Have I mentioned Round Britain Quiz?

Those of you who follow me on LinkedIn will already know this...but as Director of Technology For Timber Limited, based in Ripon, North Yorkshire, I am obviously an inhabitant of the North of England and I thus meet the most basic qualification to be considered for the BBC Radio 4 show Round Britain Quiz (aka RBQ). However, there are several million inhabitants of the North of England - so why me?

Well, I've done other Radio 4 stuff in the past - Word of Mouth and Material World being just two of the (hopefully) better-known shows - but what perhaps qualifies me best for the somewhat odd nature of RBQ, and its famously obscure and cryptic questions, is that I am one of the UK's top setters of cryptic crosswords.

If you want to find out more about this particular aspect of my life, then you might be interested in Jonathan Crowther's book which came out a couple of years ago, called "The A to Z of Crosswords" and which has some biographical details of the top 80 Setters in the UK.  You might also try Googling "Jago" (my pseudonym) in a crossword context, to see some of my past efforts (I can't remember the name of the site, but there's a very good one out there, that lists a lot of stuff done by us weirdos...)

But if it's WOODS you want to know about and not WORDS - then I'm also your man! find us via woodexperts.com

Jim Coulson

Summer's here! So what does that mean for outdoor wood?

The advent of sunnier, warmer, drier weather always brings with it the problems of new fencing installations developing splits and cracks - especially in larger diameter posts. Apart from being unsightly, the deeper cracks can present a risk to the long-term life of the post, by exposing the untreated core of the timber. (Many people assume that timber which has been pressure treated is preserved all the way through - but that isn't the case: only the outer few millimetres will contain preservative at the right concentration.)  Therefore, a deep crack that goes below this "protective layer" is a recipe for future trouble.

TFT can inspect consignments of new posts and other landscaping timber products; and we can advise on ways to minimise the problems I've just described, if we should find potential difficulties. Call us on +44 (0)1765 601010 or email tft@woodexperts.com to find out more.