Crossword News February 2025
The January Prize Puzzle was Twin Beaks by Jugular. This was
based on a famous Guinness advert and the grid showed the toucan’s beaks and
two pints of Guinness. Before Dorothy L. Sayers became a well-known crime
novelist she worked as an advertising copywriter for S. H. Benson and worked on
a campaign for Guinness where she is credited with the phrase:
"If he can say as you can Guinness is good for you How
grand to be a Toucan Just think what Toucan do.”
An excellent start to 2025 with a puzzle that was widely
enjoyed by just about everyone. The highlighting of Dorothy L Sayers was
a little ambiguous with two Ds close together and an extra L within the
confines of the beak, so any version that spelt out the 14 cells required
was marked correct.
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
This is the sort of puzzle that is definitely 'good for
you'... The clues were neat, the theme novel and the end-game fun: I thought
I'd leave a bit of head on the two shaded subjects. Thanks to Jugular and the Crossword Centre.
I found this to be a very enjoyable puzzle with good clues
and an interesting theme. I was aware of the connection between toucans &
Guinness but didn’t know where it had come from so it was interesting to find
this out.
Cork comedian and actor Niall Tóibín, used tell a joke about
how an Irishman could be described as “a complex machine for converting
Guinness into urine”, he would pause briefly in thought and follow it up with
“which to a Murphy’s drinker is superfluous anyway”. While I have done no
justice to his abilities as a storyteller, it was nice to be reminded of one of
Cork’s greatest, by, ironically, a Dublin institution. Thanks to Jugular for
the challenge and also for bringing back some great memories.
There were 55 entries, of which 7 were marked incorrect. The
lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat was Alan Chamberlain, who will be
receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which was donated by
Chambers.
There is a solution with notes at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2025/02/solution-to-twin-beaks-by-jugular.html
There is still time to complete the February Prize Puzzle, Defeat
by Chalicea.
https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2025/01/february-2025-defeat-by-chalicea.html
The March challenge will be our 17th Round Robin
puzzle, RR XVII – Round Up. The grid and the concept were the work of John
Nicholson (Wan). He tells me that he has run out of ideas for these crosswords
and wants someone else to take over. If you have an idea for a 2026 Round Robin,
I would be very grateful. The only good thing is that you do not have to write
the clues!
We would welcome submissions for later months.
***
Robert has produced the 2024 results for the Crowther Cup.
Checking and calculating the scores for this over the past
month has thrown up a few more concerns regarding the issues with my
email! For instance, when I looked back
at last January there were more entries than I had originally marked at the
time. I am confident that I now have the
full information required for the results, but it has persuaded me even more
that it would be a good thing going forward if we get a volunteer to take over!
(Edited article to follow below). Once
again I am happy to provide individual records on request (email me at
toots@tinyworld.co.uk), but for some I may not be able to respond until next
week (I am still going through the year thoroughly to add in any
"missing" entries).
Despite us posting just the 12 competition puzzles in 2024
only 3 competitors managed to survive the year intact! Matthew Auger continued his long unbeaten run
and he was joined by Ronan Cullinane and Christine Thomas. As per the Listener, The Crowther Cup passes
on to the best all correct solver who has not been on before, so it went to
countback. The final positions were:
1. Matthew Auger (last failure Dec 2015)
2. Christine Thomas (last failure Oct 2023)
3. Ronan Cullinane (last failure Dec 2023)
So congratulations to Christine Thomas who wins the Crowther
Cup!
http://www.crossword.org.uk/crowther.html
***
The Clue-writing competition has been running for the past 17 years on the
fantastic software designed by John Tozer for the Azed & lit site. However, he is unable, for health reasons to
change the site and since he fell ill we have been unable to accept new members
- frustrating for those wishing to join and develop their clue-writing
skills. We know that there are many new
people who would like to enter the competition. So we are suggesting moving
back to the old method, where a manager receives the clues by email, sends out
a list of the clues for voting, records the votes and composes a summary of the
successful clues plus any comments, to then send out to the group each month.
