Crossword News October 2020

 

Crossword News October 2020

The September Prize Puzzle was Minor Variations by Phi. Unclued answers are (or have the form of) reduplicative compounds such as LOVEY-DOVEY, with only one letter varying between the halves.  By squeezing both letters into one cell in the crossing word (FRAMPO(LD)), the unclued answers can be entered in half the space apparently necessary.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Phi is one of my favourite setters and I always enjoy his puzzles in the i newspaper on Saturday mornings.  So I quickly settled in to solving some easy clues before hitting a block. I could not see what was going on and it took some repetition of my best tactic (put the puzzle down, do something else and then pick it up again) for gradual progress to be made on one or two less common words. Then, with grid complete (except unchecked in the unclued) my search for anagrams was fruitless.  After what seemed a lot of staring, "rope ripe" suddenly registered - and so the penny dropped. A lovely, clever puzzle that really tested me and gave me enormous satisfaction upon completion. Thank you, Phi.

TERU-TERO was my way into this – there not being many synonyms for lapwing!

I always find Phi puzzles tricky, and this was no exception. The theme remained unrevealed until quite late on and the identification of all the redundant words was not easily resolved because of the very smooth surface reading of Phi's clues, enhanced by the inclusion of an extra word or words, making solution just that bit trickier! All in all, a very neat theme beautifully executed.

Minor Variations proved to be a tough challenge. There were 42 entries of which 3 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Michael Crapper, from Whitchurch, who will soon be receiving his prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by Chambers.

A solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/10/solution-to-minor-variations-by-phi.html

You still have lots of time to solve this month’s challenge, Riddles by Gnomie. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/09/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-october.html

The November Prize Puzzle will be Hat Trick by Yimin.
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The death was announced of the crossword setter, John Dawson, better known as Chifonie in the Guardian. In the Financial Times he set puzzles under the pseudonym Armonie. The FT published this obituary along with his first FT crossword.

JOHN DAWSON, crossword compiler Armonie in the FT, died on September 24 after a long illness. Born in 1946, a Novocastrian, he worked as a design engineer in the chemical industry. His laboratory colleagues gathered round the crossword in the morning tea break and this led to a lifelong passion, first as solver and 20 years later as compiler. His pseudonyms, Chifonie in the Guardian and Armonie in the FT, early names for the hurdy-gurdy, reflected his love of early music.

Early retirement and a move to Kendal enabled him to indulge his passion for walking and his love of the Lake District, which resulted in the website lakedistrictwalks.com. With retirement supported by setting crosswords and work as a warehouse truck operator, he took up again a teenage enthusiasm for ballroom dancing and with his partner started competing in the National League.

As a compiler at the easier end of the FT cryptic scale, his puzzles were often seen as a template to guide aspirant setters. He filled the Monday prize puzzle slot for many years and only retired a few months ago because of health problems.

https://www.ft.com/content/28b67521-0722-4d9a-bc90-360e257cdd23

Alan Connor published an obituary in a recent Guardian blog. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/oct/12/remembering-the-crossword-setter-john-dawson-aka-chifonie
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The organisers of the Listener Crossword Dinner, John Henderson and Jane Teather, have announced that, due to the Corona virus, they have cancelled next year’s March event. They are discussing whether to have an on-line event in March, to move the event to October or to miss out on 2020 and organise a dinner for March 2021.
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The Corona virus has also affected this year’s Times Crossword Championship. Crossword editor David Parfitt announced this week –

It won't surprise you to learn that sadly the Times Crossword Championship will not take place this year, owing to the Covid pandemic. However, we would like to try something new (and rather experimental) in its place. On Saturday, November 21, three additional Times Crossword puzzles will go live on the Crossword Club at 10.30am GMT. Solvers will have 90 minutes to complete all three puzzles and will need to submit each puzzle upon completion, as if entering one of the weekend prize puzzles. The solver who completes all three puzzles most accurately and in the quickest time will become the inaugural Times Online Crossword Champion. As ever, we will produce a full list of rankings, so you can see how you fare even if you don't think you'll be among the fastest few. A few points to mention:

- The contest is open to all subscribers with access to the Crossword Club, and there is no entry fee. If you know of any non-subscribers who might like to compete, there is currently a "first month free" deal running on our digital subscription page: thetimes.co.uk/subscribe/digital

- We have made the decision not to offer a prize, other than the pride of winning and the undying respect of crossword solvers everywhere. Given the online format, we felt the best chance of encouraging fair play was to make the competition just for fun.
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Following the huge success of their Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel, Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony are now planning to publish a book of 25 of the best Sudoku puzzles. They have launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds. You can find out more at the link below, as well as watch a 2 minute video and order a book.
http://kck.st/3iR7WA0
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With news of trouble with the Track and Trace system run by Dido Harding, it was apt, according to Private Eye, for Chambers Dictionary to remind us that “dido” means “a frivolous or mischievous act” and “to act dido” means “to play the fool”
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On the Clue-writing site your challenge for October is a STANDARD CRYPTIC clue to GLORIA (6) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT GMT WEDNESDAY 28th OCTOBER.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php

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Problems with the host service for the Crossword Centre means that future puzzles will be posted on the blog. Please add the URL to your favourites. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/

Best wishes
Derek