We met up last night for January’s Bristol Crossword Club meeting. Will suggested we try to solve the puzzle that had appeared in the recent BBC Dracula adaptation. (Story and link to puzzle here. Careful – the solution is printed upside down at the bottom of the page. Avert your eyes until you can cover it up.) It was quite a fun puzzle with appropriate answers. Then we had time to tackle one from a book of Telegraph puzzles I have. We managed to finish that one off too before the cafe started looking near-empty, and we took pity on the staff and left.

Next meeting is scheduled for Feb 11th, 19:30+, at Grounded again. We may try some setting again. So far it’s still just the two of us, so do come along and play. As ever, beginners are welcome, so don’t be scared if you’re new to cryptic crosswords. We’ll teach you how to get into them!

Sorry, I forgot to take a photo, so just imagine a felafel burger and some carrot cake, would you? Cheers.

The solution to my January puzzle is in an image behind this link.

I actually got some feedback on this one, so thanks to Matt, Panthera and Dave for that. It’s massively encouraging to even know that someone’s trying my puzzles. The general positive nature of the comments was nice too.

4d was picked up on as being a bit quirky, which is fair comment, but I think it was just about “fair”. 12 was almost exactly the same as a clue that went out in a puzzle in The Guardian published 2 days before mine. Pipped to it! I wasn’t sure if the definition in 8 needed a tweak or an added adjective, but nothing smooth came to me, so I left it. Didn’t seem to stop the solving. 27 felt a bit silly… but what’s wrong with a bit of silliness every now and then? 🙂 No-one mentioned it, but 22 was my favourite, for the surface. Then again the reference is quite obscure, so no surprises there.

Next meeting of the Bristol Crossword Club is this Tuesday, so do pop in if you’re local.