Crossword News August 2023

 Crossword News August 2023

The July Prize Puzzle was Gravest by Stick Insect. First and last letters of clues give IN TITLE REPLACE ONE CLUE ANSWER WITH ITS NUMBER TO SHOW ADDRESS and CHANGE A LETTER IN EACH OF TEN ANSWERS. HIGHLIGHT PAST RESIDENTS.  Inserting Ten Down for “rave” in the title indicates TEN DOWN IN G ST.  The final grid shows ten prime ministers, past residents of 10 Downing St.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This was an excellent puzzle with a lot going on. Identifying the two letters to omit was tough initially but, as I got accustomed to the clueing 'style', it got a bit easier and the instructions emerged. The use of the title to identify the theme was inspired and the inclusion of 10 PMs impressive.  Thanks to the Crossword Centre and Stick Insect.

Stick Insect's offerings are always interesting and this was equally true to form.  A nice device to reveal the theme, and both the theme and requirements became clear only very late in the process, so well concealed to maintain the X factor.  Lovely clues too, in all, a nicely rounded package.  Many thanks.

Nice job to include so much thematic material and leave real words in the final grid. Took me far too long to realize what "10 down in g street" meant, duh.

There were 49 entries, of which 8 were marked incorrect, mainly for shading errors. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Philip Wood, who will be receiving a book donated by Chambers.

There is a solution here https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2023/08/solution-to-gravest-by-stick-insect.html

You still have time to tackle the August puzzle, Right is Wrong by Flowerman.
https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2023/07/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-august.html

The September Prize Puzzle will be Farewell by Hedge-sparrow.

We are still short of puzzles and our pipe-line is looking quite bare. Chalicea has sent me another puzzle which I can publish in October and the Eclogue duo have taken the December spot with another Seasons Greetings. However, we do not have anything for November. Any submissions would be welcomed.

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Mick Hodgkin has announced that after a four-year gap, the Times Crossword Championship is back.

The 2023 Championship will be held on Saturday October 21st at Times HQ, the News Building, right by London Bridge station. We are returning to an in-person event, largely following the format of the 2019 contest - two qualifying sessions, a semi-final session for the highest finishers in each qualifier, and a grand final in which the top three semi-finalists tackle one puzzle.

The winner will receive £1000 and will get to take home the coveted Times Crossword Championship trophy, and there will be further runner-up prizes, details to come.

There are no qualifying puzzles, and tickets will go on sale at the start of September, priced at £40 (£32 for Times subscribers), including refreshments. The 50 high-ranking 2019 semi-finalists who were offered a guarantee of a place for 2020 will be contacted early to ensure they get a chance to book.

Further details, including a link to the competition website and information on how to book, will be given here on the Crossword Club, in the puzzles newsletter and in the paper over the next few weeks.

If you want to sign up for Mick’s crossword newsletters you do so here - https://home.thetimes.co.uk/myNews Although I am not sure if you have to be a Times subscriber.

In his latest newsletter, Mick, Puzzles Editor at The Times, published a nice summary of my book The Apex Letters. Here it is.

The online world is increasingly dominated by a few big tech companies, but in the early days of the Internet part of the driving force behind the explosion of content and the social connections it threw up was the enthusiasm of amateurs. It was like that in the case of crosswords anyway. For me, the catalyst behind cryptic crosswords becoming a shared interest was the discovery in the mid-Noughties of The Crossword Centre website run by Derek Harrison.

 

It was great to find a forum where enthusiasts would discuss clues and exchange news and views, and reading other solvers' weekly comments on the Listener crossword prompted me to have a go at solving that puzzle myself. I went on to meet many other solvers and setters as a result.

 

Sadly, one person I never met was Eric Chalkley, the crossword compiler Apex, who died in 2006. His warmth and enthusiasm come out clearly in correspondence Derek has collected in The Apex Letters. The two men wrote to each other over several decades mainly, but not exclusively, about crosswords, with Derek providing illustrations for various Christmas special puzzles that Eric would circulate. 

 

Eric loved to create special puzzles on various themes and post them to people he admired, which led to a long correspondence with the crossword-loving US composers Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein.  In 2002 Eric was awarded the MBE, the first crossword compiler thus honoured for his contribution to puzzles. 

 

In 1997, after being given a modem (remember them?) by his children, Derek set up a website to showcase Apex's crosswords. "This Internet becomes more and more intriguing," Eric wrote to him after first viewing the site. "I've no idea how it works but it seems that everyone will soon be doing it."

 

They were indeed, and by 2000 Derek's website had become The Crossword Centre, with the url www.crossword.org.uk. This was the moment when  crossword solvers moved from communicating by long-distance postal correspondence to debating clues online on a daily basis, a shift reflected in the account Derek gives through the letters he has gathered here. 

 
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John Henderson has announced details of the York S & B on the weekend of the 27/28 October. I intend to be there on the Saturday and John has asked me to bring some copies of the Apex Letters in case anyone wants to buy one. You can get more details here. https://www.fifteensquared.net/2023/08/02/sb-york-2023-friday-27th-saturday-28th-october-2023/
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You can still read the Azed Slip on the Crossword Centre http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azedslip.html

The results of the SONDAGE competition are out now. Richard Heald won with this beauty.

Use of lead perhaps means dog ignoring master needs training

(anag. less M; lead2 = plummet for sounding).
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An article in The Atlantic discusses what clues would be acceptable in an American definition-only crossword. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/08/writing-crossword-puzzle-clues-rules-grammar-compositionality/674938/
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Finally some personal news. As my friends know, I have suffered from spinal stenosis for the past 10 years which has made it painful for me to walk or stand. Five weeks I went into the Wansbeck Hospital for a lumbar decompression operation. The result is amazing! I can now walk without pain and have gradually increased the distance I can walk. Now that the scar tissue has healed, I am hoping to start cycling again soon.

Best wishes
Derek Harrison