Phil's Crossword Puzzles

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Here are a few crossword puzzles that I have written.

Many years ago I was given the nickname 'Phil The Hat', which sometimes got abbreviated to just 'Phil The' or just 'The'. I recently decided I should use 'The' as my alias as a crossword setter. Some of my puzzles though are attributed using my real name.

with others:

West Country Cryptic
Four Thousand
CtC collab 1 - Creation
CtC collab 2 - Twice
CtC collab 3 - Comical X-Word
joeadultman collab 2 - 21D is ...
joeadultman collab 1 - All Over The Place

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 20

This is the twentieth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 19

This is the nineteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 18

This is the eighteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 17

This is the seventeenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the May/Jun 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 16

This is the sixteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Mar/Apr 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

12x12 cryptic Crossword

Another silly little cryptic crossword

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 15

This is the fifteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jan/Feb 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 14

This is the fourteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

mycrossword No. 1408

I enjoy watching people solve cryptic crosswords and other puzzles on Twitch, especially those where you can get involved and interact with the presenters. One such streamer goes by the name of ThymePass.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 13

This is the thirteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

mycrossword No. 1351

Another cryptic crossword

mycrossword No. 1321

Another cryptic crossword

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 12

This is the twelfth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

100x100 crossword for CtC 10000 Milestone

A 100 x 100 cryptic crossword written to mark the milestone in the Cracking The Cryptic discord server on reaching 10,000 puzzles in the archive. This is one of two puzzles that I created for this pack. The other one is a bit smaller.

CtC 10000 Milestone

A little cryptic crossword written to mark the milestone in the Cracking The Cryptic discord server on reaching 10,000 puzzles in the archive. This is one of two puzzles that I created for this pack. The other one is a bit bigger.

mycrossword No. 1124

Another cryptic crossword

mycrossword No. 1086

This puzzle was originally intended for my local parish newsletter but for some reason they have skipped the Mar/Apr 2023 edition of the magazine. So, I have put up a slightly modified version on mycrossword.co.uk instead (UPDATE: This did appear in the May/Jun edition of Kilmersdon Parish News). This is a 14x14 symmetrical grid. However, mycrossword only allows 15x15 for some reason so I had to pad it out with extra black squares.

Valid points on all sides

My last crossword was a jumbo 23x23, so here's a smaller 11x11.

MyCrossword Jumbo No. 5

The mycrossword.co.uk site now allows jumbo sized (23x23) crosswords, so I thought I'd give it a go.

MyCrossword No. 1007

Another cryptic crossword.

CrossHare Midi Contest February 2023

This is my entry for CrossHare's monthly puzzle contest which is on the theme of 'repeat'.

The Four Sides of Mrs. Pedler

This is a crossword puzzle that I wrote for a friend's birthday.

MyCrossword No. 948

Another cryptic crossword.

MyCrossword No. 948

Another cryptic crossword.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 10

This is the tenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jan/Feb 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 841

Another cryptic crossword.

CrossHare Midi Contest November 2022

This is my first ever entry for CrossHare's monthly puzzle contest which is on the theme of Family.

This puzzle was inspired by Lemonade Disco which is a monthly suite of crossword puzzles at TaylorMadeCrosswords.com.

An attempt at a mini American style crossword.

Cryptic Crossword at crosshare.org

Another cryptic crossword. I have been solving a few puzzles at an American crossword site called CrossHare for a while. So I thought I might inflict one of my cryptic crosswords on them for a change and see how that goes.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 9

This is the ninth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 719

Another cryptic crossword.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 8

This is the eighth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt September 2022

This puzzle was inspired by the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server which is on the subject of Opposites.

MyCrossword No. 678

This grid initially started out as one for the Kilmersdon Parish News but I wasn't happy with it, so created a different one for that. I later came back and decided to clue this one anyway and I have submitted it to the MyCrossword site.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 7

This is the seventh puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 631

This is my first submission to the MyCrossword site. There are some very knowledgable crossword people here, and I got some good feedback on the puzzle which is nice.

An attempt at a mini American style crossword.

