Crossword News December 2021
The November Prize Puzzle was A Good One by Hawk. Misprints
spell CROSS DUBLIN WITHOUT PASSING A PUB and ULYSSES. This ‘good puzzle’ mused
upon by Leopold Bloom in Chapter 4 of James Joyce’s novel is depicted here by a
trail between the districts of CABRA and BALLSBRIDGE, turning away as it
approaches each of MULLIGAN’S, The BRAZEN HEAD, and DAVY BYRNE’S - three pubs
which exist today as they did in Joyce’s day - and spelling out AA-RECOMMENDED
ROUTE. The two helpful organisations were Alcoholics Anonymous or the
Automobile Association.
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
A very good one indeed. Some of the misprints were
incredibly well disguised, and the clashes great anagrams. Thanks and well done
to Hawk.
I found this a really tough puzzle - hard clues (the ones
with clashes especially so!), but what a great finish. The grid fill was challenging enough but it
took me days to complete the end game. I
kept trying to find Joycean addresses at first until I finally spotted
Ballsbridge, which I should have seen at the outset (am half Irish and have
been to Dublin countless times), then recognised Cabra. Here I got hung up for quite a long time by
trying to make a geographical path using street names or something similar. I
could see " chart a recommended...' but as it had too many letters it was
discounted. My PDM was when I finally
realised that as 'helpful societies' AA and AA were distinct yet one and the
same representation and each delivered all guidance required. Brilliant, it
made me laugh. Well Done, Hawk! A super
puzzle. Am looking forward to the next one.
I found this one much harder (especially identifying the
"obstacles") but very satisfying. I must congratulate Hawk on (1) an
intriguing and ingenious theme, (2) the neat way in which the path turns 90°
ahead of each "obstacle", and (3) the clever ambiguity of the
"AA" recommended route - though I had assumed that alcoholism was out
of bounds for crosswords until I tackled last Saturday's Listener crossword in
The Times!
A solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/12/solution-to-good-one-by-hawk.html
This proved to be a tough challenge with only 31 entries, of
which 7 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat
was Craig Fothergill who will be receiving a prize of Chambers Crossword
Dictionary donated by the publishers.
For December we are offering three crosswords. The Prize
Puzzle is the traditional Seasons Greetings by Eclogue, now in its 13th
edition. The December Special is Ring Cycle by Hedge-sparrow and there is also
a bonus from Artix, What’s it Look Like? There is still lots of time for you to
email your solutions.
All three December puzzles will count for annual statistics
and the competition for the Crowther Cup.
We will start the new year with a puzzle from the
ever-popular setter, Wan. I am sure you will enjoy Obi by Wan.
***
The next Round Robin is planned for April and we are looking for volunteer clue
writers. John Nicholson posted this on the message board.
I am back recruiting volunteer clue writers for what will be
the 14th round-robin puzzle. For those not familiar with the process, we put a
thematic grid together and ask willing members to write a clue each. Solvers
can award points to their favourite clues and the setter whose clue gains the
most points will receive a prize. More importantly, it is a bit of fun where we
can all join in. If you have taken part before, we hope you will again, and if
you haven’t please do give it a try. You can contact me on email
gironanick@yahoo.com or leave a message via the messaging system on the message
board.
There are two types of clue this time: half are plain and
half are of the ‘wordplay leads to extra letter’ type. The answers are on a
list and simply allocated in that order, one from each type alternately.
However, if you particularly prefer one type please say and I will accommodate
you if I can.
We would like to get your clues by the 15th January please.
***
On 26 November the death was announced of Stephen Sondheim at the age of 91. The
talented songwriter was said to have reinvented the American musical. He loved
crosswords and compiled them for the New York magazine. In 1968 he wrote an
article about the British
Crossword which is a delight to read. It was my friend Apex, the late Eric
Chalkley, who got me to draw caricatures of Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein to
accompany his Christmas puzzles. Eric had kept the signed solutions that they
had sent him. So, when I had the idea of getting Apex an MBE, I wrote to
Stephen Sondheim to ask him write a letter of commendation. He was very willing
to oblige. The other commendations came
from Jonathan Crowther and Sir Jeremy Morse.
Ben Zimmer’s article describes Sondheim’s interest in
puzzles. https://slate.com/culture/2021/12/stephen-sondheim-crossword-puzzles-cryptic-west-side-story.html
Alan Connor has written about Sondheim’s love of cryptic
crosswords in his Guardian blog. https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2021/dec/06/stephen-sondheims-other-job-crossword-setter
***
Cain’s Jawbone, the mystery novel written by the crossword setter Torquemada,
is back in the news. And it's all thanks to Sarah Scannell, a communications
assistant at a non-profit documentary company called Citizen Film in San
Francisco.
She found a copy in her local bookshop, ripped out the
pages, plastered them all over her bedroom wall, and charted her efforts to
solve it on TikTok.
'I've decided to take this nearly impossible task as an
opportunity to fulfil a lifelong dream and turn my entire bedroom wall into a
murder board,' said Scannell, who is known on TikTok as @saruuuuuuugh. Her
videos have been watched by seven million people.
