YOUR cryptic crossword setters have provocatively exceeded my elastic limit so that I have snapped and send you here one or two cross words.

As a keen cruciverbalist I have always believed, and until recently found by and large that the cryptic crossword (and the clue is in the title) should depend largely if not entirely upon the solvers’ (and setter’s) verbal knowledge and dexterity and decoding skills alone and not much if at all upon general knowledge. In particular the use of proper nouns/names should be taboo unless they have been largely absorbed into the language as "ordinary" words by common usage, for example Hoover for vacuum-cleaner. Indeed, even the words used should preferably not be too obscure but "common" so that they can be readily hit upon merely from the clue cryptically given and deciphered.

Your Fridays’ setter, NKD, is a counter-example par excellence and his efforts of late would more appropriately grace your sports pages as a general knowledge quiz with the emphasis on "football clues". On Friday last (December 6) for example the solutions include the following proper names (the first six with sporting connections and the latter four with Scottish connections): Chris Hoy, Ferguson, Lennox, Grainger, Nilsson, Denis Law, Andrew, Robert the Bruce, Glasgow, Chambers. As regards the clues themselves references alluded to: Sleep (the dancer), famous resident of Springfield Ohio (comic character), Lisbon Lions (football team), Scottish Olympic star, Scottish dictionary, Sean Marshall (who he?) etc.

Clue: No more Popes ran – nothing to lose for a change! (2,6,5)

Thank you, that feels much better.

Darrell Desbrow, Dalbeattie.

Credit the engineers

YOUR “On this day” entry for the 1945 opening of the Waterloo Bridge over the Thames (The Herald, December 11) states that it was “designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott”. This is only partially true.

Scott was indeed involved as the architect, so no doubt had a say in its appearance. But the real designers were the consulting engineers, Rendel, Palmer & Tritton. It is thanks to them that the many people who cross the bridge each day do not end up in the Thames.

Sadly the key role of civil and structural engineers is far too often overlooked. Even when it comes to buildings, where the architect genuinely is the lead designer, it is the structural engineer who has the (sometimes challenging) role of designing the most cost-effective structure to make the architect’s (often bizarre) ideas actually stand up.

Alistair Easton, Edinburgh EH12.

The kindness of strangers

AT this time where the behaviour of too many politicians and their aides is at an unprecedented low, it is good to know the people of Glasgow are still caring.

A young chap got off the bus this morning followed by an older chap with a walker. The young one made sure the older one was safely off the bus before he walked away.

Coming home, I was having real difficulty stepping on to a fancy new bus. A younger couple managed to get me on – and made a point of waving when I got off.

Yes, people do make Glasgow.

Anne MacKinnon, Glasgow.

Switching off

I BEG to disassociate myself from Neil Mackay’s review of the doomster documentary by research agency Revealing Reality, (Screen Grab, BBC Scotland), which shows the antisocial impact of addiction to social media and use of digital devices ("Why the screen in your pocket is turning you into a total idiot", The Herald, December 10).

My iPad and mobile phone are mostly switched off and have never harmed me.

I was a cultural Philistine long before the invention of these gadgets.

R Russell Smith, Kilbirnie.

Who? Where?

WHY has "who" disappeared from the language? In print and on the BBC people are continually referred to as "that" (as in "the man that does something). I despair of this misuse of English.

WG Stark, Glasgow G76.

I NOTE with interest David Miller’s letter regarding good grammar (December 7). I always thought the imaginary notice said: “Good grammar teached here, gooder up the stair.” Mind you, ours was a Battlefield close. I don’t know where Mr Miller lived back in the day but note he now resides in Milngavie where I imagine people speak, like, proper and tenements are few. Or is it less? Or at all? Anyway, the spelling of Millguy is rubbish.

Patricia Allison, Giffnock.