Information design
Crossword and quiz links
Crosswords — mainly the cryptic variety — and quizzes are among my passions outside work.
Fifteensquared
Daily blogs of puzzles in the Guardian, Independent (including the Inquisitor puzzle in the i), FT and Private Eye
Big Dave’s Crossword Blog
Daily blogs of puzzles in the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, plus an exclusive puzzle every week
Times for the Times
Daily blogs of puzzles in The Times
The Crossword Centre on Facebook
Crossword news, and a special prize puzzle every month
Crossword events calendar
A regularly updated diary of social and other events for cruciverbalists. Unless otherwise stated, these are open to anyone who loves crosswords and would like to get together with like-minded obsessives. Solvers, setters and bloggers are all welcome.
The Cruciverbalists on Hive Minds
Winners of the 2016 Qi–Guardian Christmas Quiz... The Enigmaticals!
Quiz and clues from the Listener Crossword Setters’ Dinner 2024
The judges
The Listener Setters’ (and solvers’) Dinner 2024 was held at the Lincoln Hotel, Eastgate, Lincoln, on Saturday 9 March.
Here are the quiz from the Dinner, plus an answer sheet, as downloadable PDFs. When the clue answers are correctly fitted into the grid, and X identified, it all leads to the name of an individual. Guests were asked to submit a cryptic clue to that name.
The submitted clues (some perhaps not for those of delicate sensibilities) are also here for download.
The Golden Anniversary Listener Crossword Setters’ Dinner 2023
The Listener Setters’ (and solvers’) Dinner 2023, held at the Mercure Bristol Grand on 4 March, marked 50 years since the first such Dinner, organised by Ploutos.
You can download a copy of the souvenir brochure.
There’s a short vlog of the event at the end of this Dweebovision video. Thanks to David Webb.
Here’s the quiz and clue competition from the Dinner.
Chalicea’s photos of the Dinner and other parts of the weekend are here. More photos and/or links to be added.
The Quiz from the Listener Crossword Dinner 2022
This quiz — entitled ‘And the winner is’ — was part of the entertainment at the dinner for Listener Crossword setters and solvers, held at Stirling Court Hotel, University of Stirling, on 26 March 2022.
Teams should write their answers on the Master Answer Sheet.
The Quiz from the Listener Crossword Dinner 2020
This quiz — entitled ‘Deaf Ears’ — was part of the entertainment at the dinner for Listener Crossword setters and solvers, held at Ettington Chase, near Stratford-on-Avon on 14 March 2020.
Teams should write their answers on the Master Answer Sheet.
Richard Heald receives the Bronze Casket from Enigmatist and JETdoc (in high heels) on behalf of the winning table
The Quiz from the Listener Crossword Dinner 2019
This quiz — entitled ‘Calmness Personified’ — was part of the entertainment at the dinner for Listener Crossword setters and solvers, held at York Racecourse in March 2019.
Teams should write their answers on the Master Answer Sheet.
Big Dave — 10 Glorious Years
A special presentation of a puzzle to commemorate the 10th birthday of Big Dave’s site, featuring all the bloggers.
York Sloggers & Betters puzzle 2018
A special crossword set by Elgar (aka Enigmatist, Nimrod, Io) — challenging, but much enjoyed, with a great PDM (that’s the penny-drop moment, in case you didn’t know).
For an explanation and solution, go to crypticsue’s blog on Big Dave‘s site.
What is a PDM?
To find out more about these “Aha!” moments which mean so much to crossword solvers, read this article by Kathryn Friedlander and Philip Fine, in Frontiers in Psychology.
York Sloggers & Betters Quiz 2018
Questions set by Enigmatist
This is the quiz which took place on Friday 26 October. The quiz route took in five pubs, with questions revealed successively at each one — two new questions per pub. The question sheet here is from the final pub, with the full set of questions. Each team will need an answer sheet.
If you want to run this quiz on the same basis — for charity, of course — get in touch via the Contact page.
The quiz from the 2018 Listener Crossword Dinner
Questions set by Enigmatist
This quiz — entitled ‘Absent Friends’ — was part of the entertainment at the dinner for Listener Crossword setters and solvers, held in Paris in March 2018.
Teams should write their answers on the Master Answer Sheet.