Jonathan Baldwin

Do subscribers to the puzzles app get a refund? Seriously… unsolvable except by process of elimination Why can’t letters be underlined in the app? It makes no technological sense!

Fun fact: my parents met at the original Kit Kat factory in York (the original York, in fact)

For the love of god please don’t think baths are called ‘lavs’ in Bath. They’re called ‘baths’

I live ten minutes walk from the River Clyde and I spent a few minutes trying to remember what it was called 😅 Want expecting to see it in the crossword

I don’t think I’ve ever heard ‘goodoh’ being used outside of comedy sketches about posh people. The word has never crossed the lips of anyone I know.

I really did not enjoy that - a lot of trivial knowledge required that was very US focused. More like doing a frustrating pub quiz… And no eels or oreos either…

I thought I was struggling with this one but ended up with a PB of 22 minutes… some of the more American clues stumped me for a bit but other clues filled those in, or logic did.

Not cricket doesn’t refer to the game’s governance but the expectation that players will abide by the rules without them being enforced. For example, a player who is bowled out or caught fair and square should walk before the umpire tells them to. A player who catches a ball that has touched the ground as they catch it shouldn’t claim the catch and so on. Not playing fair and not owning up is what we mean when we say we say something just isn’t cricket. Playing like that is frowned upon and nobody likes a player who does it. Bad form. I’ve never heard an Isle of Man resident refer to themselves as Gaels, given hardly any actually are. You were right with Manx.

Spent forever wondering what an OC Dave was. Couldn’t figure out why the puzzle wasn’t complete. In my defence, Wand is a much better answer to wish list item than ‘Want’

I’d say ‘head off’ and never ‘head out’. That’s the thing with idiomatic English - it changes by the mile.

OMG what the heck is ‘instant tea’? Stop getting tea wrong, America! 😅

I drive past the Kelpies quite often although, given they loom over the motorway, I’m surprised they don’t cause accidents!

Professor Moriarty was NOT a professor of ‘math’, but ‘maths’. In fact to be precise, ‘mathematics’ Dear oh dear…

I used to live at the mouth of the River Tay. Nice to see it mentioned here. Lovely part of the world.

34 minutes - a PB for Sunday! However… ‘gaol’ is not a word in common usage in Britain (jail is the preferred modern spelling) and Arial is NOT an alternative to Helvetica. It is a poor imitation. How very dare you.

I wouldn’t say unesco is a ‘peace’ organisation. Their focus is culture. None of the UK unesco sites are known for needing peace keepers, except maybe on a Friday or Saturday night…

This was tricky and I’m amazed I managed to come in under my average time. A hint to British solvers: the answer to 7 across is not what you think, and is highly offensive in US English. Language, eh?

I regret looking up BDSM for 56 down…

A British scone isn’t a ‘pastry’. It’s more like fluffy bread. Made with far less butter and sugar than the American version. Larry David would love them…

Living in Scotland I have to say I’ve never heard a highlander described as a Gael…

New PB for me, 9:34!

55 years on this earth ABC in Britain and I have never, ever, heard ‘chap’ used in that way

Not sure why I was convinced the ‘mighty’ clue solved to ‘oat’ 😅 The answer’s our national tree

There is no such word as ‘Legos’ unless you also now allow ‘sheeps’. Lego say the plural is Lego, or Lego bricks but never Legos

Editor: Please learn the difference between British and English. It was British troops at the Miracle of the Marne - it’s the British army not the English army (Sgt Pepper notwithstanding)

Mmm. Couple of things: ‘It is I’ is grammatically incorrect. ‘It’ is the subject therefore the object pronoun ‘me’ is required. And the plural of opus is really opera. So that clue should have a ‘commonly’ at the end

I had ‘stank at’ for ages which I’m sure is more grammatically correct… Nice to see ‘arses’ in there Finished in 48 minutes and it’s still Saturday here so now what will I do for Sunday? Oh yes - the Guardian cryptic!

26 minutes, new PB! So much better than yesterday’s 😂

9 minutes, new PB for a Tuesday. However… wheels don’t have ‘ends’ 😅

I could not get started with this one at all. Not sure why, maybe because of the many US-centric clues? Completed it though, but needed help

For an international audience, this puzzle was especially US centric.

A split vote is not the *cause* of a hung jury, it’s the *result* of one. Editors should have picked that up…

I’m sure the plural of yeti is yeti…

This was awful. Amer? Gas up? Come on… why take money from non American subscribers and then fill the crossword with so many esoteric clues?

No. Just no. 🤬

It’s octopuses or octopodes, not ‘octopi’, dear crossword editor…

Welcome to Britain! Visit York, and North Yorkshire. You’ll never want to leave

Re Pie and mash: beef is not a fish. I think someone is making stuff up here.

What in God’s name is the Weimar ‘era’?

“ This is not the most devilishly difficult of Saturday puzzles” I finished this a little over my average time but for some reason I found it impossible to get started. Maybe too reliant on US-centric clues which is never a good thing for an internationally-aimed puzzle.