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.
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I am defeated and dejected.
– Yours, etc,
KEITH DONALD,
Rockbrook,
Dublin 16.