Your report of the death of Colin Dexter (22 March) mentions that he shared Morse’s love of music, but not their shared passion for cryptic crosswords. Dexter was a frequent winner of the Observer’s Ximenes/Azed clue-writing competition, and named his detectives after two others, Sir Jeremy Morse and Mrs B Lewis (a pseudonym). In Last Bus to Woodstock, the characters are given the names of other winners, including – in an appropriately very minor role – me.
Colin Westbrook
Newport, Gwent
• I wonder if Margaret Squires (Letters, 22 March) isn’t mistaking admiration for aggression. We snowy-locked septuagenarians know that decades of cycling give us well-honed bums.
Christine Hawkes
Cambridge
Could someone in your sports department explain to me why England, the team ranked 14th by Fifa, are included in a feature about contenders for Russia in 2018 (Sport, 22 March), but the team ranked 12th are excluded? To save them looking at the latest table, it’s Wales.
Mark Lines
Cardiff
• Re Peter Martindale’s letter (15 March) regarding encouraging new cartoonists, I’ve been meaning to write for ages to ask, why are you so in thrall to vintage strips? There’s probably never been a richer time for the genre: give us some more new stuff.
Sue Stephenson
Barrow-on-Humber, Lincolnshire
• The Rev Philip Welsh (Letters, 23 March) should come up to Scotland, where “anent” is alive and well and where the diarist on a Sunday newspaper claimed to have founded the anent preservation society.
Andrew Johnstone
Dundee
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