Crossword News April 2023

 Crossword News April 2023

The March Prize Puzzle was High Bar by Hawk. The theme was jumbled countries and their capital cities. 6 Down gave MINSK/BELARUS. Other wordplay clues led to SANTIAGO/CHILE, DILI/EAST TIMOR, DAKAR/SENEGAL, DUBLIN/IRELAND, MASERU/LESOTHO, and TRIPOLI/LIBYA. Cells highlighted on the perimeter gave TALLINN/ESTONIA. Paired extra words in clues were jumbles of ten further capital cities and their countries. The title was a cryptic indication of Tall Inn!

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

That was a challenging, entertaining puzzle, top-notch in every respect: initial concept; grid construction; marvellous clues with plausible surfaces, and extra words cleverly disguised; managing to incorporate so many capitals and their countries, including some amazing anagrams from the twenty removed words.  Although it wasn't strictly necessary to solve those ten pairs if the extra words had been correctly determined, it would have seemed an injustice to the puzzle not to figure out each and every one, so I happily did!  Got a good laugh when the reason for the title dawned on me following the final step. Many thanks to Hawk and the Crossword Centre.

Congratulations (and thanks) to Hawk for managing to fit so much thematic material into both grid and clues in one of the more difficult monthly prize puzzles. In practice, I had the grid just about filled from the across and down clues before I had any idea what the puzzle was all about. If there had to be a criticism it is that you didn't actually have to solve all of the wordplay jumbles in the grid, given the symmetry, or all the extra word pairs, but that would have denied you part of the fun.

Wow - this was tough going! I had no idea what was going on until the very end - my only way to finish was to reverse engineer from a list of capitals/countries back to the wordplay clues. Even though not strictly necessary to finish I did go through and work out all the extra word pairings as well just for my own satisfaction. I have to say it’s a really impressive construction and I thought the clues were excellent. All in all, a really enjoyable puzzle - but please let April’s be a bit easier!

There were 44 entries, of which 7 were marked incorrect, some for misspelling Tallinn. The lucky winner picked from the electronic hat was David Simmonds of Dartford who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary  

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2023/04/solution-to-high-bar-by-hawk.html

You still have plenty time to solve the April challenge, Round Robin XV.

The May Prize Puzzle has a very apt title – Coronation by Chalicea.

We now have puzzles allocated up to August and Eclogue has already submitted their December challenge. We would welcome submissions for the autumn months.
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Keith Williams posted this on our message board.

This April, The Crossword Club is 45 years young. To coincide with this landmark, the Club has re-launched its website, which can now be found at: www.thecrossword.club
So far, the site contains both old and new content with the promise of more to come.
With grateful thanks to all involved in its creation.

As someone who signed up to the first issue of the magazine, I am very pleased. The site is worth visiting for some interesting downloads.
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Robert Teuton, manager of our clue-writing competition, usually has a hidden theme to the words that he chooses. He set us a challenge to work out the theme of the 2017 words. He explains thus.

Not too many problems identifying the theme, but a couple of the links proved trickier.  The link related to whichever star sign was extant at the launch of each competition, so:

Month               Clue word(s)                     Rationale            
JANUARY         CASHMERE                      Obtained from goats – CAPRICORN
FEBRUARY       FURPHY                           A water cart (carrier), Chambers – AQUARIUS
MARCH            TRUMPETER                    Type of fish – PISCES
APRIL               CORVUS                            A hooked ram for destroying walls – ARIES
MAY                  MICKEY                           A wild young bull (Aust.), Chambers - TAURUS
JUNE                COLLOP/SURTAX            Anagram of CASTOR and POLLUX – GEMINI
JULY                 FIDDLER                           A type of crab – CANCER
AUGUST           HALFPENNY                    Leigh HALFPENNY, a British Lion – LEO
SEPTEMBER   MAIDEN                             A virgin – VIRGO
OCTOBER        EQUIPOISE                        State of balance – LIBRA
NOVEMBER    FATHER-LASHER             Another name for the sea scorpion – SCORPIO
DECEMBER     ARCHER                             The Archer - SAGGITARIUS

A lion did appear on certain halfpenny coins, so was accepted and other links were made to MICKEY gaining half points.  The major stumbling block was failing to spot that COLLOP and SURTAX was an anagram of the Gemini pair rather than just a couplet to represent twins.

Some interesting ideas for a replacement to COLLOP/SURTAX, including MINNESOTA for the baseball team or the Twin Cities and I liked the suggestion of JEDWARD!  Two entrants discovered DIOSCURI which in itself is a very neat replacement, but one of them offered its anagram SCIUROID which was preferred for its extra level of crypticity and the fact it fitted in well with the original couplet being in anagram form...

...so congratulations go to Arsinoe Eleven - well done indeed!  Commiserations to Bhalchandra Pasupathy who just missed out on the tiebreak. Special mentions to others who came close (in order): Simon Shaw, John Appleton, Dale Johannesen, Nick Smith, Charlie Oakley, Seerat Hazir, Alan Chamberlain and Lawrence Baum.
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In the March newsletter I mentioned the dinner held at the Café Royale to celebrate the Ximenes 1000 crossword. John Walsh wrote to me to tell me that he had copies of the menu for that meeting and the table plan. They are fascinating documents. The menu has all the speakers and the food beginning with the letter M. On the back is this delightful acrostic poem.

Dear Ximenes, year after happy year,

Each week you've challenged us, your friendly foes.

Ravening wolves?" Yet wolves, one may suppose

Rarely show such affection for their deer.
Into our Sunday lairs we disappear

Clutching that crucial page, while others doze,

Keenly we scan your esoteric prose,

 

Mark in with dubious pencil what seems clear.

Anon the pennies drop; anon we smile;

Chambers confirms; the squares are filled at last.

Now to our clues, all but the best of these

Unlikely to approach your wit and guile ...

Thank you, a thousand times, for what is past.

The future? "Floreat Semper Ximenes!"

 R. Postill

The table plan makes for interesting reading and I have put all these on the Crossword Centre at  http://www.crossword.org.uk/X1000.html
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The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament ended in an exciting final round, where the favourite, Dan Feyer, beat Paolo Pasco by just one second.
https://www.crosswordtournament.com/2023/index.htm
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When I asked a chatbot to write my newsletter, here is what it suggested.

The New York Times Crossword turns 80: The New York Times celebrated the 80th anniversary of its crossword puzzle in February 2023. The Times crossword is widely regarded as the gold standard of crossword puzzles, and its popularity has only grown over the years.

Record-breaking puzzles: In recent years, crossword constructors have been pushing the boundaries of what's possible in a crossword puzzle. In 2019, for example, David Steinberg created a puzzle with a record-breaking 27 themers (entries that share a common theme). In 2022, Robin Weintraub created a puzzle with a staggering 28 themers.

Crossword tournaments go virtual: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many crossword tournaments have moved online. The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, for example, held its first virtual tournament in 2021, with contestants participating from all over the world.

Crosswords for charity: Crossword constructors have also been using their skills to raise money for charity. In 2021, for example, a group of constructors created a puzzle pack to benefit Black Lives Matter and other racial justice organizations.

Best wishes