I am willing to look at any CRYPTIC crossword you want to send. No general knowledge puzzles or wordsearches please - they are more than adequately catered for by other sites. It can be of any level of difficulty, blocked or barred, plain or thematic. I welcome crosswords with unusual or obscure vocabulary - but will not accept words or clues that contain vulgar, offensive or prejudicial references. It hardly needs to be said that your crossword should be your own work - please don't send me last Thursday's Guardian just because it was rather good!

 

Clues must be along Ximenean lines. I am not a complete purist on this one and I welcome imaginative thought - but I don't like unfair clueing such as indirect anagrams or grammatically incorrect definitions ( eg "the ring" is not an acceptable definition of "to phone").  

 

If you are using Sympathy (Bryson Limited) as your compiling software, then just e-mail your puzzle as a file attachment. If not, then send the grid as a picture file (e.g. a JPG file) attached to an email along with the clues AND SOLUTIONS as a normal email or an attached Word document. I would like a full explanation for hard thematics - and if your crossword relies on obscure words and references an explanation is essential too.

 

After looking at your puzzle I will let you know whether or not I intend to publish it. If it's a "nearly there" I will suggest possible alterations. I do not intend to make alterations to any published puzzles myself - it should be your own work that people see and I know how annoying meddlesome editors can be! The only details I will alter are typos, misnumbered clues etc.

 

I write a brief introduction to each guest puzzle, so if you would like to say a little about yourself for me to include in what I write, please feel free. Also, if you want me to put in a link to an e-mail address or your own site I'll gladly do so. 

 

Please note that I normally publish only one crossword per guest compiler. This is to ensure a wide variety of setters in the Guest Puzzles section. Obviously I will make an exception to this if I am sent two or more really outstanding puzzles by the same setter; however I would prefer to leave a gap of about six months between publication of each crossword.

Please bear in mind that my setting work for the FT and Independent takes up a fair amount of my time, and so it may be anything up to a month before I get a chance to deal with your puzzle. Usually it will be sooner than that, and I do acknowledge initial receipt of submitted puzzles within a day or two, unless I happen to be away.

Any questions? Please contact me. Otherwise I look forward to receiving your contributions, and thank you for visiting this site.

 

Alberich