Give the team a ‘high five’

Thank you for the years of enjoyment and challenge your crosswords give me. When I first started I couldn’t finish a simple one, now the first puzzle I turn to is the cryptic - they are fun and funny. I must admit,I find the Baffler more difficult than the Stinker, but I eventually get most of them out.  Keep up the good work - give the team a ‘high five’ from another fan.

Deborah Lund
Bluewater, Qld

A time rich with good memories

I was very happy to receive ‘Beyond the Sea’ CD and love listening to Sinatra and others of the fifties.

I was amazed, but delighted, to see you had printed my list of authors and titles and the anecdote of my childhood near Mackay. Last thing I expected, as I felt it was all far too long.

My dear Dad was the head teacher at Coningsby, a little country school near the canefields – and the snakes. They turned up in many varieties – even the taipan.

How could I have forgotten my other companion, Jock, a handsome dog – not only a ‘lady-killer’ but our expert snake killer. He’d grab them behind those venomous heads and shake them to death – and thoroughly enjoyed it.

That was the era of the Great Depression, but the five years we spent there were rich with good memories.

The mellow voices of the descendants of the South Sea Islanders – some of whom were forcibly taken from their homes (it was called ‘black birding’) to labour in the cane fields, would float over from the school to the house, singing ‘Home sweet home’. The first time my homesick mother heard it she cried her heart out.

Am enclosing a poem about a tiny event of that time. Wish Dad could read it.

Enid Smith
Deception Bay Qld

Vignette

“What’s that sound I hear, sir?”
“Sound? What sound, Mattie Vella?”
“Sir, I hear little bells.
Please may I go out, sir?”
“You all may .. I’ll be with you in a minute.”

Out streamed the children, crowding the school fence –
Only to see padding along with its nose in the air,
A pampered racing camel.
Its colour was pale cream, the harness fashioned of red leather,
Tasselled and hung with little bells.

The rider was an Afghan, robed in black and white,
Turban neatly wound,
Guide stuck on a lean hand.

As they passed, he gave the stick a little twirl,
For us, a dignified nod – then they were gone,
And the sound of little bells faded into the distance.

I was one of those happy kids that day,
Never saw such a pretty sight before,
An Afghan on his racing camel –
No-one will ever see it again –
Faded like yesterday into the distance.
They’re long gone and forgotten,
But the memory lingers
Of the tinkle of little bells –
And an Afghan rider passing by,
On a pampered racing camel.

Keep up the Concept-Cross

Have always lamented that the different trial puzzles dont have the answer in the current issue, and that I invariably forget to check on answers when the solution appears. With Big 203 and Concept-Cross though Ive finally completed one, and naturally I love it. Keep up the good work.
Patrick Hooper

Maxi mad

MAXI MAXI MAXI, just thought I would let you know how much I really enjoy your Cluewords editions. Would love to see either more of the Maxi’s or maybe even a whole book dedicated to the MAX..
Love your puzzles
Kerry Dyer

Cryptic Convert

Thank you so much for the wonderful surprise of 2 Cryptic Puzzle books that landed on my doorstep yesterday.
I have been doing your puzzles for years and last year my partner taught me how to do cryptics, and they have quickly become my favourite puzzles.
I spend an hour nearly every morning doing your puzzles online, and now when my work is finished, I can do some more. Once again, thank you very much.
Kind Regards
Julie Quinn
Kelmscott, WA

Can’t live without cryptics

I thank you sincerely for your publications, especially the cryptic large editions. I cannot live without them. I have an over-active mind so your editions give me satisfaction instead of boredom. I use the small editions too, but mainly the large editions are my preference. I am your best customer. Thank you for producing these books.

G Djaffer
Bayswater, Vic

Books I loved

Regarding books one likes to read, in my late teens Mary Webb’s Gone to Earth was my favourite. I shed tears over it. Her other books were lovely also, and I read all Georgette Heyer’s Georgian and Reginey romances.

In later years, I was enthralled by Dorothy Dennett’s Crawford of Lymond (a Scottish saga) and the sweeping Niccolo series, for her knowledge of that period (1470 circa) and lyrical language. There were fourteen in all and I devoured them. Superb!

I also admire W.E.B Griffins Pacific war series and Louis L’amour and Alan le May’s fine westerns. I liked your Delderfield books and loved Ruth Park’s Pink Flannels. I think it should be a set book for schools. I wonder what a delderfield is?

I mustn’t forget The Catcher in the Rye and Gone with the Wind. In my bookcase, there’s a dilapidated copy of 1066 And All That (pub 1933). Its mangled version of English history still makes me giggle.
I know I have mentioned too many books but there’s a long history of reading behind me starting with dad’s set of Arthur Mee’s encyclopaedies, which together with a Rhode Island Red rooster called Scaramouche were my companions when we were living near Mackay in the early 1930s.

I have a Toby jug depicting Sairey Gamp with her brolly forming the handle. She looks a right old boozy character as a lot of midwives were in that era. “Gin was mother’s milk to ‘er”, also “Drunk for a penny, dead drunk for thrippence”. Who wrote that last quote?

It’s 2am and a grey owl just beat on my kitchen window; maybe after a gecko, or perhaps it recognises another of its kind in me, a night bird.

Enid Smith
Deception Bay, Qld

All references on hand

I have put in my first DIY entry. The reference books I used were Webster’s Int. Dictionary 1960 edition, Australian Crossword Dictionary 1987, Wordsworth Crossword Dictionary 1994 and Complete Crossword Dictionary Miriam Webster 2007.
I didn’t have to use my books very much for the grid – I found I need them more for the clues. I am looking forward to the next BIG and working on the DIY again. Of all your books I like BIG and Holiday the best.
Hilda Snowden
Hallett Cove, SA

Love the new Mega Mix

Thank you for making the Mega bi-monthly! It is an extra treat for us as we sit over pots of coffee doing the Stinkers and Bafflers and Demons together and culling our septuagenarian brains for past knowledge before we hunt through the reference books, the atlas or the Internet on my FRED (Flaming Ridiculous Electronic Device) or Sister Marianne’s laptop. And we just love the new Mega Mix - what a lovely combination of cryptic clues and general knowledge.

We marvel as we work through the Mega, Colossus and Holiday Collection, how you go on finding new arcane clues to exercise us. Keep it up - we would get withdrawal symptoms without our Lovatts!

Eileen M Byrne
Kenmore, Qld

Slumber solves the clues

Why is it, when I do a cryptic crossword,
I get stuck on a word,
I go to sleep,
when I awake, I can solve the clues,
very easily,
then I repeat it again the next night,
it works for me,
why is it?!?

Diana Saunders
Mirrabooka, WA

Next Page »