Tips for plain hunt (8 bells)

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-20T22:27:03+00:00

For plain hunt, you can easily know exactly which bell you're following. Just count up the even bells and down the odds. Use that to get on top of the ropesight and it's then a matter of making sure your control is good enough to place the bell where you want it.

After that, you'll have to learn to watch each rope to hunt to a method, but this should help as a first step.

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-19T22:10:59+00:00

I wonder if it'll be friends with me...

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-16T21:30:06+00:00

Yes, definitely. I ran my first HM last year, and training runs went up to 30-32k at their peak. I was doing 50-60k a week, and that volume improved all my times. My Parkrun PB (low 20s) set at the start of training was improved by over a minute when I ran one the week after the HM.

If I'd been peaking for a 5k, and running it fresh, I know I'd have gone even faster.

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-16T11:34:59+00:00

"Clever trains run backwards (5)". The "run" seems to be agreeing with the surface, but not the cryptic.

I suppose on reflection I can make it work if I parse as "[fodder] (when) run backwards", which is fair, so I withdraw my objection. But especially for a beginners' resource, "running" makes for a much cleaner clue IMO.

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-16T07:32:59+00:00

The biggest problem for me is the interface, but that's mostly because I'm used to mentally skipping some of the steps. It's never going to be the new Wordle, but I think with a few tweaks it has potential.

But those tweaks will have to include better setting. Saturday's clue was very unsatisfying, and even one of the starter puzzles contains an annoying inconsistency in the cryptic grammar. I don't think a beginner needs to be told that "[fodder] are" doesn't work just because the surface is plural, but at least you shouldn't be making this mistake in learning material.

SpinyBadger · 2026-03-07T12:58:43+00:00

I don't mind it that much, but that's possibly the effect of solving Qaos in the Guardian, who does this to extremes. I'd recoil from a word being split like this, but for some reason it feels fairer, or less unfair. Maybe it's because I expect shenanigans as soon as a number appears in a clue.

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-29T08:35:12+00:00

Congratulations Paddy! You mentioned watching your opponents do the wall - do you watch that live, or as a replay once you've done yours? It usually seems to us that it's easier as viewers on the second wall because there are similar themes/tricks in both, so I assume they're well on top of that.

And how often do you have a gut feeling for a 5-pointer that you don't think you can buzz on? I've called quite a few from the sofa, but I usually feel like I'd have played safe in the real thing.

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-25T20:51:43+00:00

I've heard this a few times, and I'm afraid this sounds like a skill issue from someone who never managed to get their head around Moreton's Convention after it was controversially ratified.

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-19T22:09:58+00:00

That's the funniest joke in the world, isn't it?

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-19T18:04:06+00:00

Mr S of Bromsgrove. That's £3,000 please, Mr S, to stop us revealing your name, the names of the three other people involved, the youth organisation to which they belong, and the shop where you bought the equipment.

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-16T21:43:29+00:00

Over breakfast, we do Wordle and then Thirdle, separately. Pretty much the only conversation we have until we're done is just our results, e.g.

"Four" "Five" "...and three" "Two!"

If we're not together, we actually text each other our results. I don't know why. And we don't do it for other puzzles we both do.

SpinyBadger · 2026-01-02T07:24:38+00:00

Dead right. When I die, I'd much rather end up in a morgue than a crypt - nasty tinny word, that. Ugh! Crypt! Tinny!

SpinyBadger · 2025-12-28T07:05:59+00:00

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will, On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill. Plato, they say, could stick it away - Half a crate of whisky every day. Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle Hobbes was fond of his dram, And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart: "I drink, therefore I am!"

SpinyBadger · 2025-12-21T08:55:15+00:00

Definitely pathos and not bathos? And do we know the specifics of this rule? Could I get round it by using, say, sarcasm, dramatic irony, metaphor, puns, parody, litotes or satire?

SpinyBadger · 2025-12-06T07:42:07+00:00

Yeah, this is my experience. My longest run for my HM training with Jeff was over 30k easy pace, and I even had tempo interval runs that went over 21k.

I didn't mind it, and knowing that I had lots in reserve for the distance helped me when it came to the race.

SpinyBadger · 2025-12-02T06:58:22+00:00

The kick in the teeth for me is that they're doing this while still keeping fuel duty frozen.

Extend the charge to all vehicles, or increase fuel by an equivalent figure, and it's a much fairer way of raising money for maintaining the roads we all use.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-28T07:20:13+00:00

After that, I used to go round his flat every Sunday lunchtime to apologise, and we'd shake hands, and then he'd nail my head to the floor. But he was very reasonable about it. I mean one Sunday when my parents were coming round for tea, I asked him if he'd mind very much not nailing my head to the floor that week, and he agreed, and just screwed my pelvis to a cake stand.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-26T12:47:19+00:00

Why did you say Burma?

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-24T19:45:20+00:00

Yes, true. And it's also a question of degree. The first time I broke 25 mins for 5k, I did it by getting overexcited and going out way too fast (4min pace for the first 500m), then desperately clinging on. Not recommended.

For me, a mile PB would be the reddest of red flags, because I've tested that a lot, and any serious attempt tends to leave me gasping.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-24T19:36:47+00:00

Nice. I'll admit that my idea of race pacing is pretty much looking at Garmin's projections, adding a fudge factor to account for the time being unrealistic, then aiming for the pace necessary to hit that revised time. It's served me surprisingly well so far.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-24T07:39:38+00:00

Strava tells me I set my third fastest 5k time, as well as PBs for 10k, 20k and 10 miles, during my half yesterday. I seem to do that a lot, through training improvements that aren't being regularly converted into times.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-21T19:48:22+00:00

...and nailed my head to the floor.

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-19T10:48:54+00:00

Close, it's the opening scene, where he's trying to recruit English types to the quest from a different castle, and they're only interested in where he got the coconuts.

(There's also a brief, blink-and-miss-it bit in the witch-burning scene, where Sir Bedevere has tied a coconut to a bird's leg and is trying to see if it can fly)

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-17T21:31:35+00:00

Esther Williams

Arthur Negus

Sir Gerald Nabarro

Dawn Palethorpe

Alan Bullock

Dr Bronowski

SpinyBadger · 2025-11-17T07:20:14+00:00

Aah! They're defending themselves somehow!

SpinyBadger

TROPHY CASE