RR XIV - Second Capital

PDF version

Across clues are normal. The wordplay in all but one down clue leads to an extra letter not entered in the grid. The number of the plain down clue needs inserting at some point into the message given by the extra down letters. The message should then lead solvers to a location represented in the grid.

One row must be changed to show the location and highlighted, along with six separate features, one of them unusual. (40 cells highlighted in total.)

All entries in the final grid are real words. The Chambers 13th edition is the primary reference.

Across

  1 According to locals, ravine to west of Ghana is main point of interest (6)

  5 Judge of old is officer when in court (6)

10 The man keeping dog well-trained is a rustic (5)

12 COVID-19 often is so fast around centre of Bath (6)

13 More on the rocks, less cordial (5)

14 Colours featured in painting essentials (6)

15 Buffet items regularly ignored are sandwiches (7)

16 Fern from very large embankment with old shed (6)

18 Artificial insemination company given thanks for reversing female sterility (6)

20 Space back on ICU: man finally gets cast off (6)

21 Retired senior warrant officer backs overthrown ruler, ready to fight (6, 2 words)

23 It's a shame war film is about son being lost (6, 2 words)

27 Uncovered circular translating Eurasian group of languages (6)

31 Old man crushed by reduced sex drive hit rock bottom (7)

32 Separate and remove worn-out insole after running (6)

33 As a friend to the French and the Namibians, to some extent (5, 2 words)

34 No fat, no seconds, taking time to reflect, it's good, we say, for his gut (6)

35 In relation to waste filtration unit, learn to recycle (5)

36 Precious stone (for many) is set askew on top of tiara (6)

37 Israel's been in conflict, ignoring Blair, working for this former communist (6)

Down

  1 Gypsy girl's magic ring lost in northern hail (5)

  2 I do relish eating sorrel - its pods provide food (6)

  3 Loathing first hint of Madeira, leaves trifle (5)

  4 Group stopping longer on IOM openly cry when leaving Douglas? (8)

  5 A term of respect assumed by nobleman out East! (5)

  6 Old Spaniard’s ready to be MC in broadcast (7)

  7 Gum arabic crushed in cog (6)

  8 Think old well's empty (5)

  9 Police take guest's silk dress (6)

11 One local getting urge to take up joint (4)

12 Her turned-out feet derived her name, bad ale fermented does the same (5)

17 Returning cleric, imprisoned by peacekeepers with ordained son, issues retraction (8)

19 Give up terrible care and sulk (7, 2 words)

21 Dirty, ignoring carbon footprint? (6)

22 It includes crooked lines around divisions (6)

23 City is endlessly bullish (5)

24 Pilot securing chart in dreadful rain (6)

25 Brief introduces client’s final character witness (5)

26 Legendary king’s followers eliminating inferior knight (5)

28 Monsieur’s elder son dropped off laxative powder (4)

29 Greenlit a network of housing support for Greystoke (5)

30 Land having rough higher places with wild grapes to be picked (5)

Entries

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format giving the final entries to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th May 2022. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book from the Chambers range, which has been donated by Chambers.

Voting

You may vote for your favourite clue with your entry. You can just nominate one clue, which will be awarded 3 points, or your top three which will be awarded 3, 2 and 1 points. The person whose clue accumulates the most points will receive a prize, which also has been donated by the Crossword Centre.

Clues by…

…Anax, Avtaar, Steve Bartlett, David Beamish, Rod Beards, Rod Bell, Peter Finan, Simon Griew, Derek Harrison, Hawk, Hedge-sparrow, Karla, Eddy Looby, Alf Mullins,  Satyen Nabar, Joe Nicholson, John Nicholson, John Nolan, Andrew Macleod, Leon Marzillier, Mark Oshin, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Phylax, Ed Powles, Sowmya Ram, Ian Simpson, Andy Smith, Peter Smith, William Snow, Andy Stewart, Robert Teuton, David Thompson, Ian Thompson, John Tozer, Vismut, Luciano Ward, Clive Weatherley, David Whyte and Keith Williams. 

Crossword News March 2022

 Crossword News March 2022

Last month, the Prize Puzzle was Missing Letters by Conto. Because of the number of unches, it was quite hard until you realised that the missing letters matched the grid numbers. Here are some of the comments from solvers.

This was a pretty quick solve once the theme was spotted - 26 clues all with unique entry numbers made it quite easy to spot but it was still very enjoyable. I imagine it must have been a bit tricky to construct and get all 26 letters in there but there were no obscure answers even though I’m not a fan of less than half the letters being checked.  I don’t think I have encountered Conto before but I’ll definitely watch out for more of their puzzles.

