Dmitry Adamskiy

Our local towns keep popping up in The Times cryptics. Now it is Ramsgate s turn:

A-list celeb from Ramsgate, unusually (8)

YouTube video by Dmitriy Adamskiy Magpie 240 -- On a Roll

Decided to make public some videos about my favourite puzzles from years back. Here's a mini-playlist on the best Listeners of 2021:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

And here's one of my favourite Magpie puzzles of all time:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3oh...

Some of my opinions shifted since then!

The very short version: when I started I couldn't finish either Times daily or The Listener without using aids. And if you allow yourself using aids then the difficulty is about the same (easier for barred ones as less -- no pun intended -- unches!) but the payoff is much greater for thematics!

Thanks! I honestly don't think Listener is on a different level to the Inquisitor. Moreover, I have a theory on why, specifically for novices / non-native speakers, Listener is in some way not harder than, say, daily Times offering..

YouTube video by Dmitriy Adamskiy Listener Crossword 4889 "CE" by Mozart

The new Listener video is out! One of the harder ones of this brilliant year.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wptT...

Deal got a mention not long ago as well:

Swimming beaches west of Deal covered with sewage from east (5)

Although, of course the coastline here is north-south, so the nearest beach west of Deal is in Burnham-on-Sea, not far from Bristol (and some 300km from Deal) and thus I am not too worried.

This Sandwich resident is happy with this clue in The Times:

Old noble in northeastern Kent mainly (5)

(we're not there, although until recently we were bundled with them together in the weird South T. constituency -- and then were gerrymandered into even more bizarre "Sandwich and Herne Bay" one)

I don't see why not!:)

Maybe I should put it out here now that this is an account on cryptics.
I review The Listener puzzles every week:
www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...
New episodes released when solutions are published: Friday, 4pm, three weeks after the publication of the puzzle.

I am enjoying it a lot.
As a Magpie/Listener fan, I went straight for the thematic and it didn't disappoint! Since then, done two more -- wonderful stuff! Will send my nitpicking comments by email :)

Got my copy of Unch. Great to see a bunch of new young setters, somewhat orthogonal to the Listener/Magpie bunch I'm most familiar with.
Also, great surface making it such a pleasure to solve with the fountain pen!

YouTube video by Dmitriy Adamskiy Times Crossword 29369

Waking up at 5.30am and deciding one has to record the Times Cryptic. Very hard today. And by John Guiver! Around 25 mins in I transition from suffering to enjoying the suffering.

Ok, I guess this will be mainly an account about cryptics. But this is so wonderful from the BBC and not totally unrelated to linguistic ambiguity at the heart of the cryptics art.

(And of course "Times for The Times" is a wonderful resource -- in a very nostalgic way it was hosted on LiveJournal right until April 2022 but moved to a standalone website since)

The Times Quick Cryptic should hopefully fill the gap! It's 13x13 => shorter average answer length and thus simpler wordplay. Also they avoid more arcane abbreviations from the dusty corners of Chambers.. The 15x15 daily ones vary greatly in difficulty but there's a helpful SNITCH rating for it!

Dear Peter, how is the Cryptic thing / Times subscription going? I do sometimes dream of you doing a cryptic stream together with Simon from CtC (I know he's a big fan of your commentary!)..
The Times Championship was last weekend and the final puzzle is a beauty, check it out!

Slippery slope! You'll be submitting The Listener entries in no time at all! They are still paper-only in 2025 so it is rather intriguing to see what tovarisch mayor will think of them. Also, check out The Magpie, it's brilliant.