Times Cryptic Crossword Book 14 – Puzzle Index

This is the first book of Times daily cryptic crosswords to include a significant number of puzzles we’ve blogged at Times for the Times. Crossword editor Richard Browne has kindly told me how the puzzles in this book correspond to the published sequence, so this index gives you links to our reports for most of the puzzles. New readers may be surprised by the relatively short early entries – when the blog started, I wrote the report every day and didn’t have time for the longer reports we produce now, though the amount I wrote gradually increased during the year. I also didn’t always cover Saturday puzzles except by reporting my time and maybe talking briefly without giving answers away, so these are marked in the list below – note that some follow on from reports about Monday puzzles which may not give the puzzle number for the Saturday. Unfortunately, as the Saturday puzzles are traditionally selected as good ones, this means they’re more likely to be selected for books. About the last dozen puzzles are from the early days of the team version of the blog, and there are also some reports from linxit and magoo who stood in for me during a couple of holidays.

The puzzles in the book all appeared in 2006, and they include the puzzles from the Times Crossword Championship, which restarted that year after a 5-year gap. I can’t remember whether the 2006 finals puzzles appeared in the paper, but I’m guessing not as they’re unblogged. My downfall was 22D in number 77, though other members of the “cream of male British crossword solvers” as the Times report called us, made their own mistakes in our collective defeat by Helen Ougham. There may be small differences between the clues in the book and the ones originally published. If you notice one that makes the blog report misleading, tell me by e-mailing TimesBook14(at)biddlecombe.demon.co.uk and I’ll then check it out and add a comment to the blog report if appropriate. (Ditto if you find a dud link – I’ve only tested a subset)

Posts like this are filed in the Memories page under “Times xwd book indexes” so that you can find them when you need them. (Book 9 of the Jumbo series has some blogged puzzles too).

Here’s the Amazon UK page for the book. According to Amazon, it’s published today, though you could order it a few days ago – mine arrived this morning.

As I work through the book, I’ll review the blog reports and edit them where appropriate – already done for a wrong answer in No. 4. As some reports have no comments at all, I won’t italicise the changes unless this seems appropriate. If you’re stumped by clues I didn’t include, do comment on the old blogs – I’ll get e-mail notifications and will respond where necessary.

Across
No. in Book	Original number / comments
1	23379 – a rare thematic puzzle (as the book introduction notes)
2	23175 – N.B. 4 / 23177 is covered by the same report
3	23176
4	23177
5	23178
6	23180 – Saturday
7	23193
8	23201
9	23204 – Saturday
10	23208
11	23456
12	23215
13	23217
14	23220
15	23224
16	23230
17	23234 – Saturday
18	23236
19	23245
20	23246 – Saturday
21	23243
22	23250
23	23252 Saturday – not blogged
24	23262
25	23264 Saturday – not blogged
26	23267
27	23268
28	23278
29	23279
30	23282 Saturday – not blogged
31	23285
32	23288 Saturday – not blogged
33	23289
34	23300 – Saturday
35	23315
36	23318 – Saturday
37	23324 – Saturday
38	23325
39	23326
40	23329
41	23330 – Saturday
42	23344
43	23348 – Saturday
44	23349
45	23358
46	23359
47	23360 – Saturday – N.B. same report covers 23361
48	23361
49	23368
50	23378 – Saturday
51	23381
52	23384 – Saturday
53	23397
54	23398
55	23402 – Saturday
56	23420 Saturday – not blogged
57	23421
58	23424
59	23425
60	23426 Saturday – not blogged
61	23427
62	23428
63	23432 – Saturday
64	23438
65	23439
66	23440
67	23451
68	23444
69	23445
70	23429 Champ Prelim A 3
71	23423 Champ Prelim A 2
72	23417 Champ Prelim A 1
73	23447 Champ Prelim B 1
74	23435 Champ Prelim B 2
75	23441 Champ Prelim B 3
76	Champ Final 1
77	Champ Final 2
78	Champ Final 3
79	23453 Champ tie-breaker (unused)
80	23354 – Saturday, Last puzzle from John Grant (Times xwd ed 1983-95)