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My wife kindly bought me a collection of early Spectator puzzles.

I've only been crosswording for about 4 years and enjoyed doing Speccie backnumbers online, until they ran out.

In this book the first ever one, by Jac, from July 1971 starts:

7A Taking orders (a British one, then a Scottish one) with gravity (7)

Which is neat. Overall I find the difficulty of clues rather greater than today. Pre-internet both setting and solving required deep reserves of brains, education and plentiful works of reference!

Sometimes these early puzzles are very, very difficult, bordering on impossible - I have one in mind which I will try to share.

This first puzzle was called 'To Hell with it'.

You can buy the book second-hand on Amazon for about a tenner. My copy smells of pipe tobacco.

I'd be thrilled to hear how solvers more experienced than I feel that puzzles have evolved in the longer term.

Hello, KT17. Thanks for your post - and your crosswording experiences. I feel that the Spectator puzzles used to be a little tougher and a little better! I think there was more craftsmanship, some of the crosswords were very well put-together. We do get occasional tough ones now, but we've also had a fair few duds over the last couple of years. Most of these - the poorer ones - seem to have involved themes that lead to lists. I can't think of specific examples right now, but there were some very Brewer's (Fable) -dependent puzzles and other ones that involved just varieties of monkeys, say, being the unclued answers.

PS Your link in the other post wouldn't open for me.

Thank you Malone - although at least I can do them these days!

I would love to show everyone this diabolical puzzle - if the link doesn't work is there any way, does anyone know, if I can load a photo or pdf or other file format here?

RSVP

Hi kt17,
You could start a Google Drive account, upload your photo and post the link on this forum.

I'll type it - I hope someone can tell me if there's a way I can share the grid.

Name of puzzle - Indefinitive

Compiler - Jac

Rubric - Since all lights have something in common, the relevant basic definitions have been omitted from the clues. One light, however, does not share the characteristics of the rest.

ACROSS
1 A Frenchish fricassee first cooked in a pan (15)
8 One Scot's brains are addled (6)
9 A miser carries everything before it( 9)
10 Uriah, swaggering about (9)
11 Produce a frame for Kipling's
anurous maker of pictures (6)
13 Store in a case, perhaps (7, 2, 3)
15 Expanded about two or three points (7)
16 Established usage may be expected to (8)
20 He would briefly hold one fresh-water diving-bird back in fifty (10)
21 Hteo (6)
22 Like 27, she's in a damnably unfortunate position (3)
23 An isolated pillar-course (6)
25 The makings of strife in endless love (2,7)
26 Small wooden tub found in a normal drowned Vally (6)
27 See 22 above (3)
28 Diminutive Miss Boleyn, a revolutionary communist? (6)
30 The end of 37 finally befell in the start of 13 (10)
32 Right in front of an old king with one - (8)
33 - article missing from the clackers (7)
35 Carol's about to commit a murder for the equivalent of fivepence (12)
37 Was obliged to one parent only (6)
38 Get out of the way (9)
39 A poet without age (9)
40 A pity one enters into it in retrospect (6)
41 Chap taking the lead before a crafty third-rate actor (15)

DOWN
1 In hostilities, note, it follows one letter is another (9)
2 Indeed, Society, likewise, concludes it! (5)
3 One foot up (4)
4 One man to assume fashioning fashionless fashion (6,9)
5 Bribe that's about the right size? Too big! (6)
6 Spenser's fool named in an Icelandic tale (10)
7 In the manner of a rune's regression (6)
12 Jingle's strain of fruit (8)
14 Heartless idiot, on a sofa (6)
17 A grandfatherly upset, say (5)
18 Feudal lord, unblessed, coming in after time (8)
19 Scott's youthful churchwoman? (10)
22 A naturally palindromic outgrowth (5)
23 Pipe nothing back (6)
24 A Pole ploughs a border round one (9)
29 Collation appropriately appreciated in one's salad days (6)
31 Stuff up under the neck (6)
34 Whatsoever it hath, it ever hath this (5)
36 Shout 'eight' perhaps (4)

Hi Ped, and thanks - just got this. I'll investigate this - though Google gives me the willies!

Hi, KT17.

If you have trouble with Google Drive add a note to this thread. I'll be glad to help.
If you use Gmail you're halfway there.
Click the little grid at the top right (Google apps) & select Drive (green, yellow, blue triangle).
If not, same thing but you will have to create an account.

I use it for posting Harper's puzzles. Quite easy though may seem a little daunting at first.

Scan the page(s) as a PDF file, not a JPG (document vs picture).
Upload to Gdrive & get the shareable link, which you can post.

Good luck.

@KT17 Posters on other forums (such as Answerbank) upload their images via this link.

https://imgbb.com

Thank you all (from the Stone Age!)

Try this...

https://ibb.co/n6x5Gdx

Perfect !