Maybe we should stop printing news and just publish puzzles (please don't all rush to agree - it isn't actually going to happen).

A few weeks before Christmas our puzzles editor told me that he planned to try something new on Boxing Day and wanted to elicit readers' views on it, and could he do so via the Feedback e-mail address? Taking momentary leave of my senses I airily agreed, and have misspent the best part of this week forwarding to him dozens, nay hundreds, of your comments.

The puzzle in question was a sort of 3-D version of Su Doku wittily christened Tredoku (or, as some of you had it, Terdoku or Treduco and assorted variations), and eight out of ten of you loved it.

Ynys Crowston-Boaler broke off from his hectic Boxing Day schedule to e-mail: “Like it, like it a lot. At first the concept seemed a bit daunting but after the ‘Beginner' managed to get my head round it - have to say that if you took it to the level of “super-fiendish” not sure that there would be any enjoyment! Tackled first page over coffee - drove 30 miles to pub to indulge in traditional Boxing Day morris dancing/carol singing session, drove back, after some excellent Stilton and half a litre of port decided to tackle the Monster, made one mistake fairly early on that I managed to rectify and then completed it, thereby clocking up numerous Brownie points with my son who claimed that it couldn't be done, especially by someone outside a sufficient quantity of good port wine. Any chance of replacing the Saturday Samurai with a Monster Tredoku?”

I honestly don't think that he meant half a litre.

Either Derek Petrie or Gail Volans (shared e-mail, no signature) said: “Please keep it. It has given me a headache and my eyes have gone weird, but a great puzzle. More difficulty, please.”

Karen Long wrote: “Fantastic! Brilliant. Certainly got my brain going,” but Mike Thomas wasn't impressed: “A new angle maybe but unexciting. Give us more Kenkens. They are different and demand different skills,” and neither was Gerry McLaughlin: “Don't do it. Tredoku is not a winner. It makes your eyes go funny and it is just the same thing except bent round corners.”

Ten-year-old Amelia Tranter is a Kenken fan but liked Tredoku, particularly the Monster, as did 15-year-old Matt Kuber and the 87-year-old mother of Rosalind Fairman. Deirdre and Terry Macaree enjoyed it in New Zealand courtesy of the e-paper, but in Belgium Sylvia Hibbert-Aiano completed the Monster “in eight minutes on a crowded bus bumping over the Brussels cobblestones”.

David Comins in Glasgow found Tredoku “an interesting variation on the standard Su Dokus, but in my opinion it does not touch the delights found in Killer.” Richard Casswell also praised the delights of Killer, compared to which he thought the Tredoku “a plodding, laborious, methodical chore to complete”, adding dangerously: “Do what you like with the crosswords - I'm told they have a certain following.” I'm withholding his whereabouts for his own safety.

Anne Hepworth gave an intriguing glimpse of her home life with the following e-mail: “Loved the new Tredoku puzzles, would very much like to see them as a regular feature. However, when in colour please keep the colour light as hard to see pencil when doing them at night.” Are you doing them under the duvet or economising on light bulbs, Ms Hepworth?

P.M.Rayner thought them “very clever, but the more complex ones wouldn't keep still on the page. I had to keep shutting one eye to stop the thing inverting all the time. Couldn't stand that on a regular basis.” I should think not. Apart from the danger of bumping into things, people might think you were flirting with them.

The puzzles editor thanks all who took the trouble to write and is considering whether and how to give you more Tredokus; the fly in the ointment is that they take up rather a lot of room on the page, so they may have to be an occasional Bank Holiday special. Watch this space.

Life chances

Talking of crosswords, Margaret Laws, of Essex, writes: “I have been sending in The Times Saturday crossword for about 35 years, with never a mention. Can you find out how many entries you receive each week, as I'd like to work out the odds. Have I any chance before I conk out?”

M. Chamberlain sent a similar query from Somerset, although he or she has been sending in entries for a matter of weeks rather than years.

I explained this in the column just over a year ago but am happy to repeat the answer, which hasn't changed much since then, I'm told. We receive on average some 3,000 entries for the Saturday prize cryptic crossword in the main section, and almost 6,000 entries for the cryptic and times2 jumbo crosswords combined (plus about 150 from members of The Times Crossword Club e-mailed via the club website). So the odds are longish, but that would make winning all the sweeter, would it not?

Wrong Louise

I ruined the December 27 review of the year by referring to the lady who enlisted the help of the times2 crossword in making a leap-year proposal of marriage to her boyfriend as Louise Savage, when it was in fact Louise Flood.

Louise Savage had enlisted Feedback's help in tracking down some crossword books, which wasn't nearly as romantic.

There goes my invitation to the Flood-Grace wedding and serves me right. New year's resolution: must not take eye off ball. Stupid girl.

Tough times

I absolutely hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but for those who missed the announcement on page 2 today, the price of The Times on weekdays goes up by 10p to 90p from Monday. The Daily Telegraph has been at 90p on weekdays for some time, and The Independent already costs £1.

It gives us no pleasure to ask readers to pay more in what will be a tough year for so many people, but I am afraid it was inevitable against the background of the economic downturn and the ever-rising cost of newsprint.

Every journalist here continues to believe passionately that we are producing the best quality paper in Britain, and we fervently hope that the legendary loyalty of Times readers will see us through the challenges ahead.

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