Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Hello, Elle!
It has been dullish weather here, but milder.
I was at Pine Cone with Miss La Bamba.
It was packed!
Still, we had a good time!
La Bamba is heading to Perth later for switching the Christmas lights on, and I think there is a concert, too.
I'm sure she mentioned Basil Brush and Atomic Kitten?
And a couple of others who I had not heard of.
Hope it's good!

Good evening, Rusty!
That is good that you had a good time with Miss L-B
I hope she enjoys her evening out in Perth.
I noticed that the Christmas lights are up in our High Street, but I have no idea whether or not they have been officially switched on yet!
Usually there is a little ceremony, and a Christmas market, plus a few roundabouts for the children...... and a visit from Santa.
But I have heard no publicity this year......
Well, that is Roger, Rafa and Novak all out of the ATP World Tour Finals!
The 22-year-old Stephanos Tsitsipas - who beat Roger this afternoon - will play either Alexander Zverev or Dominic Thiem, in the Final tomorrow.
( The second Semi is at 8pm tonight but not televised by the BBC)
Tsitsipas came over as a very nice young man in his post match interview.

Good evening, Elle!
Miss L-B will have a good time at Perth, I'm sure!
Our city centre tree was erected last week and was removed the next day as it was awful to look at.
It was very bare looking with brown foliage (is that the right word?) and was replaced by a much better tree the following day.
Good to see a challenge to the old guard at tennis.
Lynsey Sharp has taken a break from athletics.
She had a smear test and they found pre-cancerous lesions and I think she said she had surgery to remove them.
Just as well she had the smear test.

Hi, Rusty!
We usually have a tree , too, in our village.......
I am sorry to hear that about Lynsey Sharp.
Yes, it was fortunate that she had the Smear test.
And lucky, too, the cancer cells were indeed picked up.
A friend of mine died from cervical cancer some years back.... the problem was first missed on examination.
She was only 49......and left a husband and two young children.
Very sad.
I hope Lynsey recovers soon.
My daughter phoned...and yes , they are all coming here tomorrow for lunch!
It will be lovely to see them.

Hello, Elle!
We will have a tree locally, too.
Lynsey Sharp said she had pre-cancerous cells surgically removed, and has had a rough time.
Perfectly understandable.
She is having a break from athletics just now.
You will be chuffed to see your family tomorrow.
I am going to visit my son and Miss O'H, in the morning.

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, it will be great to have everyone over here tomorrow.
It is of course only last Sunday since we saw them.......but it seems ages!
That will be nice to see your elder son and Miss O'Hara.
She must be about 14 now? I cannot keep track of ages.....I may well have that wrong?
Our grandchildren are all growing so tall!
Only the twelve-year-old is as yet taller than I am...but he now tops me by several inches!
I meant to ask you how you found the crossword today?
I did actually manage to finish it!

Hello, Elle!
I am not good at knowing ages in my family.
I have all the birthdays written down, but not how old they are!
I thought it a reasonable puzzle today.
14a, and 18d, are new words to me.
Maybe, overall, it was on the easy side for a prize puzzle?

Hi, Rusty!
When I write down birthdays on my Wall Calendar , I put the ages in brackets after the name!
Well, I guess the crossword had to be on the "easy" side, for me to have been able to do it?
Strangely, though, I do usually find the Saturday puzzles are much easier to solve than the weekday ones.......odd really when they are the Prize ones!
I wonder do they have a particular regular setter for Saturdays?
Perhaps I just follow his/ her clueing better, if so.
I did not know "eparchy", either!
But it was straightforward enough to arrive at the answer from the parsing.
And then I verified the word by looking it up!

Good morning, Elle!
Bright frosty morning here!
Hope the good weather here continues.
The Times has many setters but I don't think they have a particular one for the prize puzzles.
But that's only what I think, I do not know for sure.
I followed the same tack as you, regarding "eparchy".
A good puzzle!

Good morning, Rusty!
It is a bright sunny morning here, too!
Regrettably no frost, but just very muddy ground.
A plodge, rather than a walk.....!
I am about to have a coffee now, and a look at the Everyman .
The family will be here about midday.
Hopefully, I am in time to catch you before you go visiting.......
Have a good time!