Crossword News September 2022

Crossword News September 2022

The August Prize Puzzle was Side by Side by eXternal. This was published at the time that the last episode of the Australian soap, Neighbours, was aired.

Letters omitted in wordplay give KYLIE MINOGUE (leftmost letters) and JASON DONOVAN (rightmost letters) reading down the grid; letter pairs deleted from clues give ESPECIALLY FOR YOU, a song by the pair; AUSTRALIAN is changed to NEIGHBOURS, the programme in which the pair starred.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Being a regular Listener Crossword solver, I’ve learned not to panic when faced with a somewhat impenetrable preamble. Indeed, the theme unexpectedly fell after just ten clues solved in the top left of the grid, as the names were recognisable from the first few letters. After this disappointment, however, there was so much more to winkle out of this puzzle. I guessed the first title from a single pair, then was able to weed this out of the down clues to accelerate the finish.  I’m left with awe at the quality of eXternal’s clues. Despite all the complex treatments, every one was not only scrupulously fair, but had an excellent surface reading. A great achievement - many thanks!

Another illusion bites the dust.  I have always thought crossword setters to be a little on the high-brow side and certainly not watchers of Australian soap operas.  This was a good puzzle with some unusual words and at first, I had little idea of the theme.  However, AUSTRALIAN, in the only row without letters missing from the wordplay, was a generous and welcome hint.  It was very clever how the substitution of NEIGHBOURS made new words. It was most enjoyable, as the offerings from eXternal always are.  Thank you.

I consider myself to be a big fan of low-brow themes, and they don't get much lower than this! I'm sure Kylie and Jason would be delighted by the puzzle, and how thoughtful of them to have names of the same length.  Solving was a pleasure - nothing was absurdly difficult, and all the surfaces made good sense, which is always a big plus (I enjoyed 'Tory place above joint oddly overlooked by tax officer' and 'Rancid ragged undies not completely destroyed' in particular, both cleverly hiding their double letters). Thanks eXternal.

There were 49 entries, of which only 2 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Geoff Telfer from Shipley. Geoff will soon receive his prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary donated by the publishers.

There is a solution and notes available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/09/solution-to-side-by-side-by-external.html 

There is still time to solve our September challenge, Postcard from Hedge-sparrow.

The October Prize Puzzle will be Nemesis by Chalicea.

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I was saddened to learn of the death of Peter Cargill. He was a long-standing crossword solver, a regular in our monthly puzzles and a clue-writer in the Azed competitions. He was my friend on FaceBook and I always enjoyed his photos of family gatherings, his latest on the recent Father’s Day. Peter passed away after a short bout of pneumonia at the age of 86. He will be sadly missed.

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Five years ago, Simon Anthony and Mark Goodliffe started making an occasional sudoku video on Cracking The Cryptic.  At the end of August, they ticked over 500,000 subscribers on YouTube. This is a remarkable success. You can view the amazing statistics here - https://socialblade.com/youtube/c/crackingthecryptic

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The Azed Slip continues to be published on the Crossword Centre. The latest one is for the clues to HECATOMB. Tim Moorey won with this lovely clue.

Bach motet endlessly remixed is what pleased the gods but emptied the stalls? (anag. less t).

You can also see the Annual Honours list for 2021 – 22. Don Manley is the winner, closely followed by Richard Heald. http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azedslip.html

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On FaceBook, Roger Phillips explained why the publication of Mira’s Listener crossword, Bleak Expectations, was delayed.

“The Listener crossword scheduled for the week when Sean Connery died ,was based on Connery's Goldfinger laser scene and included the line "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die". I had to edit a replacement puzzle very quickly.

I decided to reschedule the Goldfinger one to coincide with the release of No Time to Die, which turned out to be difficult because they kept changing the date (because of Covid).”

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In the Times Puzzles newsletter, Mick Hodgkin considered the relationship between jokes and puzzles, rewriting five of the top ten jokes of the Fringe as cryptic clues:

1. Italian nosh got by that woman, some might say (5)

2. Amazon's promise of an imminent end to child labour? (4-3, 8)

3. Effect of nitrous oxide with Oxo cubes the object of mockery (8,5)

7. Courier brought meal for former partner (3-2)

8. Parlous lifestyle of those lacking cutlery? (4-2-5)

I thought these were brilliant clues. If you didn’t see the top ten jokes from Edinburgh, you can check them here. https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/edinburgh-festivals/the-top-ten-funniest-jokes-of-the-edinburgh-fringe-2022-3814340

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Paul Pridmore has written to tell me about these early crossword books.

“This summer the world's first three Simon & Schuster crossword books from 1924 have silently appeared on Project Gutenberg.

My usual search for "crossword", always fruitless, now shows:
The cross word puzzle book
The cross word puzzle book: Second series
The cross word puzzle book: Third series

The third includes a summary of sales figures by the happy publishers for their publications of the series - all in 1924:
Total Third Series To-date     65,000 copies
Total Second Series To-date  135,000 copies
Total First Series To-date       148,200 copies
TOTAL TO-DATE     348,200 copies”

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Anyone looking for a useful list of abbreviations to use in writing clues or solving them could take a look at this section of the Unscramblerer site.

https://www.unscramblerer.com/crossword-abbreviations/

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Following the death of Queen Elizabeth, crossword editors are checking to make sure that ER referring to the Queen does not appear in the clues. Setters who have a puzzle in our pipe-line should also check.

Best wishes
Derek