Crossword News January 2021
The December Prize Puzzle was Seasons Greetings XII by
Eclogue. The theme of this crossword was the song All I Want for Christmas is
my Two Front Teeth. In the grid the word INCISOR had to be highlighted twice,
crossing diagonally.
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
Lovely puzzle, and indeed all anyone could want for
Christmas. Excellent craft in developing
the concept, and grid construction.
Quite liked the way the Incisors were depicted in the completed
grid. Many clever clues too - could have
been a whole lot tougher if 'Sister Susie' hadn't revealed itself early on, and
knowing there must be a Christmas connection made it possible to identify the
theme. A most enjoyable solve.
Thanks to all the setters and the CC team for regularly
providing high quality, stimulating puzzles.
This was a fun puzzle from Eclogue. I was chomping at the
bit to tackle this and eagerly sank my teeth into it. I soon worked out that
the composer was GARDNER, but that almost caused me to bite off more than I
could chew, as I initially settled on *John* Gardner and tried to find a
connection to "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" or "The Holly
and the Ivy." Fortunately, I gritted my teeth and worked out the tougher
clues, which allowed me to fill in the gaps. I was able to whistle a happy tune
when the puzzle was completed!
An entertaining solve with a novel twist on the Christmas
theme. The missing items were neatly
handled in the grid to allow all real words and finding the ones to be
highlighted was surprisingly hard – don’t think I’d expected them to be
crossed! Thanks to Eclogue for this
puzzle and for keeping the tradition going.
There were 46 entries, of which 5 were marked incorrect.
Solvers who highlighted 15 cells were marked correct, as long as the two
incisors were included. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat was
Rod Bell, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which
was donated by Chambers.
There is a full solution with notes at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/01/solution-to-crossword-centre-prize.html
There is still plenty time left to solve this month’s
challenge, Best Mates by Chalicea.
https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/12/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-january.html
The February Prize Puzzle will be Changing Places by Rebus,
our Aussie setters.
***
We now have the results of our annual competition. 11 competitors managed a
100% record for the year of 2019; they were:
Matthew Auger
Brian Betker
Andie Johnson
Keith Williams
John Reardon
Dale Johannesen
Dave Howell
Ronan Cullinane
RJ Green
Rod Beards
Philip Wood
As is our own tradition now, previous winners politely step aside, and then of
course a winner
had to be calculated by countback to previous errors...
...and the winner is...
John Reardon. John will be presented with the prestigious
Crowther Cup. Congratulations!
***
Crossword setter, Richard Palmer, died in hospital on Christmas Day after
losing his battle with leukaemia.
Richard compiled 229 Telegraph Crosswords, many of which
appeared as Saturday prize crosswords; the last of these ran in October this
year. He also compiled 82 Toughies under his pseudonym of Messinae, and an EV
under his pseudonym of Merlin. He had 15 Listener crosswords, most recently in
June 2020 and was a very successful clue-writer in the Azed competitions.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/by_cluer.php?series=B&cluer_id=70
Don Manley has sent me a photo of his last meeting with Richard
Palmer and Azed on the day of the cancelled Azed Lunch in September. http://www.crossword.org.uk/DonRichard.jpg
***
John Halpern (Paul) will be teaming up with stand-up comedian (and crossword
setter) Dave Gorman for a crossword -creating show on 12 February. You can
watch them create a crossword on the theme of Madness, a topic chosen by Dave.
To access the show, you have to sign up and you can do so on this link. https://www.johnhalpern.co.uk/dave-gorman
John is holding a number of crossword events with
celebrities, including Will Shortz, NY Times crossword editor, Alastair Hignell
and Sophie Winkleman in the next month. Events are free but there is an option
to give a donation.
***
John Nicholson is devising a new Round Robin puzzle. This will be the
thirteenth in a very popular series. This is what he wrote.
It is that time of year again when we ask for volunteer clue
writers for what will be the 13th round-robin puzzle. For those not familiar
with the process, we put a thematic grid together and ask willing members to
write a clue each. Solvers can award points to their favourite clues and the
setter whose clue gains the most points will receive a prize. More importantly,
it is a bit of fun where we can all join in. If you have taken part before, we
hope you will again, and if you haven’t please do give it a try. You can
contact me on email gironanick@yahoo.com
or leave a message via the messaging system on the message board.
All are plain clues this time. The entries are on a list and
simply allocated in that order so it is luck of the draw. In past years we have
had a great response but just fallen short of a full house so some volunteers
kindly set two clues. We are hoping for a good turnout this year, but just in
case we are in the same boat, please indicate in your message if you would
happy to write a second and I will allocate them in the order of initial
responses should it be necessary in mid-January.
As I write there are still a dozen words left to be clued.
***
A site that might be useful for Scrabble Players is Wordfinder. I would like to
hear the experts’ opinion on this website before I add it to the links page.
https://wordfinder.yourdictionary.com/
***
I have updated the link to Independent crosswords which was leading to the
wrong page. There are some good cryptics here but you do have to watch an
advert first.
https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/
***
Once again it has been pointed out that a solver has been asking for help on,
what I can only describe as cheat sites, to solve one of our Prize Puzzles. Am
I the only one to be horrified that someone would list a dozen clues and the
sit back while others supplied the answers.
***
In the Clue-writing Competition your first challenge for this new year is a
STANDARD CRYPTIC clue to DISTAFF (7) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT GMT
SATURDAY 30th JANUARY. http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php
***
There are now 206 members on the Google mailing list.
If you want to receive newsletters and clue-writing
information in your in-box you should sign up to the new Crossword Centre group
on Google. You can join this group at https://groups.google.com/g/crosswordcentre
Crossword News will, as usual, be available on the Crossword
Centre http://www.crossword.org.uk/newsletter.html
and on the blog https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/
Best wishes
Derek
