Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle April 2021

 RR XIII – 13^th R0und R0bin

PDF version

After filling the grid solvers must change the two entries in one row to form the first in a series in full, thereby changing four down entries into followers in part. Seven other entries must be changed into followers in the series. The circled cells could be arranged to form a 13th in the series. Replacement letters could form MEMBER IN TOP JOB WILL SWAP. 

All entries in the final grid are real words.

The Chambers 13th edition is the primary reference.

Across

  1 Diminutive racer Hamilton’s made circuits of course in lead position (6)

  6 Defeat for the bard when muse loses beginning of madrigal (7)

11 One who makes people late by turning to patter again and again? (8)

13 Potter finally cracks issue encountered reversing spell at school (8)

14 Scotsman for example collects 3 out of 4 possible points (6)

15 Fine the French after bust shattered (6)

16 Seizure of goods - after which American gang's busted (4)

18 Crier’s call filling shell of coconut shy in the extreme (6)

19 Furious about escapes from Syrian city cell (5)

21 Byzantine square bonces could have borne these? (7)

23 Laid around, turned over, right to left at first (6)

24 Mac's hay cart advanced round the bend leaving busy marketplace (6)

26 Boundless surge stops our opponents working miracles (7)

27 You might get this by ungathering one trimmed lasso (5)

29 Rook among group of birds missing last of pig swill (6)

33 Bowl over, bats over (4)

35 First couple of seamen smooth over bottom parts of ships (6)

37 Last one dropped dead, put in cooler (6)

39 Exceptionally large garment with openings to underplay my bony place (8)

40 Prior to November dreadful boat train's lower facilities made all who travelled late (8)

41 Ruffled nap ducks apparently developed for feathered part of skin (7)

42 Frequent flyer heads for Paris, lucky to be there in central location (6)

 

Down

  2 Layabouts hide in lavatory with time wasted - that'll leave him upset? (6)

  3 Happily complete circus comedian changing direction (5)

  4 Historic city state briefly mentioned in article (4)

  5 I let someone out—someone who's let out repeatedly? (8)

  6 Onset of epilepsy treated with rest cure (5)

  7 Poor Bambi’s missing one black foot (4)

  8 Regular characters in in-depth, tense finale of Cagney & Lacey seldom heard (5)

  9 Trains display time to go to Iowan city (5)

10 Opts for English desks once ballot-box goes missing (6)

11 Book for mass celebration - what nostalgic Birmingham expats might do?  (6)

12 Wrecks cap with soft lining (7)

17 Peg one bashes heavily (5)

18 Jumbles of calcium, potassium and einsteinium (5)

20 Minister mostly purged snobby chattering classes (7)

21 Unhitched from pillar, small vessel makes for small island (3)

22 Group run out of cryptic setters around the middle of thirteenth (8)

25 He flees, expressing hesitation about drunken duel (6)

26 Most gut rot is treated by pharmacist initially, it's psychologist's session that's designed to improve communication skills (6)

28 Organisation more sprightly with wings clipped? (6)

30 Leave rather small opening (5)

31 What's inside egg, gold bit having been tossed (5)

32 Part of arm protecting hand in a bust-up (5)

34 Bounder rolled up flush with success (5)

36 Poet’s greatly distressed having let letters go missing (4)

38 Maybe setter has upset stomach and temperature (4)

Entries

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format giving the final entries to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th May 2021. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

Voting

You may vote for your favourite clue with your entry. You can just nominate one clue, which will be awarded 3 points, or your top three which will be awarded 3, 2 and 1 points. The person whose clue accumulates the most points will receive a prize, which also has been donated by the Crossword Centre.