24 5 22 is their 7, 24 5 17 is their 14

After making a crossword for the July puzzle prompt in the CtC discord server. I had another idea for a puzzle and this was the result.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt July 2022

This puzzle was inspired by the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't give away the theme here as you may enjoy discovering this for yourself.

Hard Nut To Crack

Another cryptic crossword puzzle.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 6

This is the sixth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. Hopefully it will be published in the May/Jun 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

This puzzle is part of a project initiated by meatdaddy69420 (see their blog post about it at The Deli Counter). Basically they came up with the fill, and asked various people to come up with their own clues for it. It is obviously designed for an American style crossword puzzle. Some of the answers are 100% definitely not possible to clue as a British style cryptic crossword, but I had a go anyway. I hope you enjoy this and/or the puzzles produced by the others who took part.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt April 2022

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't say here what the theme was, as you might enjoy discovering this while solving the puzzle.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 6

This is the sixth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. Hopefully it will be published in the May/Jun 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

This puzzle is part of a project initiated by meatdaddy69420 (see their blog post about it at The Deli Counter). Basically they came up with the fill, and asked various people to come up with their own clues for it. It is obviously designed for an American style crossword puzzle. Some of the answers are 100% definitely not possible to clue as a British style cryptic crossword, but I had a go anyway. I hope you enjoy this and/or the puzzles produced by the others who took part.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt March 2022

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't say here what the theme was, as you might enjoy discovering this while solving the puzzle.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 5

This puzzle was published in the Mar/Apr 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

A puzzle for the start of a new year - Cryptic Crossword

A new puzzle to start off the new year.

Four drawers of 20 - Cryptic Crossword

New puzzle from me for December.

CtC discord - November 2021 Monthly Puzzle Prompt - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle was made for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. The theme for November 2021 was 'Wacky Inventions'.

Don't blame it on The - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle contains some hidden references relating to the title.

CtC discord - One Year Celebration - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle was made to form part of the celebrations when the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server reached it's first anniversary.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 1

This is the first puzzle that I made specifically for my local village parish magazine. It was published in the May/Jun 2021 edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 2

This is the second puzzle I made for my local village parish magazine. It was published in the Jul/Aug 2021 edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 3

This puzzle was intended to be published in the Sep/Oct 2021 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News. However, the editor accidentally reprinted an older puzzle, so this one appeared in the Nov/Dec edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 4

This puzzle was published in the Jan/Feb 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Cryptic Crossword For Glentopher

I made this puzzle for a Twitch streamer called Glentopher who, through lockdown, has been solving cryptic crosswords live on stream a couple of days a week at lunchtimes.

This puzzle is designed to be fairly easy for a beginner cryptic solver.

I made this puzzle for a Twitch streamer called justdaniherenow who used to solve American style and cryptic crosswords live on stream.

Trick or Treat - Cryptic Crossword

This was one of my first serious attempts at making a proper cryptic crossword puzzle after joining the CtC fan discord server. It was made for the monthly puzzle prompt in October 2020 which was on the theme of Hallowe'en. Looking back at it now, there are a few things wrong with this puzzle. Some of the clues are pretty good but a few are unfairly difficult as the answers are quite obscure and the clues not necessarily straightforward either. Also there are too many uncrossed letters which makes it more difficult and less fun. It would appear that I made this puzzle before I learned that by convention, clues should not end in a full stop, even though they make a sentence. Hopefully this won't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the puzzle, and might flag-up that this is from a newbie setter. By all means, have a try at this puzzle, but you have been warned!

West Country Cryptic

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. The theme for February 2022 was 'collaboration' so this is a collaborative effort from myself and two other setters, BlueJay and Chris Jones.

CtC fan discord - Puzzle Archive 4000 milestone

This puzzle was made to be part of a pack of puzzles launched to celebrate the puzzle-archive in the CtC fan discord server reaching 4000 puzzles.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 1 - Creation

This was the first collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 2 - Twice

This was the second collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 3 - Comical X-Word

This was the third collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

This was another puzzle created colloboratively on joeadultman's Twitch stream.

