Crossword News October 2024

 Crossword News October 2024

The September Prize Puzzle was The Ashes by Wan. The theme is a couplet from the poem A SATIRE by Lord Byron ‘Prepare for a rhyme - I’ll Publish, right or wrong: Fools are my theme, let satire be my song’. Solvers were to let the letters of SATIRE in six clashes be MY SONG forming new words. Nine entries were to be changed into fools using the letters of LORD BYRON. The Ashes was a play on a similar single-letter change for The Asses. 

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

A very fun puzzle by Wan, this month. Very much enjoyed locating the fools. I must admit, I don't understand the title yet though!

So very well to fit all that detail and letter switching to still keep valid entries. I have always liked the way the titles provided can provide a clue, usually only on completion. I couldn’t figure any link to Byron with the title, so my best guess for this “The Asses”. Maybe, maybe not, hopefully I’ll find out with the publish of the solution.  Much thanks as always to Wan for the challenge.

A tour de force to incorporate so much thematic material and with the many changes all creating new words.

What a splendid grid. Not a theme I knew of (as so often is the case) but it sent me on a lovely journey at the end with changing letters of Lord Byron to produce several fools!  Thank you for continuing to provide a consistently high standard of entertaining puzzles.

There were 46 entries, of which 6 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Mike Lunan from Thurso, who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by the publishers.

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/10/solution-to-ashes-by-wan.html
There is still time to solve the October puzzle, Location by Gnomie. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2024/09/october-prize-puzzle.html

The November Prize Puzzle will be Rising Costs II by Hedge Sparrow. I will have to publish it on 28 October.
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Well-known for her post in Countdown’s dictionary corner, Susie Dent has recently written a novel. Guilty by Definition is a thriller with clues to solve. This review in The Sunday Times made me interested.

If you're like me and love both language and crime, then Guilty by Definition has it all. Susie Dent's impressive debut novel is virtuosic. So meticulously and fascinatingly steeped in the archaic glory of words, it will surely be the ultimate treat for every logophile out there. But this is so much more than a celebration of the dictionary - it's a tantalizing mystery of a missing sister, a cold case that will not lie down, and a family frozen in their unresolved grief... all while their circle of friends and colleagues nurse secrets and lies beyond explication. Guilty by Definition is positively aglitter with etymological and detecting treasures for word-sleuths and crime-fans alike." .
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You can now find me on BlueSky, which I find much more friendly than Twitter. That is where I followed Susie Mesure who hosts her monthly Cryptic Corners. I was fascinated when she posted a photo of A F Ritchie (Afrit) with his dog and said it was a photo of her great-grandfather. Sadly, the photo was one of a display at the funeral of Anne Brierly, the last of Ritchie’s surviving children. When I was publishing a reprint of Afrit’s Armchair Crosswords, it was Anne Brierly who gave her enthusiastic support and sent me photos, documents and biographical notes.

The next Cryptic Corner will be on Tuesday 19 November at the Montpelier, 43 Choumert Rd, London SE15 4AR, 6.30 to 8.30.
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Last month I mentioned John Finnemore’s publication of The Researcher’s First Murder, a Cain’s Jawbone type of puzzle, with 100 postcards to solve and put in order. As I write, Amazon has cut the price to an incredible £13.56.
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The York Sloggers & Betters will be taking place on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 October.

The Times Crossword Championship is scheduled for the 19^th October. This year there is a limit of 120 competitors and already, most of those have been taken. Most of the top 50 finishers from 2023 have taken up their guaranteed places but there is also a healthy number of first-time competitors who will be in the running for the new Richard Rogan prize for the best new entrant.
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The latest Azed Slip is available on the Crossword Centre with the results of the clues for SPRINGLET. http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azed2724.pdf

The winning clue was by 1 M. Barley:

Wee outflow results if lager pints get drunk (one has to go!)
(anag. less a).

The September competition marks the end of the Azed season and the points are added up to give the annual winner. In first place was Richard Heald, now a 10-time winner, but still trailing 15-time winner, Don Manley. In second place was Mark Barley and, our marker, Robert Teuton came third.

The Azed Annual Honours Table 2023-24  
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I can recommend the BBC series of Ludwig, in which David Mitchell plays a hapless puzzle-setter, John Taylor, who gets involved in solving crimes. Some critics have compared him to Colin Dexter’s Morse. Taylor, whose pseudonym is Ludwig, is a bachelor, likes crosswords and classical music (especially Beethoven) and is based in an old university city, Cambridge in this case. Returning from our Iberian holiday, we had missed the first episodes so started watching on i-Player and binge-watched the whole series.

You may have spotted a Guardian crossword by Ludwig. Alan Connor, who was puzzle consultant for the series, explains how that came about.
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2024/oct/07/ludwig-the-guardians-genius-new-crossword-setter

And you can try Ludwig’s puzzle here - https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29497
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Having given up on Wordle, I find myself hooked on a daily challenge of Squaredle.

Best wishes
Derek