Crossword News October 2022

 Crossword News October 2022

The September Prize Puzzle was Postcard by Hedge-sparrow. This was a complicated puzzle which, in the end, gave a map of his holiday. Hedge-sparrow’s holiday venue is THE BROADS in Norfolk where he is ON A CRUISE (as confirmed by appropriate unscrambling of letters involved in clashes).  He is following a section of the RIVER BURE from WROXHAM / HOVETON via HORNING to RANWORTH (place names derived by unscrambling extra letter sequences in 4 clues), passing nine broads on the way: WROXHAM (W), HOVETON GREAT (H), SALHOUSE (S), DECOY (D), BLACK HORSE (B), BURNT FEN (B), COCKSHOOT (C), RANWORTH (R) and MALTHOUSE (M), confirmed by reference to a map of The Broads.  On the way, he spots three well-known local residents - a MARSH HARRIER, a SWALLOWTAIL, and a BITTERN.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Wow, what an ambitious, ingenious puzzle!  An astonishing feat to construct something like this.  I gulped when I saw the preamble, and almost gave up before even starting, but realised that if I could devise a methodical game plan, it just might be solvable.  And it was.  Filling the grid was a major (engrossing) challenge, with all the clashes and all the extra this and that.  Then came the hard part!  But with a bit of research, everything gradually fell into place - so satisfying.  Many thanks, Hedge-Sparrow!

What a puzzle! Looks like Hedge-sparrow must have had a lot of free time on his holiday to come up with this masterpiece!  Thankfully I was not on holiday (when I never have enough time) so could patiently unravel the mysteries contained herein and do some vicarious travelling.  Terrific clues and novel ways of presenting the game in this challenge.  However did need a lot of patience and time.  Many thanks.

Wow. That pretty much sums it up. I thought when reading the preamble, that it was going to be a busy solve. It absolutely was, but not in a bad way.  Extra letters, extra words, extra letter sequences, clashes, and anagrams all leading to a geographically accurate, coded map of the broads, including 4 of the cities, 9 of the broads and the river that runs through it all.

And sure, why not hide three of the native birds in there too.  Nothing was obvious before the grid was complete, and even then, there was still work to be done.  A superb effort, and one of my favourite reveals in a long time.  Many thanks for the challenge, and hats off for the execution of a challenging theme.

I stand in awe of anyone who can conceive, let alone execute, such a concept for a puzzle. A tour de force!

There were 40 entries, of which 5 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Julian Stradling, who will be receiving his prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which is donated by Chambers.

There is a solution to Postcard at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/10/solution-to-postcard-by-hedge-sparrow.html

You still have lots of time to complete the October puzzle, Nemesis by Chalicea.

The November Prize Puzzle will be Big Bang Theory by Poat. Andrew Fisher (aka Poat, or aphis99 at the Times Crossword Club) is originally from Cheshire, but has been resident in Melbourne, Australia for the last twenty years. His published puzzles have been inspired by topics such as Tallis's Spem in Alium, Yeats and Achebe, the Christmas truce, Wodehouse and duck hunting, golden hares, Fawlty Towers, the 2002 Winter Olympics and the Penrose triangle. He is also a highly-ranked international Scrabble competitor, and was runner-up in the 2011 World Championship.

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Tom Stevenson had just finished his GCSEs when he started watching Countdown “to pass the time”. He was suffering from agoraphobia and spent most of the post-exams summer indoors.

Five years later, he has broken the record for the show’s highest score with 154 points, two more than the previous highest score on the Channel 4 quiz, which was the first show broadcast on the channel when it launched in 1982.

It is a remarkable turnaround for Stevenson, who struggled during his A-levels, getting three Ds. In his GCSEs he scored a B in English and a C in Maths. He said part of the reason he wanted to go on the show was to “prove to myself I shouldn’t let the grades define my ability”. Describing the record-breaking moment, Stevenson said: “I’m genuinely not sure how I was able to stay so relaxed. I think the most nervous I got was when I felt my heart pounding before the conundrum.”

Here are the four nine-letter ones that Tom got right. BTEIMSORN, IAMRENLIN, TGOIRVSEH, and UNLETOVER the conundrum that he solved in 3 seconds.)

In the next show, Tom went on to win another record.

Tom Stevenson, 21, broke more records for the Channel 4 quiz show last night, after already taking the title for highest score in a single episode last week. He is now an “octochamp”, the show’s term for a contestant who wins all of their heat games, and one of only a handful of players to have obtained 1,000 points in the process.

After he hit the buzzer with the correct answer in the final conundrum, the host Colin Murray cheered. “One thousand points exactly and the first Countdown contestant ever to not lose a single round — Tom Stevenson, absolutely sensational,” Murray said. “And the coolest customer the whole way through, amazing.”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/countdown-prodigy-hits-record-eight-wins-without-losing-a-round-gr6z8vlss
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Once again, John Henderson is organising the legendary York S & B on Friday 28 and Saturday 29 October. He needs to know who is going so that he can order the meals. You can get more information and check in at this link.
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2022/10/04/sb-york-2022-friday-28th-saturday-29th-october-2022-important-update/
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The Azed Slip continues to be published on the Crossword Centre. The latest one is for the clues to RIBALD. Richard Heald was the winner with this reference to the news of the month.

Queen in Balmoral departs, a symbol of history gone, leaving us blue (R i’ Bal(moral) d).

http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azedslip.html
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In the Sunday Times it was announced that Don Manley will be publishing his final Mephisto crossword at the end of the year. It will be his 200^th Mephisto since he began 11 years ago. Solvers will get a taste of the setters who will be taking over, Robert Teuton, a regular winner of clue-writing competitions and manager of our own, and John Grimshaw, former Listener setter and, as far as I know, the brains behind the Ninas in the Times concise crosswords. They will join the team of Tim Moorey and Paul McKenna.
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On our clue-writing competition the results for CURIOSITY are in. Don Manley won with this beautiful &lit clue.

Is it your cat’s principal undoing?

The October competition is for a clue to HOOVER.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php
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When the Cracking the Cryptic team of Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony published a book of Sudoku puzzles in 2020, it was a huge success, selling over 10,000 copies. Now they are back with a second book, Greatest Hits volume 2, and you can order a copy by funding its publication.
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John Tozer is now in a rehab hospital and is in very good hands. This is great news although John still has a long road to recovery and it is going to be some time before he can get back to running his wonderful andlit website. Both John and his wife Jane are concerned about the future of the andlit website and Jane is wondering whether anyone with time available and the necessary skills could take over the running of the site for the (hopefully shortish) time that John remains out of action.  If you have any suggestions as to a way forward please get back to me.
http://www.andlit.org.uk/azed/slip_search.php
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And finally, when Daniel Larson was 13 he became the youngest setter of a New York Times crossword. A few years later he went on to solve a complex number theory. Read about it here - https://www.quantamagazine.org/teenager-solves-stubborn-riddle-about-prime-number-look-alikes-20221013/

Best wishes
Derek