Congratulations by Mr Magoo
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View ArticleCat in a box (Dull by Phi)
This puzzle has an involved history, much of which I’ve forgotten. I vaguely recall spotting DEAD-AND-ALIVE, and noting it had 12 letters, and could describe Schrodinger’s Cat, and, oh, look,...
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Can You Do More Division? Of Course You Can!
From the setters’ perspective First of all apologies for this being a bitty late but I’ve been away on holiday. Can You Guess Where I was? Of Course You Can!! Jealous? You bet I am!! A bit of a...
View ArticlePyramin by Shark
4 years ago I was looking up magic square in Chambers and spotted magic pyramid. We all know a Rubik’s cube when we see one and I vaguely remembered the Rubik’s triamid and the similar looking...
View ArticleSad Hummer – A Compiler’s View
As many Magpie solvers will realise this was a follow-on from Dumber Muzzle in Magpie 99. That was compiled in the spirit of “can it be done?”. It had a 7×8 grid with 35 clues. The logic started in a...
View ArticleFire alarm secures Olympic medal
A month ago, a casual glance at the UK Puzzle Association online forum alerted me to the fact that within a week there would be a Sudoku/Kenken competition taking place as part of the annual Mind...
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Old Nit or Nun - the libellous title!!
The first version of this puzzle was oh so different from the published version. I had the title Highway 61 Revisited and a 5×5 grid spaced out with arrows in between each cell. The clues gave numbers...
View Article2001: Imperfect Notes by Ferret
I love Stanley Kubrick’s films, they are visually stunning. Every frame is carefully composed and often carries deeper meaning. I saw a restored version of the film last year at the BFT and I was just...
View ArticleWelcome to Nerdsville, by AJ
Welcome to Nerdsville, Croatia and the 2012 World Puzzle Championship. With a grandstand view of the island of Krk, it is a place with no vowels, but for one week only the world’s highest concentration...
View ArticleShark on SHArK by Shark
I understand that several setters create their crosswords, leave them and solve them again some time later. They then can rewrite those clues that they feel are below the mark and only then send off...
View ArticleMark’s Mind
.mark { margin-left:-145px; margin-right:-150px; border 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse; } .mark td { border: 1px solid black; } Here Mark Goodliffe, Times crossword solving champion and...
View ArticleA Saharan Adventure
Many of you will know Neil Talbott, if not in person then at least by reputation. Neil’s crossword-solving skills are pretty good, as a glance at the Magpie stats will show, and a glance at the...
View ArticleAfter the Outing – Pedro speaks
Pedro has provided some insight into the setting of After the Outing, and also his own identity, at his web site.
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More Saharan Stories
Those of you who followed the news of Neil Talbott’s Saharan adventure might be interested in this post-script. Neil says, of his ultramarathon preparations, that “I thought you might like to know that...
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More Magpie sightings
This time, in France. Darren Roberts, who took the picture, says “There are 4 magpies perched and ready, whilst the fifth magpie remains always present despite being behind the scenes.” Captions welcome.
View ArticleRO + OD: Only Connect
Puzzles that stem from the setting partnership that is Rood occur out of desperation. I (RO) asked for OD’s help as I was stuck with my tesseract Listener puzzle and this time it was OD’s return to...
View ArticlePhi’s Remote Control
If you want to know more about the process of setting this puzzle, just have a look at Phi’s blog post on the subject.
View ArticleFour Setters of The Apocalypse – Oyler’s Take
Ever since my Listener puzzle Odd One Out [L3984] put the ‘fear of God’ into one of the Magpie editors I’d wanted to replicate that but with a scary title instead. I thought about words that had scary...
View ArticleTwo Girls, One on Each Knee (7) – A Book Review
The Magpie was sent a review copy of Two Girls, One on Each Knee (7) by Alan Connor. Here is our review. This Christmas marks, almost exactly, the 100th anniversary of the crossword, and here is an...
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