A simple idea, beautifully implemented by Conto. Clearly this one was all about the clues, of which I admired pretty much all of them, but in particular the amusing surface reading of FRAUD, the delightfully misleading clue for FORECASTS, and the just perfect clue for MY WAY. I'm sure I could go on. Many thanks, Conto.

Many thanks to Conto. I thought this was quite a tricky puzzle, with some well concealed wordplays and some amusing and witty clues. I realised fairly quickly that each clue had a different missing letter of the alphabet but had the grid well filled before the penny dropped that the clue numbers corresponded to position in the alphabet of the missing letter. That would have made filling the grid a lot easier!

There were 59 entries, of which only 2 were marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Clive Walker from London, who will be receiving a prize donated by Chambers before the end of the month.

There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/03/solution-to-missing-letters-by-conto.html

You still have lots of time to finish this month’s prize puzzle, Endless Shame by Chalicea.

The April Prize Puzzle will be our 14^th Round Robin crossword. Once again we were amazed at the number of volunteers who came forward to write clues. When you send your solution you can vote for your favourite clues and the clue that gets the most votes will receive a prize.

Clues were written by Anax, Avtaar, Steve Bartlett, David Beamish, Rod Beards, Rod Bell, Peter Finan, Simon Griew, Derek Harrison, Hawk, Hedge-sparrow, Karla, Eddy Looby, Alf Mullins,  Satyen Nabar, Joe Nicholson, John Nicholson, John Nolan, Andrew Macleod, Leon Marzillier, Mark Oshin, Bhalchandra Pasupathy, Phylax, Ed Powles, Sowmya Ram, Ian Simpson, Andy Smith, Peter Smith, William Snow, Andy Stewart, Robert Teuton, David Thompson, Ian Thompson, John Tozer, Vismut, Luciano Ward, Clive Weatherley, David Whyte and Keith Williams.
***
Fifty years ago, on the 5^th March 1972, the first Azed crossword was published in the Observer. On the death of Ximenes, Jonathan Crowther had sent an ‘in memoriam’ puzzle in the shape of an X to the paper. The crossword editor said they would like to publish that puzzle and offered him the job. Azed has done a fantastic job in those 50 years. You can read more in this Observer article.

In the article the group of Azed followers who meet for lunch is wrongly called the Groundings. Tim Moorey has assured me that the group is called the Gruntlings. He says, “The founder members were Colin Clarke and me. We met at an Azed anniversary and lunched at LS Grunts as it was close to where we both worked at the time. Colin in High Holborn and me in Covent Garden.

We lunched together a couple of times and were joined later by John Grimshaw, Paul Henderson, Chris Brougham, Jeff Pearce and Mike Laws. I'm not sure what the order of their joining was.

I do recall the name Gruntlings coming up for the first time was at a suggestion of either John or Paul which we quickly adopted. I think that was in Porters restaurant but I may be mistaken in that.”

***
The Wordle game has become increasingly popular and I enjoy the daily challenge. I have also been trying the game in Spanish and French. You can find a list of available languages here https://rwmpelstilzchen.gitlab.io/wordles/
***
The annual Apex competition has continued now for 50 years since Eric Chalkley started it and twenty years since Phi took over. So, the 2021 puzzle was themed on 50s (L) and 20s (scores). Competitors had to write a double clue to SCORE/FIFTY with a redundant word beginning with L. At the end of the voting, it was John Hood who came top. Congratulations, John!

Winning clues to SCORE/FIFTY (with intervening word beginning with L)

1st       Bitter about calorie count, languid half-ton fatty regularly overlooked eating condition                                                         John Hood

2nd      Fellow in agreement with X’s successor: half a century later the principles of sound clueing only reinforce each result        John Tozer     

3rd       Irritated about Conservative record, look sharp imposing fine for Number 10 several times                                       John Grimshaw

3rd       Stokes and company achieve little, flopping in four Tests, yearning firstly for an innings worth applauding?            Philip Marlow

If you would like to try the puzzle, Phi will be posting it on his website shortly. http://phionline.net.nz/
***
On the 22^nd February it was the 90^th birthday of Roger Squires, the crossword setter known as Rufus. I tweeted a link to Roger's crossword records and his account of the time when the Telegraph was on the brink of sacking all their setters. What surprised me, on a second read, was to learn who was editor of the Telegraph at that time.

Best wishes
Derek

 

 

 

Solution to Missing Letters by Conto

 Solution to Missing by Conto

‘Missing Letters’ by Conto – Solutions/Explanations – Definitions underlined

For each clue, the correlating letter from the alphabet is absent from the wordplay. Such respective letters are indicated below in bold.

