Sir, – In the 1970s I played in the Gaiety Theatre pit orchestra. Between playing we’d read books. Gaiety management asked us to desist as we looked bored. So we twiddled our thumbs for a couple of nights until one of the musicians, also a cruciverbalist, put The Irish Times crosswords in among the music on his stand.
I’d never tried a crossword but I followed suit, completing the Simplex but being utterly baffled by the cryptic. The cruciverbalist advised putting yesterday’s crossword and today’s solution side by side. Thus I learned. A year later I could complete both crosswords in under 20 minutes.
Then came Crosheir 10 years ago and I had to revert to clues beside solutions to figure him out.
Now you’ve gone too far. Sometimes it’s so bad that even today’s solutions shed no light on yesterday’s clues.
An Irish businessman in Singapore: ‘You’ll get a year in jail if you are in a drunken brawl, so people don’t step out of line’
Goodbye to the 46A: End of legendary Dublin bus route made famous in song
Paul Mescal’s response to meeting King Charles was a masterclass in diplomacy
Protestants in Ireland: ‘We’ve gone after the young generations. We’ve listened and changed how we do things’
I am defeated and dejected.
– Yours, etc,
KEITH DONALD,
Rockbrook,
Dublin 16.