All Over The Place - Cryptic Crossword

This was a puzzle created colloboratively in about 4 hours. It was organised and directed by Twitch streamer joeadultman

Phil's Puzzles Page

I have always had a passing interest in puzzles, but this has become a bit more of a serious obsession during lockdown since I discovered the Cracking The Cryptic YouTube channel.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 20

This is the twentieth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 19

This is the nineteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 18

This is the eighteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 17

This is the seventeenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the May/Jun 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 16

This is the sixteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Mar/Apr 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

12x12 cryptic Crossword

Another silly little cryptic crossword

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 15

This is the fifteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jan/Feb 2024 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 14

This is the fourteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

mycrossword No. 1408

I enjoy watching people solve cryptic crosswords and other puzzles on Twitch, especially those where you can get involved and interact with the presenters. One such streamer goes by the name of ThymePass.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 13

This is the thirteenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

mycrossword No. 1351

Another cryptic crossword

mycrossword No. 1321

Another cryptic crossword

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 12

This is the twelfth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

100x100 crossword for CtC 10000 Milestone

A 100 x 100 cryptic crossword written to mark the milestone in the Cracking The Cryptic discord server on reaching 10,000 puzzles in the archive. This is one of two puzzles that I created for this pack. The other one is a bit smaller.

CtC 10000 Milestone

A little cryptic crossword written to mark the milestone in the Cracking The Cryptic discord server on reaching 10,000 puzzles in the archive. This is one of two puzzles that I created for this pack. The other one is a bit bigger.

mycrossword No. 1124

Another cryptic crossword

mycrossword No. 1086

This puzzle was originally intended for my local parish newsletter but for some reason they have skipped the Mar/Apr 2023 edition of the magazine. So, I have put up a slightly modified version on mycrossword.co.uk instead (UPDATE: This did appear in the May/Jun edition of Kilmersdon Parish News). This is a 14x14 symmetrical grid. However, mycrossword only allows 15x15 for some reason so I had to pad it out with extra black squares.

Valid points on all sides

My last crossword was a jumbo 23x23, so here's a smaller 11x11.

MyCrossword Jumbo No. 5

The mycrossword.co.uk site now allows jumbo sized (23x23) crosswords, so I thought I'd give it a go.

MyCrossword No. 1007

Another cryptic crossword.

CrossHare Midi Contest February 2023

This is my entry for CrossHare's monthly puzzle contest which is on the theme of 'repeat'.

The Four Sides of Mrs. Pedler

This is a crossword puzzle that I wrote for a friend's birthday.

MyCrossword No. 948

Another cryptic crossword.

MyCrossword No. 948

Another cryptic crossword.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 10

This is the tenth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jan/Feb 2023 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 841

Another cryptic crossword.

CrossHare Midi Contest November 2022

This is my first ever entry for CrossHare's monthly puzzle contest which is on the theme of Family.

This puzzle was inspired by Lemonade Disco which is a monthly suite of crossword puzzles at TaylorMadeCrosswords.com.

An attempt at a mini American style crossword.

Cryptic Crossword at crosshare.org

Another cryptic crossword. I have been solving a few puzzles at an American crossword site called CrossHare for a while. So I thought I might inflict one of my cryptic crosswords on them for a change and see how that goes.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 9

This is the ninth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Nov/Dec 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 719

Another cryptic crossword.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 8

This is the eighth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Sep/Oct 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt September 2022

This puzzle was inspired by the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server which is on the subject of Opposites.

MyCrossword No. 678

This grid initially started out as one for the Kilmersdon Parish News but I wasn't happy with it, so created a different one for that. I later came back and decided to clue this one anyway and I have submitted it to the MyCrossword site.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 7

This is the seventh puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. This appeared in the Jul/Aug 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

MyCrossword No. 631

This is my first submission to the MyCrossword site. There are some very knowledgable crossword people here, and I got some good feedback on the puzzle which is nice.

An attempt at a mini American style crossword.

