Times for The Times Summer Gathering

After we had such fun with a summer get-together last year, attended by some TimesforTheTimes old hands, bloggers and commenters, we thought we would have another one. Read about last year’s here.

Plenty of people who had come before couldn't make it, but we still had a great turnout of over 25 people at The George, Borough High St, just round the corner from The Times offices today.

Thanks to all who came. We had an interesting mix of solvers and commenters, bloggers, setters and editors - we also had The Times Puzzles Editor, Mick Hodgkin and Sunday Times Crossword Editor, Peter Biddlecombe join us. Sadly, Richard Rogan, the Times Crossword Editor for the last 10 years, who was also going to come today, passed away suddenly two weeks ago. You can read about that here..

Here are a few of my photos, supplemented by those of  David1, who organised the event.

In the past we have congregated outside, but it was drizzling when the first couple arrived...

...so we congregated in the Coach House bar opposite the main bar.

I had arranged to meet Mick Hodgkin and John Henderson, our host for the regular Sloggers and Betters event in York in October (read about last year's here), for a breakfast bacon sandwich there. John is a former crossword championship winner (in 1996) and setter of, generally, rather difficult crosswords under the names Enigmatist, Elgar, Io and Nimrod. David1 arrived just after eleven and we decided we would stay inside. 

It wasn't long before others arrived.

Paul.in.London (who lives in New York) who came with a bagful of baseballs last year couldn't arrange a trip to get over to London this time, Keriothe turned up in his Toronto Blue Jays T-shirt which sparked a conversation about baseball. Here he is with David and Pootle. In online discussion later Paul said... "Next year I'll try to come over for the one or two MLB games in the UK, and we'll get a block of seats for the gang." He is determined to make us all baseball fans!

Meanwhile back in The George Coach House.... Another regular here is Cedric Statherby, now one of the Quick Cryptic bloggers. Also in the picture are Peter Biddlecombe and Allan Saldanha, one of the top solvers and a legend from Countdown

As had been forecast, just after 12pm a thunderstorm arrived and the rain pelted down outside.

It didn't last for long, but we were glad we were inside.

Another Quick Cryptic solver and commenter, Martinů, came last time too.

Here is with fellow blogger Kitty with Crypticsue.

And here I am, beer glass  in hand.

With Pootle, Mick and Kitty are two of our setters,  Paul Bringloe (known to us as Wurm, although he also sets elsewhere as Tees, Neo and Donnybrook) and Roger Phillips (aka Nestor, Listener crossword editor and  Monthly Club Special compiler).

Other Quick Cryptic aficionados who came include Oompah Charlie, Chris and Francesca ...

...and Roundabout Here.

Keriothe is here explaining how to throw a fastball to Oompah Charlie.

Here with Paul Bringloe is Alan Connor, setter of the Everyman puzzle and crossword editor at The Guardian.

Shortly after 2pm Mick called everyone for everyone's attention, gave a brief eulogy and asked us to raise our glasses to Richard Rogan. (See photo at the top of this post).

Outside, the benches were filling up with people gathering to watch the European football on the big screen.

I stayed for a while longer but it was getting a bit crowded to take more photos. When I left at about 4:30pm there were still quite a few remaining. Thank-you all for coming, and apologies to those I failed to mention here. It was a great day.