In this way, we could accept more new clue-writers. It is a shame to move away
from the wonderful interface on the CCCWC website, but there is always the
possibility that we may be able to resume there at some time in the
future. Robert Teuton has been managing
the CCCWC for the past 25 years and he feels that it is time for someone else
to inject renewed energy and enthusiasm into our long-running competition!
Since the inception of the Crowther Cup in 2015 Robert
Teuton has also been marking our monthly crosswords, but he thinks it is time
for a rest from that as well, so I am asking for a volunteer to take on the
role of marking the monthly crosswords. It would mean checking around 30 to 70
entries per month, making a document of all the comments received and keeping a
record of individual entries for the annual statistics.
If you would be willing to take on either of these tasks,
please let me know. If you would like
more information on what either role entails before committing, please email
Robert at toots@tinyworld.co.uk
***
John Henderson has published the results of the IQ puzzle of the year votes.
The winner was eXternal with his sausage-themed puzzle. On the podium were -
1. 1843
Sausage Competition eXternal
2. 1852
Made Runny Charybdis
3. 1850
Blast Off Serpent
Read the full report here - https://www.fifteensquared.net/2025/02/15/inquisitor-review-of-the-year-2023-4-the-results/
***
The Magpie continues to produce the most original and testing puzzles every
month. They have just published their annual statistics for 2024 and the names
on the leader board are a good picture of the top solvers in the world.
Who were the top solvers in 2024?
1= Daniel Angel 12 12 72 [249]
1= Matthew Auger 12 12 72 [225.5]
1= Michael Bennett 12 12 72 –
1= Richard Chamberlain 12 12 72 [240]
1= David Giles 12 12 72 [249.2*]
1= John Reardon 12 12 72 [251.6]
1= Darren Roberts 12 12 72 [251]
1= Deane Short 12 12 72 [247.3]
1= Don Thompson 12 12 72 [252.1]
1= Clive Walker 12 12 72 –
1= Philip Wood 12 12 72 [204.5]
1= Nick Yannacone 12 12 72 [240.3]
13 Larry Baum 12 12 71 259.5
14 Geoff Telfer 12 12 71 263.5
15 Chris Cawthorn 11 12 71 258.2
16 Keith Sutherland 11 12 71 259.3
17= Tim Burt 11 12 71 262.2
17= Dale Johannesen 11 12 71 262.2
17= G Mullineux 11 12 71 262.2
The numbers after the names give a. all correct Magpie. b.
all correct mathematical c. Total d.
Last failure issue (This month is issue 266).
https://www.piemag.com/
***
Now that Jason Crampton is the editor of the Times crossword, he has left the
Magpie team. Colin Thomas (Twin) has taken over his job of First Test Solver.
***
The Listener Crossword Dinner will be held in the Seafront Hotel, Southport on Saturday
15 March. Jane Teather tells me that there are still some places available if
you want to make a booking. Contact Jane or email me for details.
***
The latest Azed Slip is now on the Crossword Centre with the results of the competition
for TENEBROSE. The winner was P. W. Marlow:
Reform seen to be limiting Starmer’s focus? That’s dismal (r
in anag.).
http://www.crossword.org.uk/Azed2742.pdf
***
When I published the Apex Letters two years ago, I tried to contact the family
of Eric Chalkley. I had the email address of his daughter, Jennifer, but that
address was defunct. However, I knew that his son Geoffrey lived in Haddonfield,
NJ, and a Google search found his address. I wrote to him and he was able to give
me Jennifer’s address. I sent them both copies of the book. Just recently, I
have located Eric’s nephew, Brian, and I have been able to send him a copy.
Eric was proud of his nephew and told me that he was a very good artist. Of
course, Brian is now better known as the acclaimed artist, Brian Dawn Chalkley
***
Best wishes
Derek
