What a call on Henley (at this stage)

Or maybe … is he getting even less ok?

@bencoleygolf.bsky.social hi Ben will there be a “player by player” for this years masters? Thanks

Unch Issue 3 cover. "unch" text at the top, with the subtitle "the clued up crossword magazine". The field is dark yellow and on it is a cartoon of a red hand pointing to the right and a big black arrow pointing down.

OK everyone - we have a cover sorted out and pre-sales are open!

Roll up and buy one now at unchcrosswords.com

Please do repost and share where you can, I'm really keen to get these excellent puzzles in front of as many people as possible...

You mean flowers? 😉

If this was a horse race there would be a 20p in the pound rule 4 deduction 😃

I suspect:
a Some of the advice is from people who make their money farming engagement on here who aren’t writers
b what works for one writer won’t necessarily work for other writers anyway! 😃

I’d rather have some grass than a bowl of cold sick for breakfast but I’d hope I can do better than either

Mostly … it was was the age of foolishness

Sadly I think currently football is Reform and VAR is Labour

Why am I only now discovering that Peter Mandelson is an anagram of PM needs to learn ?!

I’ve got no dog in this fight, and I don’t individually blame the players, the managers or the refs, but collectively English football will need to get together in the summer and do something about corners #ARSCHE

When dealing with someone who doesn’t understand/believe in concepts such as truth or lies it’s quite difficult to define any of this stuff

Better than teat cream

I think it’s fine to have shared references as long as they move with the times. “Would an intelligent man on the street use/recognise this?” is I think a reasonable question. Rather than “is this generally used is crossword land (even if it has fallen into disuse)?”

Remind me, as well as sex, what can IT mean? It’s gin and “it” isn’t it, which is what, tonic? About 100 years ago?

You might like Fed in the guardian (Dave Gorman) who more often uses modern general knowledge

(By some setters I mean)

My problem is the rules of what kind of general knowledge is expected seem to be based on what you might learn in a 1950s grammar school. RE, Latin etc …

My long standing least favourite is hat = tile. Last spotted in the lyrics of music hall song “where did you get that hat?”. At least in CH defence they still exist. Judi dench, seb coe, jk Rowling etc are CH s

I saw this recently so now may be the time to share

Surely you should approve of a lust for content? Just not that content? 😃

It’s a very good point. When Farridge etc say “the pub” they don’t just mean “the pub”

Crikey, that’s a surprise. The use of pants as an adjective is not that recent (in dictionary updating terms) I think? I almost feel young. Only almost

I make no comment on whether Starmer should go or not, but I don’t agree that in 2029 people will be voting on what happened in early 2026. Politics can swing round in months these days. For example I think Zak P has come in too early, his best chance might’ve been a 6-12 month run up to a GE

There’s been a mural

Good analysis as always Steve. Will you be looking to back Rosey back in running if the lead narrows?

He’s such an open and humble character

I have followed you on Gerard as well though. Was lucky enough to be on him EW last week so worth another play