Crossword News August 2026
The July Prize Puzzle was
Pronouncement by Noctifer. This puzzle had lots of references to The Artist
Formerly Known As Prince. In 1993 Prince changed his stage name to an
unpronounceable symbol. Misprint corrections in across clues spell LETTERS OF
ARTIST’S NAME (IN PURPLE) reflecting his signature colour. If you shaded all
the letters of PRINCE in the grid you would have a representation of his symbol.
Unfortunately, many solvers missed the final touch.
Here are some of the comments from
solvers.
A very enjoyable puzzle with quite
a lot of difficult parses, but I think I did get them all in the end. The
significance of the extra words in the down clues was lost on me, until after I
had solved the puzzle, as the theme is not one of my specialist subjects, but
that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the puzzle. Some well disguised
misprints in the across clues and the construction of some of the down clues
must have been quite a challenge! Many thanks.
I know the famous Prince songs so
hints like '1999' and 'Kiss' in the down extra words should have alerted me. As
it was, the penny didn't drop until 'purple' appeared in the across
instructions I was very pleased later when it became clear we weren't required
to put the 'Love Symbol #2/squiggle' in the empty box!
My favourite puzzle of the year to
date. Enjoyable clueing and a satisfying end-game. Thanks to Noctifer!
There once was a man called
Prince,
Who, on stage, would strut and mince.
Then one day, for a giggle,
Changed his name to a squiggle.
And nobody's heard of him since.
There were 49 entries, of which
only 11 were marked correct. Who got the correct solution? Matthew Auger, Joe
Baldwin, David Beamish, Robert Benz, Patrick Holland, Gerry Murtagh, Christine
Thomas, Adam Vellender, Clive Walker, Keith Williams and Philip Wood.
The lucky winner, picked at
random, was Philip Wood, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword
Dictionary which was donated by the publishers.
There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2026/08/solution-to-pronouncement-by-noctifer.html
You still have time to solve and send
an entry for our August puzzle, Uncommon Sense by Vagans. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2026/07/august-2026-uncommon-sense-by-vagans.html
The September Prize Puzzle will be
I am the Eggman by Henri.
Thank you to all the setters who filled
the gaps in our pipeline. I now have puzzles for every month this year and will
welcome submissions for 2027.
***
I am excited to be involved in a fantastic project. Keith Williams, who has
published two collections of CROSSWORD CLUB crosswords and is currently editing
a third, has had the brilliant idea of publishing a collection of the APEX Christmas
puzzles. Eric Chalkley, Apex, sent his first APEX (A Puzzle Every Xmas) to friends
in 1971 and continued until 2001, when he handed over to Phi, Paul Henderson.
Between the three of us we have many of those crosswords. I joined in 1979. We
were missing the earlier ones. However, Jennifer Rutter, Eric’s daughter, has
kept all of her father’s papers and has been able to scan the puzzles from 1971
to 1978. It will take some time to edit the crosswords that will be in the
collection and I will keep you up to date with the progress. In the meantime,
it is a pleasure to solve Eric’s fun puzzles.
***
Now that crosswords are discussed a lot on social media, especially Bluesky,
there has been a proliferation of specialist terms. Here we often refer to
Chambers as the BRB (Big Red Book) and often mention Ninas and Unches. However,
do you know the difference between a plonker and a lurker, or a GWIT and a FOI?
The Clue Clinic has listed all the technical terms with easy explanations in a
Glossary of Terms, that you can find at the bottom of this web page - https://clueclinic.com/index.php/the-setting-room/
***
Unch issue 4 is now published. It features exclusive new cryptic puzzles by
Angel, Armand, Credenti, 'Eck, Gennaro, Guinevere, Madcap, PostMark and The
Void, plus a barred thematic puzzle from the mysterious Mort.
You can order a copy of Unch issue
4 at this link. https://unchcrosswords.com/#shop
***
The US Cryptic Crossword Championship 2026 (US Triple-C 2026) and the Canada
Cryptic Crossword Championship 2026 (Canada Triple-C 2026) concluded
successfully with the declaration of the final overall results following the
completion of the two-round championship. After verification of the combined
scores of both rounds, Erik Agard emerged as the Overall Champion of US
Triple-C 2026, while Rupert Morrish secured the Overall Championship title in
Canada Triple-C 2026.
US Triple-C 2026 – Overall Top
Eight
- Erik
Agard
- Dan
Schwartz
- Matthew
Marcus
- Joshua
Kosman
- Marie
Desjardins
- Matt
Matheson
- Mr.George
Heard
- Pat
Cousins
Canada Triple-C 2026 – Overall
Top Eight
1. Rupert Morrish
2. Will Nediger
3. Daniel Hall
4. Noah Levine
5. Abdul Khaled
6. Matthew Cohen
7. Reyansh Sinha
8. Bernie Kuntz
***
The YouTube channel, Cracking the
Cryptic, set up by Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe continues to flourish. It
now has over 700,000 subscribers. Although they mainly deal with sudokus, I
like to watch them dissect the Friday Times crossword. Mark solves Wordle every
day and Simon does the Minute Cryptic where he solves a clue in less than a
minute.
In the Magpie, Simon reminds us of
GCHQ’s puzzle of the year. If you did not see it last Christmas you can still
get it here https://sudokupad.app/LBB7QD7RTj
What is even more interesting is
to see Simon tackling the puzzle and talking about his visit to GCHQ.
https://youtu.be/zKRn5WbmedA?si=HUGkLshiMDPFydqc
***
Series 2 of Ludwig, starring David Mitchell as the accidental, crossword-obsessed,
detective is being shown on BBC TV in August. The first series is available now
on iPlayer.
Also on BBC 2, a reminder that the
quiz game, Only Connect, has already started a new series.
***
I can certainly recommend a current offer from The Telegraph. You can have
access to all the Telegraph puzzles online for one year for only £1.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/puzzles/
***
You may be interested to know that the Merriam-Webster has produced a
Time-traveller site. You can choose any year and see which words first came
into print. It is interesting and often surprising.
You can try it here - https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/
***
Best wishes
Derek Harrison
