The solution to my October puzzle is in a png behind this link.

No-one won the fiver. Did anyone try? I enjoyed being able to use Spooner in this way in 4d. Perhaps 27 was my favourite, for the surface. I also liked 4a, but wonder if others would have been annoyed by it.

Meanwhile the crossword I submitted didn’t quite have a strong enough theme for the mag, so it’ll probably surface here as my November puzzle. Which leaves me plenty of time to work on strengthening my theming for the next one.

In other news, tonight is the inaugural meeting of the Bristol Crossword Club. Hopefully that’ll go well (if not large), and it’ll build.

It’s that time again. Here’s my October puzzle for you to enjoy/wrangle/love/loathe. Scroll down for the browser-solvable version.

£5 prize for the first correct solution sent to me by Twitter DM, or by email. (Offer ends at 14:00 8/10/2019, which is when I’ll post the solution.)

I had some positive feedback on the puzzle I submitted… hopefully that might emerge into the light soon. Comments on this one welcome, by email or Twitter (no spoilers!), as per usual. I think the 1Across forum might be going the way of all flesh soon, but it’s still there as I type.

Right then, off you go…

Embedded playable puzzle: Use the cogwheel/settings menu to turn off the clock, and untick “skip over filled letters”, and the main menu to Save.

The solution to my September puzzle can be found here.

4, 7 & 16 were clues that had fallen out of previous puzzles, so this one was built up and around those. From which, you can deduce that they were my favourites. Shame about the double-unchecked squares, and from now on I’ll try my hardest to avoid having any of those. Third appearance for Ovid, who’s an excellent anagram on his own. 🙂

Here’s my latest puzzle, as printable png, or as in-browser solvable puzzle. Hope you enjoy. I hang out on 1 Across and Twitter, if you want to give any feedback. The solution will go up on this blog in one week’s time.

I’ve recently submitted a puzzle for possible publication somewhere. Hoping to hear back about that soon…

Use the settings menu to turn off the clock, and skipping over letters. Remember to use Save in the menu if you have more than one session at it.

The solution to my August crossword is in an image behind this link.

Three answers were nods to specific people (*waves*). 5 was quite horrible to clue, but I liked where I got to in the end. 21 has a bit of dated knowledge required, maybe not one for the young’uns, but I didn’t want to go with the more obvious reference. 18 was my favourite. Right, toodle-oo!

Edit: Oh, I’ve just noticed that there’s a Nina down there. Entirely unintentional, but perhaps it was a subconscious tribute to Rutger Hauer. (It’s not easy being a dolphin.) And well done if you get any of those references.

Edit 2: Oh blimey, there’s another one! Well, just about. How bizarre.

Here’s my August puzzle. I ended up having three puzzles on the go at once, and this was originally pegged to be my October puzzle, but I decided to move it up the queue. Any feedback welcome. I’ll be on holiday next week, but I’ll schedule a post with the answers to pop up next Thursday.

Here it is as a printable png, or a browser-solvable embed below (Use the settings menu to turn off the clock, and skipping over letters. Remember to use Save in the menu if you have more than one session at it.).

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

I wondered too late, if starting 12 with “holds” might have been a slightly nicer surface. A bit of scrabble knowledge would have helped you with 10. I’m not sure if the definition of 21 was “war” or “of war”, possibly arguable, but if you don’t like one, you ought to be ok with the other. I wanted to have “declaration of war”, but it didn’t feel quite right. 25 didn’t necessarily need the brackets, but I liked the juxtaposition of topper with bowler, so I put it in. 18 & 29 were my favourites.

August’s puzzle is almost finished already, so I hope I can start a new one and get ahead of schedule again soon.

Here’s this month’s puzzle from me. Right-click to download printable .png file, or play in-browser at the bottom of this post (Use the cogwheel/Setting options to turn off the timer, and skipping over letters, if you prefer. Ignore the Submit button, it’s not a competition). The grid is a little over-crossed, ah well. August’s puzzle is well under way.

If you know anyone who wants to publish a monthly crossword, do send them my way. And if you think you get 50p’s-worth of entertainment from my puzzles, please feel free to paypal me on
the-bka@tlmb.net . (Sorry to ask, but times are hard. Obviously, it’s totally okay for you to carry on enjoying them for free.) ReTweets and the like help too.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy. Answers in a week. Chat to me on Twitter if you like…
Cheers!

The solution to my June puzzle can be viewed in this image.

1d, 16 and 17 were my favourites. How about you?
Time to get going on my July puzzle. Except I’ve got a video to edit before I can do that. Damn, too many hobbies, I should have less fun.

It would have been my friend Gary's birthday yesterday. Sad that he's not still around to share my crosswords with. pic.twitter.com/12fwgawiau

— The Void ザ・ヴォイド (@TheVoidTLMB) June 10, 2019