Crossword News July 2023

 Crossword News July 2023

The June Prize Puzzle was Full of Beans by Road Gamer. This was cleverly themed on the books of P G Wodehouse. Stories by P.G. Wodehouse about various members (referred to generically as Eggs, Beans and Crumpets) of the Drones Club see the appearance of (among others) BERTIE Wooster, BOKO Fittleworth, CATSMEAT Potter-Pirbright, TUPPY Glossop,  BARMY Fotheringay-Phipps, BINGO Little, PONGO Twistleton and STILTON Cheesewright (who thinks that Bertie is his rival for the affections of a certain young lady . Solvers had to help JEEVES take BERTIE's place in order to rescue him and  all other Drones bar STILTON (who remains unchanged), replacing them with JURA, DERMS, SORBO, JEEVES, CASEMENT, NISSE and DSOBO, all of which produce new real words in crossing entries.

Having re-populated the grid, solvers needed to highlight DOLLS (being a female synonym of crumpets) and OOLOGY (the study of eggs).

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This was quite an interesting puzzle with a theme that will no doubt be familiar to many.  I wasn't entirely sure about the instructions initially (since theme entry clues also threw up seemingly extra words) so just decided to keep slotting them in the grid and see how the mismatches pan out.  The initial grid filling went quite fast, helped to a great extent by the generous checking and fair sprinkling of fully checked entries.  The theme also became obvious early in the process when Stilton and Catsmeat fell.  The second part took longer than expected even knowing which entries would need to undergo change, but there was a fairly obvious starting point - it was somewhat intuitive that Jeeves would come in, and only Bertie could make way for that.  Many thanks for the entertainment.  As an aside, I must say I was somewhat surprised that 'climbing' and 'up' figured as reversal indicators in across clues. 

This was fun, also a real challenge. I have always loved PG Wodehouse, and had never come across this volume (but managed to locate a pdf on the internet). I was about halfway through before the theme became apparent.  Some very tough clues and I found properly identifying the extras rather difficult, in fact although I managed to re-pair a couple of definitions and wordplay, other pairs still elude me, even though I'm pretty sure I got all the replacements correctly.  I'd never heard of Sorbo, took me ages to get it! Well done, Road Gamer!

This was a tough one - I had no idea what was going on for a long time. I think it was getting ‘Bertie’ that put me on the right track and then the internet came to the rescue. I thought reconstructing the clues would be very challenging but noting ‘valet’ in this context had to lead to 'Jeeves’ and then it was a process of elimination to complete the grid. I guess that I’m highlighting the ‘crumpets’ and the ‘eggs’ at the end.  I thought the clues were all good and it was a really enjoyable challenge.

It proved to be a tough puzzle. There were 34 entries, of which 9 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner was Tim Coates from Beecroft, Australia, who will be receiving a prize book.

There is a full solution and notes at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2023/07/solution-to-full-of-beans-by-road-gamer.html

The current Prize Puzzle is Gravest by Stick Insect and you have until the 8^th of August to email your entry.

The August Prize Puzzle will be Right is Wrong by Flowerman.

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More sad news. We heard of the death of Margaret Irvine at the end of June. As the setter Nutmeg, she had her very first puzzle published on the Crossword Centre in 2005 to be followed by more until 2017.  We became good friends. Her clue-writing was precise and often enigmatic.

On Twitter, Haydon Bambury wrote this tribute.

She made her debut in the Guardian with a Quiptic on 8th May 2006 and would go on to provide 80 puzzles in that series. It wasn't until well over 6 years later on 20th September 2013 that she would make her daily debut, and right from the word go it was clear that she was something special. She reached the landmark of 100 daily puzzles on 13th July 2019 with her first Saturday Prize puzzle.
Her final tally of 182 puts her 23rd on the all-time list, right between two greats: Quantum and Hendra.

Adjectives that appeared in the comments underneath pretty much all of her puzzles: sparkling; immaculate. RIP.

Hugh Stephenson wrote her obituary in the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2023/jul/06/nutmeg-margaret-irvine-obituary
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My book, The Apex Letters, has been well received by the first few readers. One of them wrote, “It has certainly stirred memories of Eric Chalkley, such a generous and thoughtful man, and the way in which he encouraged the kindred spirit among crossworders.”

You can find out more and how to order a copy at this link. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/p/the-apex-letters.html
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I always wondered what Stephen Sondheim’s Manhattan apartment looked like. Now that it is for sale you can get a glimpse inside.

Located at 246 East 49th Street, the late composer's townhouse "sits among the 20 historic homes that comprise Turtle Bay Gardens, the coveted enclave situated on 48th and 49th Streets between Second and Third Avenues. Created in 1920 from a collection of 1860’s townhouses, the homes share a private communal garden accessible only from one of these storied homes. Previous owners of these homes have included Katharine Hepburn, Garson Kanin, Robert Gottlieb and Maxwell Perkins, to name a few," according to the listing.

The home includes a "music studio on the second floor [that] features a music library, wood-burning fireplace and baby grand piano."

A video tour is available. https://youtu.be/ANZ3VCI8lnM and the apartment could be yours for around $7million!
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Following the news last month that Big Dave had died, Elgar (John Henderson) has produced a tribute puzzle that is well worth trying.
https://crypticcrosswords.net/puzzles/ntspp-puzzles/ntspp-698/
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Best wishes
Derek