Credits

Grid: John Nicholson and Andy Stewart

Clues: Anax, Tim Anderson, Steve Bartlett, Rod Beards, Rod Bell, Shirley Curran, Brian Dungate, Peter Finan, Simon Griew, Derek Harrison, Margaret Irvine, James Leaver, Robert Lorimer, Kevin McDermid, Satyen Nabar, Nebuchadnezzar, Jack Nichols, Joe Nicholson, John Nicholson, John Nolan, Mark Oshin, Juliet Parkinson, Jeff Pearce, Rob Pinnock, Phylax, Ed Powles, Nic Pursey, Steve Randall, Rishikesh C G, Simon Shaw, Ian Simpson, Nick Smith, Peter Smith, William Snow, Sprout, Andy Stewart, James Taverner, Robert Teuton, Don Thompson, John Tozer, Vismut, David Ward, Luciano Ward, Nick Warne, Dave Williams and Keith Williams 

Listener Crossword Dinner

 Screenshots from the Listener Crossword Dinner on Zoom

Australian solver, James Lever, winner of the Radix Auditorum claret jug. Best first-time solver with 43 correct out of 46 entries in 2020.

Peter Blayney, winner of the Solvers Silver Salver, top of the leader board of all-correct solvers.

Colin Thomas (Twin) winner of the Ascot Gold Cup for his puzzle Tip Top Condition.

Crossword News March 2021

 

Crossword News March 2021

The February Prize Puzzle was Changing Places by Rebus. The perimeter was filled with names words associated with NELSON and the completed central square spelled TRAFALGAR. Thus, changing places, Trafalgar square was in a square of Nelsons. What was required, hinted at by the R in the centre, was right eye, right arm, the parts that Nelson lost.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Creatively conceptualised puzzle with entertaining clues.  The main challenge was in unscrambling and slotting in the perimeter answers, where I had some starting problems.  Was looking for stuff (monuments, places, streets etc) connected with Trafalgar Square (of which there's quite a selection to be had) but nothing seemed to fit.  Of course, the Nelson connection became apparent soon enough - my presumption may have had something to do with the puzzle title, and I've still not satisfied myself about how that relates to the rest of the puzzle and theme.  Thanks Rebus and organisers for a stimulating challenge.

A neat idea with the centre R’s double significance a clever touch.  An enjoyable solve but with an incompleteness for me in not being able to definitively solve the first perimeter clue.  It looks like it should be “reef” but I can’t see the thematic significance, so I look forward to seeing the solution and no doubt finding out what I’ve missed.

Not confident about the 4 words!

With the 9-cell thematic area spelling TRAFALGAR and the perimeter answers all being examples of NELSONs, I inferred "the key perimeter answer" to be HORATIO. A little research tells me that Lord Nelson suffered loss of/damage to his RIGHT ARM and RIGHT EYE. I hope that is what Rebus had in mind.

There were 46 entries, 9 of which were marked incorrect (4 because of the 4 words). The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Bill Stewart from Leicester and he will soon be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which was donated by Chambers.

A full solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/03/solution-to-february-prize-puzzle-from.html

A technical problem meant that I was unable to publish the results of the January challenge, Chalicea’s Wallace and Gromit puzzle. Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Off to a good start! Please find attached my entry for “Best Mates” by Chalicea. A lovely theme and well presented. Fortunately, The Wrong Trousers leapt into my head and I didn’t need to fiddle around with the extra letters as the theme revealed itself.

Another lovely puzzle from Chalicea, she's one of my favourite setters. I like how she uses such an array of cultural themes from highbrow to popular and fun, such as this one.  28d was clever!

Thanks to Chalicea. A typical puzzle from this setter, perhaps on the easy side, but with enough clues to make you think. After solving a few of the down clues, the potential GROMIT was rather obvious. There were not too many films to choose from, further restricted by the amount of space available round the perimeter, so filling that was on the easy side as well. Nonetheless, a pleasant start to the year.

There were 66 entries, of which 7 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Roslyn Shapland from Ilkeston and she will soon be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which was donated by Chambers.