24 5 22 is their 7, 24 5 17 is their 14

After making a crossword for the July puzzle prompt in the CtC discord server. I had another idea for a puzzle and this was the result.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt July 2022

This puzzle was inspired by the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't give away the theme here as you may enjoy discovering this for yourself.

Hard Nut To Crack

Another cryptic crossword puzzle.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 6

This is the sixth puzzle I have written for my local Parish newsletter. Hopefully it will be published in the May/Jun 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

This puzzle is part of a project initiated by meatdaddy69420 (see their blog post about it at The Deli Counter). Basically they came up with the fill, and asked various people to come up with their own clues for it. It is obviously designed for an American style crossword puzzle. Some of the answers are 100% definitely not possible to clue as a British style cryptic crossword, but I had a go anyway. I hope you enjoy this and/or the puzzles produced by the others who took part.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt April 2022

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't say here what the theme was, as you might enjoy discovering this while solving the puzzle.

CtC Monthly Puzzle Prompt March 2022

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. I won't say here what the theme was, as you might enjoy discovering this while solving the puzzle.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 5

This puzzle was published in the Mar/Apr 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

A puzzle for the start of a new year - Cryptic Crossword

A new puzzle to start off the new year.

Four drawers of 20 - Cryptic Crossword

New puzzle from me for December.

CtC discord - November 2021 Monthly Puzzle Prompt - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle was made for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. The theme for November 2021 was 'Wacky Inventions'.

Don't blame it on The - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle contains some hidden references relating to the title.

CtC discord - One Year Celebration - Cryptic Crossword

This puzzle was made to form part of the celebrations when the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server reached it's first anniversary.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 1

This is the first puzzle that I made specifically for my local village parish magazine. It was published in the May/Jun 2021 edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 2

This is the second puzzle I made for my local village parish magazine. It was published in the Jul/Aug 2021 edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 3

This puzzle was intended to be published in the Sep/Oct 2021 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News. However, the editor accidentally reprinted an older puzzle, so this one appeared in the Nov/Dec edition.

Kilmersdon Parish News- Cryptic Crossword No. 4

This puzzle was published in the Jan/Feb 2022 edition of Kilmersdon Parish News.

Cryptic Crossword For Glentopher

I made this puzzle for a Twitch streamer called Glentopher who, through lockdown, has been solving cryptic crosswords live on stream a couple of days a week at lunchtimes.

This puzzle is designed to be fairly easy for a beginner cryptic solver.

I made this puzzle for a Twitch streamer called justdaniherenow who used to solve American style and cryptic crosswords live on stream.

Trick or Treat - Cryptic Crossword

This was one of my first serious attempts at making a proper cryptic crossword puzzle after joining the CtC fan discord server. It was made for the monthly puzzle prompt in October 2020 which was on the theme of Hallowe'en. Looking back at it now, there are a few things wrong with this puzzle. Some of the clues are pretty good but a few are unfairly difficult as the answers are quite obscure and the clues not necessarily straightforward either. Also there are too many uncrossed letters which makes it more difficult and less fun. It would appear that I made this puzzle before I learned that by convention, clues should not end in a full stop, even though they make a sentence. Hopefully this won't spoil anyone's enjoyment of the puzzle, and might flag-up that this is from a newbie setter. By all means, have a try at this puzzle, but you have been warned!

West Country Cryptic

This puzzle was for the monthly puzzle prompt in the Cracking The Cryptic fan discord server. The theme for February 2022 was 'collaboration' so this is a collaborative effort from myself and two other setters, BlueJay and Chris Jones.

CtC fan discord - Puzzle Archive 4000 milestone

This puzzle was made to be part of a pack of puzzles launched to celebrate the puzzle-archive in the CtC fan discord server reaching 4000 puzzles.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 1 - Creation

This was the first collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 2 - Twice

This was the second collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

CtC fan discord Collab Cryptic 3 - Comical X-Word

This was the third collaboratively made cryptic crossword by people from the CtC fan discord server.

This was another puzzle created colloboratively on joeadultman's Twitch stream.

All Over The Place - Cryptic Crossword

This was a puzzle created colloboratively in about 4 hours. It was organised and directed by Twitch streamer joeadultman

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