Crossword News July 2021

 

Crossword News July 2021

The June Prize Puzzle was June Journey by eXternal.  Correct letters give SCOTSWOOD ROAD, PARADISE, COLLINGWOOD STREET; incorrect letters give BALMBRAS, MECHANICS HALL, ARMSTRONG’S FACTORY. These are locations in the song BLAYDON RACES in which the narrator receives a broken NOSE and two black eyes. This was an original concept where all entries were affected and both correct and incorrect letters gave the theme.

Here are some of the many comments from solvers.

Many thanks for a most original puzzle. Our solution is attached.  I've just enjoyed blacking a couple of eyes in a puzzle that worked well, as once we had the theme down the diagonal, the solving was massively speeded up by the places we could insert in the misprint letters, helping us solve the rest.  Clever, different and good fun.

Another absorbing puzzle from the Club, thank you and special thanks to eXternal.  It was a novel (to me) approach that left the grid filled with non-words and I was glad to have the locations letters to help.  You do not need to be a Geordie to know of the song but for the more specific knowledge I was grateful to Google.  The black eyes and broken nose was a nice idea.

This was a very entertaining puzzle with great surfaces and well-woven clues.  Entries with misprints in the grid was a twist that threw me (lost time at first putting in the correct answers!) before I realised what was expected.  Made it a bit easier though since clashes did not arise requiring resolving.  The route to unravelling the endgame proved both interesting and informative.  Thanks for the fun, a good workout after a long vacation.

There were 56 entries, of which 17 were marked incorrect. This was a high percentage of errors...highlighting omissions/errors (highlighting letter "Is" rather than the appropriately placed "Os") and grid entry errors probably due to the grid containing non-words.

The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was David Beamish, who will soon be receiving a prize of a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, donated by Chambers.

A full solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/07/solution-to-june-journey-by-external.html

You still have time to email your solution to Map by Urchin before the closing date of 8^th August.

The August Prize Puzzle will be Diet by Curmudgeon.
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John Henderson and Jane Teather are hoping that there will be a real York Sloggers’ and Betters’ weekend this year on Friday 29 to Sunday 31 October, with the main event on Saturday 30 (and the usual diehards at the station on the Sunday).

For details, and to register your interest, see:

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2021/06/28/sb-york-2021-friday-29th-and-saturday-30th-october-2021/
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I have been recommended to read a novel which might involve crosswords. The blurb begins thus: “Seventy-seven-year-old Judith Potts is blissfully happy. She lives alone in a faded mansion in Marlow, sets crosswords for The Times, and there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. When the local police don’t believe her story, Judith and two unlikely friends decide to investigate for themselves. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.” The Marlow Murder Club is published by Harper Collins this month.
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When a friend was clearing a house, they found a copy of the Listener from January 1968. They thought that I would be interested in the crossword and sent me a scan. The crossword was Triagrams III by Sam. It was fascinating to see how clue-writing has changed in 50 years. The grid, although not symmetric, is very clever as it is not easy to find words that can have at least three anagrams. If you would like to try the puzzle it is on the blog.
Triagrams III by Sam

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Joke of the week tweeted by Cracking the Cryptic showed Pooh and Piglet.

“What’s the strangest thing that has happened to you, Piglet?”

The strangest thing that happened to me, Pooh, was when I worked at the United Nations and I was aske to get Kofi Annan a gram of cocaine. I picked up the phone. “Kofi,” I said, “right now the only one I can think of is ‘oceanic’.
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On the Clue-writing Competition site your challenge for JULY is a STANDARD CRYPTIC clue to MACARONI (8) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT BST FRIDAY 30th JULY.

In the competition for TOERAG, Peter Milne was voted winner with this.

Love great wobbly bum

2^nd Anthony Nannini
Dog got ear treated

3^rd Tom Borland
No fellow of great rank

As we mentioned last month, Azed chose the same word to clue in his June competition. The winner was that Don Manley again.

 Tinker’s no. 1, tailor’s no. 2 – ergo, in organised sequence, I’m no. 7
(anag. incl. t, a; ref. beggar man in nursery rhyme).

In his slip, Azed had this to say. “A few of you drew my attention to the fact that the word was set at the same time for an on-line clue-writing competition. The odds against such a thing happening must be great, but I didn’t look to see if regular Azed competitors had entered both competitions and if so whether they had produced different clues in each case. I know of only one who produced a different clue for this comp (with signal success!). I’ll say no more. There are now plenty of crossword-related websites, competitive and otherwise, but I rarely consult them.”

Best wishes
Derek