We now have an extra blogged crossword.
News Limited seem to have decided to replace the "Australianised" Sunday Times Crossword which is published in the weekend OZ
with the one published in the London Sunday Times 7 weeks earlier."
The standard of the clueing is much better but the loss of the local content is a shame.
I assume it is all about cost-saving and selling more content online.
I guess the OZ version will cease to be a prize crossword - perhaps they have finally run out of dictionaries to give away (:-).
A list of recent developments follow.
27.1.2011 - Let me know if you like the new look or not.
12.04.2012 - Since Easter, links were one day out. Now fixed. Sorry for delay - "away for a bit!"
04.03.2012 - An Info page specific to the Sunday Times Crossword has been added
HERE.
06.02.2012 - By request, an additional Link to the previous Sunday Times Crossword Blog has been added.
13.1.2012 - A Link to the Sunday Times Crossword Blog has been added.
31.3.2011 - Google Search feature for 8966 gives yesterday's puzzle ??? - just click on "Next Entry".
30.3.2011 - Repeat of glitch of 21.1.2011. Use the Google Search feature and input Australian Serial number till fixed.
26.1.2011 - Logic to handle Christmas day "non-publication" in UK fixed.
24.1.2011 - A new search feature. A link at bottom right now gives you a Google search by entering an Australian Crossword Number try it!
22.1.2011 - The bug has been fixed by the Livejournal boffins (A kind description). All well again.
21.1.2011 - Serious glitch - caused by Livejournal changes which screwed many of their internal links.
All of the links to their archives based on dates were broken!
Late Jan. 2011 - On Christmas Day 2010, The Times published an on-line Cryptic (No. 100000001)
even though the printed version did not appear.
I suspect that at some time the Oz will pick this one up.
The Times prize Saturday puzzle solution for December 18 was published (and blogged!) on Christmas Eve
and a "Saturday" Prize puzzle was also published but blogged on Saturday Jan 1. Exactly what the Oz will do
at the end of this month to "catch up" I don't know.
January 5th. 2011 - The link to the blog for the puzzle in the Oz today failed because the blog was "mis-filed"
not a great drama - just use Google.
Early January 2011 - The Times seems to have published two puzzles on the same day with the same number.
One was on-line, the other was in the printed version. What will the Oz do?
September - December 2010 - Competition Puzzles. The Times hosts an annual Crossword competition in
Cheltenham each year. Previously, some of these have been published on the on-line version of the Newspaper.
This year some of them have appeared in The Times as normal puzzles. So far no trouble resulted except
championship competitors complain they now miss out having done them already! Watch this space.
June 2010 - Six successive puzzles were unexpectedly omitted from the Oz series. This broke the logic on this page until I fixed it
assuming it was a permanent change. The direct "Calendar-based" search at the bottom of the page is not now accurate
- is this a problem?