Crossword Central Summer Gathering

Yesterday, as we had done last May (see here), we had a get-together of a few folk from TimesforTheTimes at The George, our traditional watering hole in London in Borough High St, close to The Times offices.  

On my way there I got an email from Richard Rogan, The Times Crossword editor.

"Dear David and John,

I have been holding back replying as I was unsure of my plans: sadly I will have to give today a miss as both my wife and son have been ill with differing ailments and although they are both basically fine, I think it would be best if I didn't go gallivanting off to London today! So sorry to miss you all yet again. We WILL meet again soon I hope. My presence will have to be limited to today's jumbo. Regards and apologies to all.

Richard"

When I replied saying get well soon and that I would look forward to the Jumbo... and that it was mine to blog he responded "Bad luck John!". Ha ha.

Here are a few photos, including some taken by others and borrowed from our discussion group.

Before going to The George I took a short detour to Talbot Yard, the next alleyway along, to follow up a conversation on this recent crossword blog about the answer TABARD where jackkt said "The TABARD was the inn in Southwark where Chaucer’s pilgrims met before setting out on their journey to Canterbury. It was lost in the Great Fire of 1666 but is commemorated by a blue plaque. It’s also a pub in Bath Road, Chiswick, adjacent to a college where I studied in the mid 1960’s and taught in the 1970’s."

And here is the plaque.

The building it is on must back directly onto The George.

It was very quiet when I arrived.

I've never tried going onto the gallery.

David had already bagged us a couple of tables in the corner as planned when I joined him.

It wasn't long before others arrived.

Paul.in.London, who (confusingly) lives in New York, had timed one of his occasional visits to the UK to be able to be with us. He arrived with a bag of baseballs, which he presented to the regulars. It is because of an in-joke.  He is determined to get us all enthused about baseball, rather than football, rugby and cricket which the rest of us discuss. Some of us met him here at the The George in September last year (see here).

We were using both tables fully now.

The gathering included TimesforTheTimes bloggers (like myself, JerryW and Keriothe) stalwart contributors (such as Boltonwanderer, David1, Astonvilla1, and Cedric Statherby), and relatively new TimesforTheTimes members, such as Alto_ego (who seems to have evaded my camera lens except for the photo at the top of the blog) and Martinů, seen here talking to Cedric.

A good amount of beer (and wine) was drunk over the period of 6 hours.

 

Isobel and Bill (seen here talking to Paul and Sawbill) are also fairly new and have not got round to commenting yet. I'm sure they will soon.

The one who had come furthest to get to our event was Galspray, who divides his time between Sydney and Perth in Australia. Here he is with the baseball Paul had given him.

Cedric came to our event last year.. It was good to see him again. Here he is talking to Martinů/

Keriothe and Sawbill in conversation.

Jerry with Busman (Phil), Boltonwanderer and Galspray.

Astonvilla1 and David1

We tried to get a general group photo, but it was too much like trying to herd cats. What we did do, though, was to get a group photo of the three Weekend Quick Cryptic compilers, myself, Sawbill and Phil. It was the first time the three of us had ever got together and, in fact, the first time Sawbill and Phil had met. 

A late arrival was my fellow Quick Cryptic blogger The Rotter.

But our star guest was Peter Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword editor and founder of TimeforTheTimes. Here he is with Jerry.

Galspray's selfie...

By 5:15pm, I had to get going to catch my train from Liverpool St, leaving these 4 to carry on.

A great day and the weather was kind - not too hot and no rain. It was good to see so many old friends and new. My thanks to David for organising us. 

Thanks also to the attendees (I hope I haven't missed anybody)... Alto_ego, Astonvilla1, Boltonwanderer,  Busman, Cedric Statherby, David1, Galspray, Idboud and his wife, Isobel and Bill,  JerryW, Johninterred,  Keriothe, Martinů, Paul.in.London, Peter Biddlecombe, Sawbill and The Rotter. 

Will we do it again? I think we will. There may be a Times Crossword Championship this year (we hope) which will allow us to reconvene on the day (it is usually at the end of October).