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Matthew Scroggs

@mscroggs.co.uk
651 followers 170 following 215 posts

World's #1 matchbox fan

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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 07/06/2026
Wall chart #18: The Sunday Times £4.50 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Creative arrangement of knock out matches 👍 Big final in centre 👍 Handy calendar that you can cut off the side Cons: 👎 Doesn't say which weekdays matches are on 👎 No space to write teams in third place play off Overall: 10/15
A photo of the wall chartA photo of the back wall chart, with the hand detachable calendar on the right
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 07/06/2026
Wall chart #17: The Observer £4.50 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Roads the the final showing England's and Scotland's likely opponents is nice Cons: 👎 No space to write results 👎 Why did they decide to make a wall calendar not a wall chart?! Overall: 10/197
A photo of the wall non-chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 07/06/2026
Wall chart #16: The Sunday Post £3.20 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Stadium photos 👍 Big space to write the winner 👍 Picture of the trophy Cons: 👎 No space to write group standings Overall: 10/15
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 06/06/2026
Wall chart #15: The Sun (Saturday) £1.60 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Shows which channel matches are on Cons: 👎 Calls Netherlands "Holland" 👎 Match times above the results confused me for a minute 👎 I had to buy The Sun Overall: 10/22
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 06/06/2026
Wall chart #14: The Telegraph (Saturday) £4.50 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Shows which channel matches are on 👍 Nice calendar schedule along bottom 👍 Stadium pictures 👍 Harry Kane punching the final Cons: 👎 Knockout matches a little small Overall: 10/14
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 06/06/2026
Wall chart #13: Daily Mail (Saturday) £1.70 (with newspaper) Pros: 👍 Shows which channel matches are on 👍 Space for full W/D/L/Pts in groups Cons: 👎 Double-sided 👎 I had to buy a Daily Mail Overall: 10/25
A photo of the wall chartA photo of the other side of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 04/06/2026
Wall chart #11: Match of the Day £7.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 It's big 👍 Big space for the final 👍 The flag of Switzerland is a big plus Cons: 👎 Space for group results a bit small, with no columns for points 👎 The USA flag banner in the background has been stretched to oblivion Overall: 10/15
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 04/06/2026
Wall chart #10: Strike-it £8.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 Photos of stadiums 👍 Comes with 3 packs of Panini stickers and an album (and other Panini stuff I don't want) Cons: 👎 Copying team to last 32 matches on the back is going to be a pain (why has double-sided become a thing?) Overall: 10/19
A photo of the wall chartA photo of the other side of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 04/06/2026
Wall chart #9: WSC £7.95 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 Map of North America with Gulf of Mexico correctly named 👍 Gentle reminder that USA is hostile to visitors 👍 Magazine has article about Coventry City Cons: 👎 Final a bit small and low down Overall: 10/12
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 04/06/2026
Wall chart #8: Match! £5.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 Excellent group matches and tables layout 👍 Comes with 2 packs of Panini stickers Cons: 👎 Knock-out section a bit cramped Overall: 10/15
A photo of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #7: Elliot Quince (www.quinkyart.com/p/world-cup-...) £10 + £5.50 postage Pros: 👍 Pics of flags + players 👍 Proceeds to great charity 👍 Map of North America Cons: 👎 You have to wait for the postie to bring it to you 👎 More expensive than many 👎 Missing 3rd place play-off Overall: 10/11
Picture of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #5: A Fan Guide to World Football 2026 £9.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 No staple holes 👍 Pictures of flags + players Cons: 👎 Printed pre play-offs: some teams still one of 3/4 countries 👎 Copying team to last 32 matches on the back is going to be a pain 👎 No match times Overall: 10/19
A photo of the wall chartA picture of the other side of this wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #4: Daily Mirror World Cup £4.49 (with newspaper special issue) Pros: 👍 Pictures of flags 👍 Texture of a proper old fashioned newspaper wall chart Cons: 👎 Nowhere to write group points 👎 Spaces for knockout teams and scores are tiny 👎 Small holes where it was stapled Overall: 10/19
Photo of wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #3: TV & Streaming Week £4.50 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 Picture of trophy Cons: 👎 Gives times in BST but days in EDT (eg AUT vs JOR is "Tue 16 June ⋅ 5am (early Wed)" 👎 Slightly tore while detaching staples 👎 Same layout as #1 but smaller (and noisier background) Overall: 10/23
A picture of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #2: Radio Times £5.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 Says channel matches are on 👍 England + Scotland highlighted in red + blue 👍 Widescreen format 👍 Calendar along bottom Cons: 👎 Slightly tore while detaching staples 👎 Radio Times now coverless 👎 Nowhere to write group points Overall: 10/14
A picture of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Wall chart #1: FourFourTwo £7.99 (with magazine) Pros: 👍 It's big 👍 Picture of World Cup 👍 Huge space for the final 👍 Not stapled so no holes Cons: 👎 Nowhere to write the points in each group 👎 Abbreviated country names hard to read at a glance Overall: 10/17
A picture of the wall chart
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 17/04/2026
Issue 23 of @chalkdustmag.bsky.social comes out on Monday. I did the maths for what's on the cover and I'm very excited about it being released. Without the back cover, it's not obvious what the pieces on the front are for. Any guesses?
The cover of Chalkdust issue 23. It features 9 pieces: one tetromino (the T block from Tetris), five pentominoes and three hexominoes. The art is done to look like a retro video game.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 14/02/2026
It's official! www.speedrun.com/winter_olymp...
The Winter Olympics leaderboard at speedrun.com, with user MatthewScroggs in first place
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 04/01/2026
Books I finished in 2025
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie
The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie
The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr
Clown Town by Mick Herron
Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee
The Satsuma Complex by Bob Mortimer
The Great When by Alan Moore
Y: The Last Man (#1-#10) by Brian K Vaughan and others
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 15/12/2025
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2025 #3: A Cinderella Christmas Ball. Dance instructor teaches Sir Prince King II to dance then finds love and her father or something. 🎄💃❤️😴🎄/5
Two people standing in front of a Christmas tree.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 15/12/2025
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2025 #2: Haul out the Holly. A Hallmark Christmas film, but thankfully not one of the really cheap feeling ones. Has the other one from Mean Girls in it, who obviously goes to a small town to celebrate Christmas. 🎄🌨️📜🌨️🎄/5
Still from the film Haul out the Holly.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 08/12/2025
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2025 #1: Champagne Problems. I've already forgotten the plot of this one. Although I do remember the montage of moments from earlier in the film about 2/3 of the way in - the sign of a true blockbuster. 🍾🥱😴😴😴/5
The poster for the film Champagne Problems.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 13/11/2025
If you're interested in doing a PhD in maths or science with a medium to strong software focus, the CDT that I'm involved in running is having an open day on 24 November. Sign up to attend at www.eventbrite.com/e/collaborat....
Advert poster for the CDT open day on 24 November.

EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Collaborative Computational Modelling at the Interface

Open Day
3:30 – 5:30pm, 24 November 2025
Ground Floor Collaboration Space, UCL Bidborough House
38-50 Bidborough St, London, WC1H 9BT

Interested in a fully funded 4 year PhD position in London working at the interface of computational modelling, data science and research software engineering?

The CCMI CDT is a collaboration between University College London (UCL) and Imperial. Our students join world-class research groups across UCL and Imperial, covering a wide range of application areas, including numerical methods, fusion energy, the life sciences and machine learning.

All places on the CDT are fully funded for home students, including generous stipends to cover living costs. A limited number of fully funded places for overseas students are also available.

Come to our open day on 24 November to find out more. To receive updates on when applications open for our 2026 cohort, visit our website at ccmi-cdt.org
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 30/08/2025
If you want to know what the puzzles in Puzzlebug are like, here's the one on the first page for free
Three triangles puzzle: Nine of the points above are the vertices of three non-intersecting triangles. Each of the grey lines intersects the number of triangles that the line is labelled with. No point is part of more than one triangle and one point is not used. Draw the three triangles
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 17/08/2025
I'm very glad that the Switch version of Final Fantasy 12 has a 4× speed mode
Photo of final fantasy 12. On screen it says "Yiazmat vanquished"
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 08/07/2025
The comma caterpillars in the garden have started turning into chrysalises.
A comma butterfly chrysalis
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 05/07/2025
A comma caterpillar
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 05/07/2025
Some comma caterpillars have made their home in our garden
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/07/2025
Forgot to go buy all the newspapers this weekend to get all the wall charts but thankfully Tesco had one copy of Match of the Day magazine left
Wall chart for the Euros on my wall
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 08/06/2025
A very wide nonogram puzzle
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 01/06/2025
I made an animation of a visual proof of Pythagoras's theorem for #MathsAnimationTMiP (using LaTeX and TikZ). Video of how I made it coming very soon
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 24/05/2025
Had a fun day playing noughts and crosses against MENACE at @aiatkings.bsky.social AI Festival today
The 304 matchboxes that make up MENACE on a tableA progress graph. MENACE lost a lot of games at the start, then lost a lot fewer later on
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 02/05/2025
You already have this one, right?
Noughts and Crosses game in an advert at Manchester Piccadilly station
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 26/04/2025
Am I the first person to solve ophex 1 (www.andrewt.net/puzzles/ophex/)? #StecksConf
Ophex 1 solved
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 25/04/2025
My favourites are the four tickets that exist to tell us we don't have a seat reserved
Me holding four tickets that say "Coach *  No specific seat reserved"
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 25/04/2025
Me: Hello ticket machine. Two return tickets from Peterborough to Manchester please. Ticket machine: printing 1 of 12
Me holding 12 train tickets and 1 receipt
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/04/2025
I made an animation of a cube folding from a net for #MathsAnimationTMiP. Video of me making this using TikZ coming once I've had time to edit it.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 17/03/2025
Also the issue 21 crossnumber is one of the most ridiculous I've written so far. Good luck! chalkdustmagazine.com/regulars/cro...
An over-zealous copy editor has ‘corrected’ this crossnumber. In the original puzzle, every clue was of the form a † bA or a†bD, where a and b are positive integers, and † is +, –, ÷, or × (and A and D stand for across or down); the copy editor then took every clue, calculated a † b, and replaced a † b with the result. For example, if a clue now reads ‘6A’, then the actual clue could be:

