Crossword News March 2024

Crossword News March 2024

The February Prize Puzzle was Annus Mirabilis by Phylax. The miraculous year was 1966. The Roman numerals in the circled cells could be added up to make 1966. By altering the letters in the circles you get the surnames of the England football team that won the World Cup in 1966.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

Loved the puzzle, the amazingly high quality clues being the hallmark.  It's not often there's a puzzle with just normal clues without variations, so all the more impressive.  Wasn't straightforward to identify the theme even after completion and did some unproductive 'Newtonian' research.  What helped was the fact that changed letters had to lead to names, and a prominently placed BOBBY provided the clincher.  Thoroughly enjoyed, many thanks.

A popular subject, but one which remained hidden until I'd completed the grid and started looking for letter replacements. I see we're now up to 58 years of hurt, and counting. Many thanks to Phylax and The Crossword Centre.

Anyway, though I am fed up to death with the 1966 World Cup, it was a very well composed puzzle. Plenty of very nice clues (favourites expert spinners and bigots like me) and a clever gridfill. I am always envious of people who can fit in so many thematics without wrecking the normality of entries. Congratulations to Phylax.

I guess that 1066 and 1966 is a summary of the average English bloke’s historical knowledge.

There were 54 entries, of which 5 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner was Mark Nichols from Rugby, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by Chambers.

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/03/solution-to-annus-mirabilis-by-phylax.html

There is still lots of time to email your entry to the March puzzle, Round Robin XVI.
https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/02/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-march-2024.html

The April Prize Puzzle will be Hymn by Vismut.

We still welcome submissions for the summer months.
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I attended the Listener Crossword Setters’ Dinner in Lincoln. The venue was the Lincoln Hotel, situated directly opposite the magnificent cathedral. I was able to meet up with lots of old friends on the Friday evening and Saturday afternoon pubs, and met lots of new setters and solvers. It was great to see Andrew Fisher from Australia, Shirley Curran and Charles from France. It was nice to meet up with Rob Pinnock (Hedge-sparrow) who has also contributed his puzzles on the Crossword Centre.

Jane Teather began the proceedings by reading the list of absentees and those we had lost. It was Neil Aspland who stood up to give a tribute to his father, Denis, who had recently died at the age of 90. John Henderson gave a tribute to the late Margaret Irvine and quoted some of her clues.

Shane Shabankareh then spoke, announcing the winner of the Radix Auditorum, the award given to the best new solver. John Howe took the silver jug.

The record for all-correct solutions is still held by Simon Long with 412 with Neil Talbott a close second with 409. With previous winners stepping aside, the Solver’s Silver Salver went to Andrew Nelson with 206 all-correct. He was unable to attend so Patrick Bair took the trophy as he lives nearby.

There were 21 all-correct solvers in 2023 and 19 0f them voted for their favourite puzzles, giving 5, 3, 2 or 1 points.26 puzzles gained votes and 9 received the top vote. In reverse order here are the results.

10. Self-contained by Woracle
9.  Contemporary Still by Filbert
8. Die Hard by Charybdis
7. Transposition Cipher by Serpent
6. Queen by Rebel
5. I Want You by win
4. Infeasible by Quinapalus
3 Doing the Lord’s Work by Craft
2. Life 2 by Hawk

And the winner was -
Citation Needed by Cagey

A surprised Stuart Thomas (Cagey) came out to accept the Ascot Gold Cup. In his speech, Stuart explained his setting aims. “I want everyone to get the answers, I just want them to take a bloody long time!”

The table quiz had a Lincoln theme, with the final task to write a clue to ROBIN HOOD. Table 13 won with this clue.

Winger covering Nottingham Forest’s poor defender

Stuart Thomas came forward to accept the bronze casket for his table and distribute the sweets. The quiz is now available on Jane’s website - https://www.jetdoc.co.uk/crossword-and-quiz-links

John Henderson then gave the prize of the voting for the best IQ puzzle of 2023 to Ploy (Phil Lloyd) for his Retrospective. He said that as soon as he saw the pattern of hexagons on the James Webb Telescope, he thought there must be a puzzle there!

Jane hinted that next year’s do might be in the north-west.

Shirley Curran has put her photos here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/194321761@N03/albums/72177720315369886/

Our trip home began well, with a nice chat with Dave Hennings, who maintains two fantastic websites, Listen With Others and The Crossword Database. However, animals on the line meant that our train was delayed and we spent an hour shivering in York station and missed our connection at Newcastle.
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NPR puzzle master and New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz announced on Sunday that he is recovering from a stroke.

Shortz, who hosts NPR's Sunday Puzzle, shared the health update in a brief recorded message which aired at the end of the segment — in part to explain his recent absence from the show.

"Hey guys, this is Will Shortz. Sorry I've been out the last few weeks. I had a stroke on Feb. 4 and have been in rehabilitation since then, but I am making progress. I'm looking forward to being back with new puzzles soon," he said.

We wish him a speedy recovery.
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William Snow has announced the recreation of Neil Shepherd's website at https://www.alberich-crosswords.com/

The site brings together the crossword-related writings of Neil (AKA Alberich/Klingsor) originally published on his own website. You can contact William via the website and he would welcome comments and donations to help maintain the site.
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Phi issued his APEX puzzle for Christmas 2023, a letters latent crossword, and solvers had to write a clue to ASTRONOMY with one letter latent of their choice. The result of the voting is now available, with Richard Morse winning the competition.

Winning clues to ASTRONOMY (with choice of latent letter)

1st Science familiar to Greeks but alien to Romans Richard Morse

2nd A case of subject covering a lot of space? Christopher Brougham

3rd A study in which universal dimension is space Mick Hodgkin
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The results of the Azed competition for MALIK are now available on the Crossword Centre.

J. C. Leyland won the competition with this.

 Fresh out of ecstasy, like a bit of marijuana? I could manage a gram

(anag. less E incl. a, m; gram 4). It makes sense when you realise that a malik is the head of a village and the 4^th definition of gram is a village in India.
http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azed2694.pdf

In his slip, Azed points out that there is a new edition of The Cain’s Jawbone Book of Crosswords by Torquemada, first published by Pushkin Press in 1942.It is published by Unbound, the company that produced the boxed set of Cain’s Jawbone a few years ago.

Best wishes
Derek