Crossword News April 2022

 

Crossword News April 2022

The March Prize Puzzle was Endless Shame by Chalicea. Unclued entries gave Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. Both claimed to be Richard, The Duke of York (the younger of the Princes in the Tower). Both were ultimately recognised to be pretenders. The word PRETENDER had to be highlighted.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Thanks go to Chalicea for a relatively easy puzzle, as we have come to expect from this setter, but with two or three more obscure answers to have you checking the dictionary - PIOYES, AUMIL, PHEAZAR. I did initially search for IMPOSTOR in the grid, before alighting on PRETENDER.  I'm sure many of us will remember the blue pre-printed aerogram letter forms - a quick check online shows they were only withdrawn in 2012 - though I don't remember them being called BLUEYS.

Thank you Chalicea for some new words (to me) all of them very fairly clued.  Consequently, the grid was not too difficult to complete.  In this I was aided by immediately spotting the subject matter through a combination of the title and the instructions.  Although it was over 50 years ago, I remember Perkin Warbeck and Lambert Simnel from a school history lesson. (So you see, Sir, I was paying attention!  Well at least on that day.)  I suppose the unusual sound if the names help them to stay in one's mind.  I seem to remember that the authors of 1066 And All That had some fun with them too.

When I saw in the preamble (original version) that two names "claimed to be ...", I immediately thought of my history lessons many decades ago and pencilled in "LAMBERT SIMNEL" and "PERKIN WARBECK" before looking at any clues. So filling the grid was unusually quick! I had much more trouble with the highlighting. I quickly ruled out IMPOSTOR but then spent a while looking at the letters of USURPER in rows 3 to 6, columns 1 to 3. It was a long time before I found PRETENDER!  I did not see the revised preamble until after that. The fact that Simnel purported to be the Earl of Warwick rather than Duke of York bothered me at one stage, but the Wikipedia article says "Simon noticed a striking resemblance between Lambert and the sons of Edward IV, so he initially intended to present Simnel as Richard, Duke of York ...", so I wasn’t too fussed!

There were 67 entries and, although many solvers said the puzzle was easy, there were 17 entries marked incorrect, often for invalid spellings of PEIZE or PHEAZAR. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, is Chris Edwards, who will soon be receiving his prize.

There is a full solution with notes at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/04/endless-shame-by-chalicea-solution-and.html

You still have plenty time to send in your entry for the April challenge, Round Robin XIV.

The May puzzle will be Mayhem Parva by Vagans.

David Thomson, who sets under the nom de guerre of ‘Vagans’, is a life-long wordaholic, As a young academic he nearly worked for the Oxford English Dictionary before turning his collar round and being ordained in the C of E, ending up as a bishop. In retirement he has been able to give more time to his continuing ’night job' as a mediaevalist, and to try turning his coat round this time, from poacher to gamekeeper in the world of cryptic crosswords. He has had puzzles published in the Listener, IQ, EV, Church Times and (as half of ‘Ovid’) in the Magpie magazine, and there are more in the pipeline. He is enormously grateful to those more experienced setters who have shown him the ropes and helped him on his way.

After May there is a dearth of puzzles to publish. Once again, we are looking for submissions for the summer months.

***
The first weekend of April saw the return of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, after a virtual event in 2021. In the final it was another win for Tyler Hinman, with Dan Feyer in close contention. You can find more information at https://www.crosswordtournament.com/2022/index.htm

Rachel Fabi gives an excellent description of the tournament in this NYT article https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/crosswords/crossword-puzzle-tournament-diary.html
***
In March the Listener Crossword Setters’ Dinner was held in Stirling. I watched much of the event on Zoom. You can download a copy of the quiz used at the Listener Crossword Dinner from https://www.jetdoc.co.uk/crossword-and-quiz-links
Shirley Curran  has put her photos from the Listener Dinner weekend at https://www.flickr.com/photos/194321761@N03/sets/72177720297740321/

***
Congratulations to Mick Hodgkin, who will be taking over the post of puzzles editor at The Times.
***
Congrats are also due to the Sunday Times who published puzzle No. 5000 at the end of March. Editor, Peter Biddlecombe wrote this fascinating article https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wordle-crossword-craze-sunday-times-puzzles-kdwc03g67
***
Exciting news! From today, the #SquareRoutes puzzle in #TheTimes can be played interactively in the latest versions of "The Times & The Sunday Times" phone and tablet apps, and on the Times website. Head straight to the Puzzles section for a great new solving experience. Enjoy!
***
In the male-dominated world of crossword setters it is always pleasant to read about a young woman who is having some success. Read more about Anna Shechtman here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-60902128
***
It was very nice to have Robert Teuton dropping in for lunch. Now that he has a granddaughter nearby, I expect to see more of him. He brought the prestigious Crowther Cup with him, fresh from the engraver with Philip Wood’s name added. I hope to have a photo of Philip with the cup soon.

 

 

Best wishes    

Derek Harrison