    0 + 6A,
    3 + 3A,
    12 – 6A,
    1 × 6A,
    2 × 3A,
    6 ÷ 1A,
    120 ÷ 20A,
    or many other things…
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 07/03/2025
The animation I made
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 06/03/2025
PS. I love that a couple of "Springer Didn't Graduate" books made using @christianp.mathstodon.xyz.ap.brid.gy's generator (somethingorotherwhatever.com/didnt-gradua...) show up mixed in with the real books when you Google "springer graduate texts"
A parody Springer Greaduate Test: When All The Arrows Mean It's Obvious (second edition) by Sandy McLane?
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 06/03/2025
Really hope someone somewhere has sent their kids to school dressed up as a Springer graduate text for #WorldBookDay
Screenshot of Google image search for Springer graduate texts. All the books are yellow with a white bit at the top.
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/03/2025
Second video is a group of us performing the example song from the musical notation article
The word Wikipedia set to music
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 03/03/2025
Project ideas I have no time for #385: Make a YouTube video of me and someone else performing the example screenplay from the Wikipedia screenplay article (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenp...)
Wikipedia's example screenplay
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 21/12/2024
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2024 #8: Merry Christmas. Occasionally we stumble across a really good film while doing this: this is one of those. As usual, it starts meet cute but quickly turns into a Hitchcock-like thriller. 🎄🧸💃🔫🎅/5
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 21/12/2024
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2024 #7: Hot Frosty. Snowman comes to life, doesn't walk in the air, breaks a window. The Pontiac Bandit and Boyle try to track down the window breaker. Snowman and the other one from Mean Girls fall in love, while the town falls in love with Snowman. ⛄💫🧍‍♂️🪟👮/5
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 21/12/2024
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2024 #6: Twas the Text Before Christmas. Nana tries to text her granddaughter about Christmas, texts the wrong number, invites main character to Christmas anyway. Main character starts visiting them for every Christmas dinner, with a side order of rom com. 📱📲❄️🇯🇲💌/5
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 14/12/2024
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2024 #5: Meet Me Next Christmas. Would've made more sense to me at the start if I knew who the Pentatonix were, but once it got going it was very entertaining. Doesn't take itself too seriously and is a lot of fun. The interlude scenes with the Pentatonix are fab. 👨‍🎤👨‍🎤👨‍🎤👨‍🎤👩‍🎤/5
A shot from the film "Meet Me Next Christmas" where the Pentatonix are saying "No, I know. We've been on Team Lames [Layla & James] when we could have been on Team Tayla [Teddy & James]."
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 14/12/2024
Some good puzzles in this week's New Scientist
A photo of the puzzles page in New Scientist, featuring a puzzle by Matthew Scroggs and TD Dang
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 11/12/2024
#NetflixChristmas Reviews 2024 #4: The Snow Sister (Snøsøsteren). Very sad. Looked like a kids film, but would have upset me way too much if I'd watched it as a child. A good film, but didn't make me feel very Christmassy. ❄️😭⛄😭👻/5
A girl in a red hat and scarf with snow on her saying "She lives on in your heart."
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Matthew Scroggs @mscroggs.co.uk · 07/12/2024
Me when they show a newspaper article about Vanessa "Princess Switch" Hudgens
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