According to the introduction of the book that came free with The Times, Number Place is the rough translation of Sudoku.

In case you live under a bridge and don’t know what this is, it’s a square number puzzle involving placing the numbers from 1 to 9 in the correct places.

You know that I’m not one for faddy trends that come and go, and I try and stay away from things if the the rest of the country is going mad for it (Harry Potter? Pah, I’ll wait for the paperback). But Mr C brought this book home and settled down to do it, and I had pretty soon hijacked the pencil and was calculating late into the night. I recommend it, although the puzzles I’m working on now are supposed to be just mild ones and I’m already stuck.