Crossword News December 2022

Crossword News December 2022

The November Prize Puzzle was Big Bang Theory by Poat. 

The puzzle commemorated the obliteration of an atoll in the Marshall Islands on 1 November 1952 as part of the US nuclear test programme known as Operation Ivy (spelled out by corrections to misprints). The delivery device was codenamed Mike, highlighted in the central spiral of cells, with letters of the island ELUGELAB eliminated in turn from eight answers. Solvers were also required to highlight the symbols for Fermium and Einsteinium in the grid (FM and ES), elements confirmed through later analysis of the fallout.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This puzzle was all the more enjoyable because I had not previously heard of Operation Ivy (and even when I googled it the first references were to an American punk rock band of the same name!), nor of the former island of Elugelab, nor indeed that the Operation led to the discovery of two new elements. So warm thanks go to Poat for an instructive as well as entertaining and ingenious puzzle.

This puzzle was a blast! This was a challenging test of solving skills that required new clear thinking to determine which letters needed to fall out. Once I managed to marshall the mental energy to identify the puzzle's missing elements, it yielded megatons of fun. Poat makes a case to be the King of setters -- Bravo!

I found this quite a struggle with some answers (e.g. TALEGGIO) not in my edition of Chambers.  For a while I thought the theme was to do with the Hadron Collider at Cern but I needed Wikipedia on ELUGELAB to put me right.  A rather sombre subject in the end, all too relevant to what is happening in Europe at the moment.  Thank you Poat.

The puzzle proved a stiff challenge, well enjoyed by all.  A few mistakes, mainly through not spotting the newly discovered elements of fermium and einsteinium, but overall the puzzle was very well received. There were 45 entries, of which 9 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat was Adam Vellender, who will be receiving a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary donated by the publishers.

There is a full solution at 

https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/12/solution-to-big-bang-theory-by-poat.html

You still have time to email your solution to Seasons Greetings XIV before 8 January.
The January puzzle will be Leading Character by Vismut.
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In the Guardian, Alan Connor interviewed the setter of the Everyman puzzles in the Observer. The setters are usually not named, although we know that in the past, such notable clue masters as Dorothy Taylor and Alec Robins were the compilers. At last, we know who is the current incumbent. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2022/nov/26/meet-the-setter-the-observers-everyman
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New to The Telegraph is the new Cross Atlantic crossword. As the name implies this an American style puzzle. You can try it for free. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/cross-atlantic-crossword/ To solve the other crosswords you have to pay a subscription fee, although there is an option for a free month’s access to the puzzles.
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When my subscription to Times on-line went up to £26, I phoned to cancel it. I mainly use it for the Listener crossword and I reckoned it would be cheaper to buy The Times every Saturday. However, the nice employee on the Cancellation Team persuaded me to change to the Light Digital Pack. This costs £4.99 per month and, although you can only open 30 articles in a month you have access to all the crosswords. I’ll let you know how this works out.
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I have been having fun trying to solve one of Torquemada’s fun puzzles, Knock-Knock. It is based on the game, “Knock-knock.” “Who’s there?” “Cecilia who?” “Cecilia game than I thought”. I have had a few laughs, but it’s tough. You can try it here -https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/p/knock-knock-by-torquemada.html 

I did manage to fill the grid although I could not parse some clues. I will publish a solution next month.
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I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Best wishes
Derek
On Mastodon I have changed server, so my name is DerekHarrison@mastodon.social