You still have time to solve this month’s Prize Puzzle, Cracking! by Soup. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/02/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-march-2021.html

The April puzzle will be our thirteenth Round Robin, with a grid designed by John Nicholson and clues written by 45 volunteer clue-writers.

We have puzzles in the pipe-line for the next few months but would welcome submissions for later in the year.
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There is a fascinating article by Norman Miller on the BBC dealing with all aspects of cryptic crosswords, Cryptic Crosswords- a Puzzling British Obsession.
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There will be a Listener Crossword Dinner, of sorts, on 20 March via Zoom. John Henderson and Jane Teather will be organising a quiz and there will be brief announcement of the awards.
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As it would have been the 85th birthday of Georges Perec this month, Charlie Methven, the setter Chameleon, published a crossword in his honour. In the style of Perec’s novel La Disparition, the crossword avoids the letter E in both clues and answers.

You can try the puzzle here http://crossword.info/chameleoncrosswords/ChameleonPerec

As well as writing novels, Perec was a regular crossword compiler and a collection of his puzzles is available on Amazon - Les Mots Croisés
He was bored by the definition-only clues common in French crosswords and used wordplay in his clues. One clue that he admired was

Do (11)

I have put one of Perec’s crosswords on the blog, if you would like to try. I have added a link to the solution, if you get stuck. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/p/georges-perec.html
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On the Clue-writing competition the March challenge is to write a clue to CORNFLAKES.

The winner of the January competition, a clue to DISTAFF, was Richard Saunders.

Aid to spinning fast if beginning to dance waltzes
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There are now 217 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

Solution to clue – DEMISOMMEIL
(Half of DODO (sleep)

Solution to the February Prize Puzzle from the Crossword Centre

 Solution to Changing Places by Rebus

The title refers to the finished grid where Trafalgar is in Nelson Square. The perimeter answers can all be linked with NELSON. The central R refers to the fact that Admiral Nelson lost his RIGHT ARM RIGHT EYE.

Across: 7 (patric)K + ONE (a), 8 anag.ROMEO in anag.  NERO, 11 own inside cred, 12 S Isierra) + KA (Ford Ka), 13 Outrage minus middle letter, 15 TEE + Off, 16 homophone LOANERS, 17 NEST inside FERA(l), 19 every third letter SarTreYelLedOut, 21 (s)ANTA ref Dancer, reindeer, 22 F + ARM, 25 ALL _ OT (old Testament), 27 GLAD + (v)IOLA, 30 TEAL in SE (South East England eg. Kent), 31 AN in AREA, 32 GLUT + EI, 33 CRAB minus R (take), 34 Anagram NEAPOLITAN minus IN A, 36 E + M + bellish (like a bell!), 37 Nice = French town. 

Down: 1 Fe (iron) + RULES, 2 2  meanings. Ref Illawarra cattle, 3 anagram LEGS NOT, 4 Hidden reversed, 5 IR (Inland Revenue) + KED, 6 Anag. TOKYO minus Y (yen), 9 anag. Artemis, 10 anag. Feller minus L, 12 Hidden  &lit., 14 Hidden, 18 sixteen ounce (1IB) minus sixte, 20 anag. THYMOL minus H, 23 anag. HELP AID, 24 LEE in S (small) TED (dry), 26 MURAL reversed, 27 BRAG (card game) swapping B + G, 28 First letters, 29 Anagram LEAVE, 30 S (section) + OLID, 35 2 meanings ref. Londonderry Air.

Perimeter :

Free style! (4) Anagram FREE

Express surprise at legal principle underlying decision (7) HO! + RATIO

Headless toy (4) (T) EDDY

Wind up taking home designated driver (6) DD in RILE

Could be the white knight of the Quebecois (7) MAN (chess piece) + DE LA

Flash back going South (4) Anagram FLASH minus S

Mr Spooner's aircraft Fitzgerald (11) Spoonerism FOKKER ELLA ref. Ella Fitzgerald

Mistake unknown (5) RICK + Y

Right eye, right arm.