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Diabolically Arcane

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Missing Spirits

4 June, 2013

I won’t lie. This Storm is a toast to my dad, a wee drappie of scotch to see the sea captain off – with a crossword prize for the best distiller.

Look at the list below. These seven names were once proud makers of the good oil in Scotland, now lost to the mists of time. With no need to provide a definition, can you contrive the most mellow wordplay for he first two (the compulsory pair), and any one of the ther five?

Aliases apply. So choose a clan, or put on a Braveface – anything Caledonian – and toss your ideas around the forum. Test all seven labels if you wish, but come Thursday, between 1-6, you must select your top three – the first two, and one of the others – as a shortlist on view.

Voting kicks off on Friday, emailed to the DA portal, with 3/1 for the first two, then 3/2/1 for the wildcards, meaning a total of 7 votes cast per player. The prize is an old Fairfax collection of crosswords: 75 Puzzles To Twist Your Mind (where I claim a third of those).

Yours truly will be competing, to try and save the postage! And in memory of the old salt as well. Here’s the list:

AUCHINBLAE
DRUMCALDIE

ARDGOWAN
DALARUEN
GLENSKIACH
LOCHINDAAL
RIECLACHAN

Cheers. Have fun. And clue responsibly.

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Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
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