Daisy Girl sends her love to those who are here in spirit only.
Safe home after an entertaining afternoon. Lovely to see some old acquaintances and make some new ones. Thank you Sloop John Bee for organising the get-together (and bringing the macaroons!)
Really enjoyed the gathering today. Great to be able to put faces to names and to thank some of those who provide so much entertainment for us all. Big thanks to SJB for doing all the hard work of making it happen. I did enjoy the macaroons!
It was such a treat, albeit a rather brief one, to meet so many of our esteemed bloggers and setters in the flesh yesterday and put faces to names. They were all as charming in real life as they are in print, a big hello to Senf, Daisygirl, Weekend Wanda, Silvanus, Weatherman, Tomds65, Smylers Jeemz and various Daves. Huge thanks to Sloop John Bee for organising the get together and all your much appreciated efforts with name tags and video links etc. the macarons were divine, thank you, and what a joy to meet the lovely Mama Bee.
I forgot to say the following:
Weekend Wanda’s surname isn’t Haddock, Trout or Salmon.
It’s safe to say that Rabbit Dave won’t be going to America anytime soon.
I now know everything there is to know about Alphablocks thanks to Smylers who, going with the letter theme, called his second a name that begins with Z having given his first a name with A!
Talking of initials….I also know the initials of Jeemz’s five grandchildren that are J…E…E…M and…..P
I’m such a card.
I think Zs just fed up with being an unknown to cruciverbalists!
👏👏
Huge thanks to Sloop John B for organising a very enjoyable afternoon – it was lovely to put various faces to various names.
Thanks MsGlad for the roll call.
I arrived a bit later on 4.30 ish, but met the legendary hinter Senf, and setters Silvanus, Weatherman (not Michael Fish) and many of the above. Privileged to attend. Tony
Note to organisers and setters. Your big day is July 30th 2025.
It falls on a Monday
I’m afraid it’s not a Monday on my calendar. For a moment, I thought I might be blogging that day. Senf might want to make a note of the date though.
Amazing afternoon after a lovely stroll along the towpath with my only child and elder grandchild. It was a bash as I remember earllier ones and so many made it despite adverse weather and other hindrances. Until we meet again..