Crossword News June 2020

Crossword News June 2020

The May Prize Puzzle was Free Hit by Rebus. This tough puzzle from the Aussie duo was resolved when the letter L (what is left) was changed to R. The title referred to the pop group Free and their 1973 hit All Right Now, which had to be written below the grid.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

What a lovely bit of misdirection - I realised what had to be done to the entries fairly early on, but spent hours and hours thinking about runs and legs, before finally getting a truly resounding clunk as the penny hit the floor.  In fact, I can remember seeing Free performing this number live, at a ball at Wadham College in summer 1970. The ball committee had booked the band months earlier for a pittance, so they were pleased as punch! Also performing live at the same event were Savoy Brown, and Pentangle. Those were the days…

I was baffled as to what was going on until quite near the end - and then it suddenly all made sense. Impressive construction to include 19 entries that could all be changed and still keep real words. I thought the clues were good as well - very precise & concise with the extra words in a lot of cases quite hard to spot. Really like the title (I’ve never heard of ‘Free’ before although the song is very familiar) and the inclusion of the singer’s name - nice touch. And now the preamble makes sense -

‘What’s left is to be treated…’ - of course! Thanks Rebus.

There were 45 entries with an unusual number of errors. Ten entries were marked wrong and none of the errors were the same. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Philip Wood who will be receiving a prize of a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which has been donated by Chambers.

A solution is available at http://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/06/free-hit-by-rebus-solution.html

You still have time to solve the May Prize Puzzle, That’s Life by Flowerman. The July challenge will be What’s Here by Vismut.
***
In the midst of our Coronavirus situation it became public that the Prime Minister’s special advisor, Dominic Cummings, had breached the rules by making a trip to Barnard Castle. The government slogan was “Stay alert: control the virus: save lives”. Crossword setter, Tim King, (Encota) came up with an apt anagram – Easily survives travel north to castle!

You can read how Tim created the anagram in his interview on the Guardian blog. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/jun/15/meet-the-setter-encota-crossword-blog

That advisor was on many people’s minds when they were writing clues to IMPACT for the Guardian’s clue-writing contest. I particularly liked – Starts to investigate Machiavellian political advisor caught travelling. You can see the others on the Guardian blog. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/jun/08/crossword-blog-many-many-clues-about-dominic-cummings
***
The continuing success of Cracking the Cryptic has to make Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony international stars.

The BBC published a video https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-gloucestershire-52868820/people-use-us-to-go-to-sleep-to-sudoku-solvers-become-internet-sensation

An article in the Guardian commented on their success.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/may/22/cracking-the-cryptic-puzzled-uk-men-become-internet-sensation-with-sudoku-channel

Also on the BBC programme Have I Got News for You, in the Missing Words section the panel were asked to guess the missing words in this Headline – Man in Surrey who Mutters to Himself while _____________________ becomes big Internet Hit. Of course, the missing words were ‘solving sudokus’.

If, like me, you struggle with the Listener mathematical crosswords I can certainly recommend Neil Talbott’s masterclass in explaining how to solve one.
https://twitter.com/crypticcracking/status/1272232395895451648
***
I have heard that the Enigma Variations puzzles in the Sunday Telegraph will cease after this August. I am saddened by this end to a long-running series of thematic crosswords. EV editor, Steve Bartlett, only recently took the role of EV editor when Chris Lancaster was promoted to be Telegraph crossword editor.
***
A new book which will interest all those new solvers who have taken up crosswords during the lockdown is How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords by Chris Lancaster. This clear guide with lots of examples, explanations of clue-types and practice crosswords is going to be the standard handbook. I have made it Book of the Month on the Crossword Centre. https://amzn.to/3hrALnp
***
Our Crossword Clue-writing Competition has a new task for June. After the "oldies" last month, time to give youth a chance – your challenge for June is a STANDARD CRYPTIC clue to THE YOUNG ONES (3,5,4) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT BST TUESDAY 30th JUNE.

Best wishes
Derek