Crossword News January 2026
Happy New Year!
In December the Prize Puzzle was
Seasons Greetings XVII by Eclogue, a lovely puzzle based on a popular Christmas
carol. Extra letters generated by the wordplay of down clues provide DING DONG
MERRILY, which are placed “on high” in the grid. The highlighting shows “in HEAVEN, THE BELLS
are ringing”. The extra letters in the
across entries continue the song with “VERILY THE SKY is riven with ANGELS
singing”.
Here are some of the comments
from solvers.
Entertaining puzzle with a fun
and elegant representation of the second line in the grid. I was confused by
"cryptic indication" in the preamble as the words seemed clear, but
then i decided being "on high" was the idea? Thanks for the puzzle
and happy new year.
Another fine seasonal offering.
The song revealed itself fairly quickly but I actually stared at my completed
grid on and off for about a week before finally spotting the cryptic hidden
line. Nice touch, Thanks Eclogue.
Great fun; and the thematic
“illustration” was the icing on the Christmas cake. Many thanks and best wishes
for 2026.
There were 59 entries, of which
13 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked at random, was Gerry
Murtagh, who will be winning a prize of a year’s subscription to the Crossword
Club. There is a solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2026/01/solution-to-seasons-greetings-xvii-by.html
We also had the Advent challenge, Exploration by Arcadia. This was a very tough puzzle. Nine galaxies (four elliptical, three spiral and two irregular) with all non-galactic entries attracted towards the central barred cell, itself at the centre of an irregular galaxy spelling [BLACK HOLE STAR] *. Answers to galactic clues, appropriately entered, filled the whole grid, with answers to the non-galactic clues allowing sufficient checks to enable the solver to deduce unchecked letters making real words.
Here are some of the comments
from solvers.
This took an infernally long time
to solve - longer than any Listener for months. I felt the preamble could have
been worded more clearly, though it was my own fault that I didn't realise that
it was the CLUE to one of the answers, not the answer itself, that fixed the
orientation until long after I completed all 4 possible orientations of the
grid.
Rather daunted by the preamble,
which I couldn't finally make sense of until I was well on the way to
completion, but in the end a very satisfying puzzle with a novel construction,
and very generous of you also to put up a prize. Thank you!
Very clever piece of construction
with many letters contributing to three entries -- it must have taken some work
to achieve. I thought it was going to be too challenging at one point, but once
I had 5 of the 9-letter entries cold-solved, I was able to piece them together
and make good progress from there. I assumed the K of black hole should go in
the central cell rather than being sucked out of the universe. I also wondered
about the orientation and plumped for rheo at 12 as "going west". I considered
if it should go in a westward direction but that doesn't seem to be possible so
I don't think it's ambiguous, but I have a niggling doubt. Thanks for a
challenging and entertaining solve.
There were 20 entries, of which 8
were marked incorrect. The winner was Robert Benz who will be receiving a prize
of a bottle of champagne that is donated by Arcadia. There is a solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2026/01/solution-to-exploration-by-arcadia.html
The January Prize Puzzle is
Dressing Down by Hedge-sparrow. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2025/12/january-2026-dressing-down-by-hedge.html
The February Prize Puzzle will be
Cover Stories by Phylax.
As usual we welcome submissions
of puzzles for later months.
***
Thanks to Wan we have had a Round Robin puzzle every year. The grid for this
year's Round Robin has been designed by Arcadia. There are 40 clues and I am
asking for 40 volunteers each to write a normal cryptic clue. We are hoping to
publish the puzzle in March. If you are interested in writing a clue then you
should email me at derekharrison@yahoo.com.
Since I posted this on the
message board, I have received 20 offers to write clues, so I would welcome
more.
***
Last month I mentioned how Chris Lancaster, suffering from an incurable
disease, had set up a fund to help him to get a wheel chair accessible vehicle.
I am pleased to tell you that the fund has exceeded his target of £10,000. You
can donate through this link https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chris-lancaster?utm_medium=CF&utm_source=CL
***
After a hectic Christmas and New
Year, I have only been able to dip into Barry Joseph’s Matching Minds with Sondheim. I am impressed
with the quality of writing and the masses of information about Stephen
Sondheim’s passion for games and puzzles. I am delighted that some of my
sketches are in the chapter about crosswords and how Sondheim was a fan of Eric
Chalkley and his APEX competitions. I hope to give a fuller review in my next
newsletter.
***
As we feared, The Observer has
set up a pay wall and I have received a few emails from solvers who are worried
that they will not be able to access the Azed or Gemelo crosswords without
paying. I would welcome any comments on this.
Gemelo ended 2025 with another
tour de force. The initial letters of all the words in all the clues spelled
the poem If by Rudyard Kipling!
***
Crossword editor, Alan Connor,
has comments on the words of the year and the Christmas crosswords in this
article.
***
The Magpie will be hosting the
January subscribers’ party, from 6.30pm on Thursday 29th January at The Magpie,
12 New Street, London EC2M 4TP.
***
A letter in Private Eye mentioned
Cyclops… has he surpassed himself by recognising that ‘Alarming Epstein files’
could morph into ‘single-parent families’ (Crossword 819). Fantastic!
To set the record right, as far
as I know, it was Tramp who devised the clue in a puzzle that he sent to
Cyclops which was published without acknowledgement. Tramp confirms, “I drafted
an Epstein-themed puzzle for the Guardian but they wouldn’t run it, so, I sent
it to Eddie James at PE. He said he would need to change some clues and put his
stamp on it. He had written an acknowledgment to go with the puzzle but,
according to Eddie, PE wouldn’t print it.”
***
Best of luck to Andy Mullins who
has taken on the onerous task of marking the Listener crossword.
***
Looking forward to more puzzles
in 2026 and, hopefully, announcing the winner of the coveted Crowther Cup.
Best wishes
Derek