You can read more in this Daily
Mail article
***
In the Times Diary there was this passage, headed Gorman Gets
a Lidl Cryptic
Nine years ago Dave Gorman was delighted to be in The
Observer cryptic crossword. “Good chap, engaging alternative comedian (6)” led
solvers to the comic’s surname. Now he writes them. Gorman, right, started
submitting crosswords to two national newspapers in the first lockdown under
the names Bluth and Django. However, some of his clues have upset
traditionalists. A controversial one was “Sea seven are made poorly eating
supermarket crabs, for example (8, 7)”. The first three words were an anagram
(“made poorly”) that had to be wrapped round a word for supermarket (“eating”)
to give a phrase for crabs. The answer, “venereal disease”, drew lots of
complaints, though not because it was an unpleasant image. No, readers moaned,
Gorman said, because using “Aldi” lowered the tone. There just aren’t enough
phrases that contain “Waitrose”.
***
If you are a fan of the TV programme Only Connect and of tough puzzles then the
Nimrod crossword in the latest edition of the Cam magazine will be ideal. Another
Brick in the Wall by Nimrod
***
GCHQ has published another series of Christmas puzzles. Solve them all and you
might get a job on MI6. https://www.gchq.gov.uk/files/GCHQChristmasChallenge.pdf
***
An article on the internet highlights the value of crosswords in education and
language learning and gives a gentle introduction to the topic. You can read it
here - https://custom-writing.org/blog/crossword-puzzles-in-learning
***
Last month I mentioned the obituaries to Anne Bradford. David Beamish has
pointed out one other which appeared in The Telegraph.
Anne Bradford, author and cruciverbalist who devised the first dictionary for
crossword solvers – obituary
She had the idea for her indispensable reference work in 1957 after stumbling
over a clue that read: ‘An isolated pillar (India) (3).’
Anne Bradford, who has died aged 90, was a crossword wizard who compiled the
first crossword solver’s dictionary, providing words or expressions – synonyms,
puns and wordplays – that were possibly related to words appearing in cryptic
crossword clues.
Thus the word “outstanding” in a clue might, with other pointers, suggest the
answer “fugleman” – a soldier who stands out in front of the rest to
demonstrate the drill. The word “scarper” might lead the solver to consider as
solutions (or part-solutions), words such as bunk, run, shoo or welsh.
Though she admitted doing an average of 20 crosswords per week, Anne Bradford
was no obsessive. She estimated that she was able to finish the Times cryptic
in “10 minutes on a good day, six on a very good day, more like 18 to 20 on a
bad one”, and her hobby occupied no longer than about an hour a day.
She also found time to write a book about Harry Whittier Frees, an eccentric
photographer of animals dressed as people, curate and publish a collection of
Victorian postcards, run an agency for graduate mothers looking for part-time
or temporary employment, work for 20 years as a school secretary and bring up
four children.
Her career as a “cataloguer of clues” began in 1957 when she stopped work to
have her first child. She was stuck on a clue in the Observer cryptic
crossword: “An isolated pillar (India) (3).” The answer, it transpired, was
“lat”, an Urdu word for a pillar, which forms part of the word “isolated”. She
decided it might be useful to have what she called a “reverse dictionary” to
help herself and others struggling with such clues.
The result, first published in 1986, was the Longman Crossword Solver’s
Dictionary. By 1993 it had been renamed the Bradford Crossword Solver’s
Dictionary and she would continuously compile more entries based on her own cruciverbal
experiences for new editions. The 12th edition was published in October.
Anna Rae Freeman was born in Jesmond, Newcastle, on November 3 1930. Her father
was a dentist; her mother, who enjoyed crosswords, taught Anne to read when she
was three and, as she recalled, “before long, I was very good at reading upside
down, too, which is most useful if you’re playing Scrabble.”
In 1973 she would win the national Scrabble championship. She never won the
Times crossword championship, however, though she was a finalist on several
occasions.
During the war she was evacuated to Alnwick in Northumberland, where she was so
successful at school that she was moved into a year with girls three years
older than she was. She became head girl.
After reading Social Sciences at King’s College, Newcastle, then part of the
University of Durham, she worked at an employment agency. In 1952 she married
Francis Bradford, with whom she moved to north London, where he worked for BP.
While their children were young she worked from home, running the University
Women’s Part-Time Employment Agency.
Later she spent 21 years as part-time secretary at a north London prep school,
worked as a volunteer adult numeracy tutor and, in her eighties, volunteered in
the books section of a hospice charity shop.
Her favourite crossword clues, she told The Lady magazine in 2013, included:
“Pineapple rings in syrup (9)” (answer: grenadine); “Information given to
communist in return for sex (6)” (answer: gender) and “Cake-sandwiches-meat, at
Uncle Sam’s party (8)” (answer: Clambake).
Telegraph readers who cannot spot the connections are clearly in need of the
Bradford Crossword Solver’s Dictionary.
Anne Bradford’s husband died in 2013 and a daughter also predeceased her. She
is survived by two daughters and a son.
***
On a personal note, ten days ago I went to London by train to spend some time
with my son and daughter. When I returned home, I went down with a bad cold,
coughing and sneezing. A PCR test confirmed that it was Covid-19. Fortunately,
I was triple jabbed and after a few days I started to feel better. Now I just
feel a bit tired but getting better every day.
I am looking forward to a quiet Christmas with lots of
crosswords. I wish you a happy Christmas and a healthy new year.
Best wishes
Derek
