I’ve got loads to write about, and at some point very soon, I’ll write it down.
But in the meantime, is everyone else enjoying the Sudoku wars as much as I am? I came across these little puzzles a while ago. Now things are getting out of hand.
Earlier this week, The Guardian became the last of the big four quality nationals to launch their puzzle, with a front page piece explaining how their hand-rendered puzzles were superior to those computer generated puzzles of the papers. They put their puzzle on page 2, giving it similar prominane to the crossword (a puzzle no paper could ever be without unless they wanted to lose readers).
The Independent, meanwhile, has upped the ante, by putting a “Quick Sudoku” on their backpage where once you might have found a quick crossword. Actually, in the old days you’d have found a full cryptic crossword.
Inside they now publish three puzzles a day: beginners, intermediate and advanced.
Most amazingly of all, The Sun has launched it’s own “Sun Doku” puzzle, publishing its second one today with a front page puff-piece. It should be noted that The Sun’s puzzle seems to have slightly more numbers filled in than the other papers.
Metro meanwhile has some kind of puzzle that involves the numbers 1 to 8, rather than 9. The Telegraph’s puzzle has leapt into The Sunday Telegraph. And books a plenty are appearing in the shops with volume 2 of The Times’ effort coming soon, and WH Smith publishing their own volume (kind of in association with The Guardian’s compilers).
According to this piece from Mediaguardian, the Mail and Express also have the puzzles. I wouldn’t know. (Actually, I did buy a Mail on Saturday because they were giving away a free DVD of the not bad Evelyn Waugh adaptation of A Handful of Dust. But you’ll be pleased to learn that once I’d retrieved the disc from its polybag, I actually threw away the entire paper unread!).
I’m not sure if I’m pleased or disheartened to learn that Carol Vordemann is a fan (of Sudoku puzzles that is. She may be a fan of the Mail – I don’t know). OK – I admit to being chuffed when I can do a particularly tricky numbers game on Countdown.