Crossword News July 2022

 

Crossword News July 2022

The June Prize Puzzle was Repatriation by Hawk. The government decided to repatriate even-numbered letters (B, D, F, H, etc). L and N were the two fugitives. The oblique commentary spelled out in the departure lounges were the phrases COMME CI COMME CA (“not ideal”) and EASY COME EASY GO (“casual attitude”).

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This was a toughie, made tougher with the inclusion of a lot of obscure terms in both entries and wordplay, but balanced somewhat with liberal checking.  A very entertaining puzzle, starting with the clever and amusing wording in the preamble complemented by many superb clues, quite devious in some cases I might add.  Quite an achievement in gridfill to be left with only the 'odd' characters, and to find starting entries with just one instance each of unwanted characters, even with the dispensation of rotational symmetry. A challenge well worth the price, great fun, many thanks.

Such a lovely, engrossing puzzle.  Great clues, with the extra words well-disguised.  While filling the grid, I did notice certain letters recurring, but it took a while for me to realise that Hawk was using only 13 (alternating at that!!) letters of the alphabet, with any of the other 13 to be replaced by those.  Brilliant setting feat!  Many thanks to Hawk.

This was a tough one! I had filled the grid before I saw which were the "unwanted characters" and was astonished to find that they included half the alphabet! A remarkable achievement by Hawk to fill the grid thus, and to find phrases to fill the first and last rows. The top phrase ingeniously removed any ambiguity as regards 7 and 14 down.

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/07/repatriation-by-hawk-solution.html

This proved to be a difficult puzzle. There were 35 entries, of which 9 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat was Gerry Murtagh, from Glasgow, who will soon be receiving his prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary.

There is still time for you to solve the July challenge, That Moment by Chiffchaff.

The August Prize Puzzle sees a return of a popular setter, Side by Side by eXternal.

The Crossword Centre pipeline is looking very healthy with puzzles every month until next April.
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John Tozer, who suffered a heart attack in May, is recovering very slowly and it is hoped that he will move into rehabilitation soon. Until he is well enough to manage the &lit site the Azed Slip will be available on the Crossword Centre - http://www.crossword.org.uk/ We wish him a speedy recovery.
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I have been watching the growth of MyCrossword, a site developed by Raider, aka  Tom Blackwell. MyCrossword allows setters to create and publish puzzles. Alan Connor has recently interviewed Raider and you can find out more here - https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2022/jul/04/crossword-roundup-could-your-puzzle-find-a-home-online-at-mycrossword
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On Saturday 27 August there will be return of Lollapuzzoola in New York. As well as the five puzzle tournament there is an opportunity to compete on-line. You can buy tickets and get more information at  https://bemoresmarter.com/lpz2022/

Best wishes

Derek