4. A mature saying (5) A + AGE = ADAGE
25. Fruit beer distributed with obscure packaging (9) BLU{(BEER)*distributed}R = BLUEBERRY
12. East of Switzerland, old queen makes trench (7) CH + ANNE = CHANNEL
15. Situation in court – ten playing against ten (7) C{(TEN)*playing+X}T = CONTEXT
9. One committed to assasinate the King in state capital of Eswatini (7) F[r]ANCE + E[swatini] = FIANCEE
6. Fish used to provide these, cryptically – roe upon sea’s surface (9) ORECAST + S = FORECASTS / ORE CAST = (ORE)*cast = roe
1. Father nude…Nude? That’s a crime! (5) FR + [n]UD[e] = FRAUD
11. Come to be cuddling a special seal (6) G{AS}ET = GASKET
5. How mum passes buck to a guy for shark wrestling (2,3,4,6) (TOAGUYFORSHARKWRESTLING)*wrestling = GO ASK YOUR FATHER
7. Attic smell (5) REEK = GREEK
8. Bill and Dorothy’s dog eaten by eagle – filleted or whole? (4-2-3) E[agl]{AD+TOTO}E = HEAD TO TOE
19. That man sung songs (5) HYMN (homophone, ‘sung’, of ‘him’) = HYMNS
22. One key number that is imaginary or unknown (5) I + OR + Y = IVORY
10. Young person (that’s posh) by the banks of Venice river (8) U + V[enic]E + NILE = JUVENILE
24. City leaders in advance talks with Conto’s waste disposal facility! (8) LA + A[dvance] T[alks] + I’VE = LAXATIVE
17. Starts to lay out utensils and to serve oriental fruit (7) L[ay] O[ut] U[tensils] A[nd] T[o] S[erve] = LOQUATS
18. Mother with large boy getting the train? (7) MA + L + LAD = MALLARD
20. Meals regularly dispatched by one very loud dog (7) M[e]A[l]S + I + FF = MASTIFF
13. Standard or dairy-free Galaxy? (2,3) [milk]Y WAY = MY WAY
16. Dog and Duck football team (7) O + INTER = POINTER
14. Broken toy, buckets, bottles and locks one’s gathered (9) P{(TOY)*broken}AILS = PONYTAILS
3. Socialist’s repeatedly taken drugs, thus declines (7) RE{E}D{E}S = RECEDES
2. Misguidedly met up with her online, i.e. exchanged contact (9,6) (METUPHERONL[I>E]NE)*misguidedly = TELEPHONE NUMBER
21. Turnover of three-hundred dairies containing teats (5) Reverse hidden = UDDER
22. Heated with heat (6) ARMED = WARMED
26. ‘Bungle Bear’ is an animal (5) (BEAR)*bungle = ZEBRA

Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle March 2022

 Endless Shame by Chalicea

PDF version

   3,31 made a false claim then 21,22 claimed to be 8,11 (7,3,4,2,4) all unclued. Solvers must highlight in the grid what each of them was ultimately recognised to be.

Across

    2    Melancholy Yankee finally receives airmail letters (6)

    7    Good, right and at heart apropos to critically examine wrestling hold (6)

    12    Gran consuming a type of bread (4)

    13    Will's bedraggled bream regularly smeared with cooking fat (8)

    14    Dishonest scheme US backed for trees (6)

    16    One who ran errands once; base eastern Scottish porter (5)

    17    A French bastard made someone hobble and was not censured (8)

    18    Penned in Soho, undisciplined dog (5)

    19    Heartily suspects one variable English weight of long ago (5)

    20    Dismal time lacking ten cents for cubes of glass (6)

    23    Rejected vessel's advance payment (4)

    24    Give money to pay for something - special soft object (5)

    26    Direction repeated; enough said for bard (4)

    29    Dialect phrase so thoughtfully used (7)

    32    The fault of mostly the Crawley family's abbey (6, 2 words)

    33    Phosphorus and iodine polymers occasionally found in Edinburgh's fireworks (6)

    35    Tropical tree in region around cape (5)

    36    A universal old Cypriot coin for a tax collector (5)

    37    Main ally in disarray physically (8)

    38    Casually reject police inspector's mark (5)

    39    Couple of parties consuming most of ray fish (6)

    40    Largish, going round centre of wheel and capable of being grasped (8)

    41    Always endlessly rigorous (4)

    42    Answer returned about European yapper (6)

    43    Be irked by countermanded orders college ignored (6, 2 words)

Down

    1    Labs say run-ups managed in a way that cannot be exceeded (13)

    4    Not the same as tribunal I keenly covered (7)

    5    Disorderly repayments, part dubiously missing for obedient followers (6)

    6    Appears upset for ducks (5)

    7    No dogma by arrangement for Benny, US clarinetist, King of Swing (7)

    9    See revolutionary composition for cityscapes (6)

    10    Old PM in charge - idyllic! (6)

    15    Let loose a rural swan (5)

    24    Conventionally represent with flair securing prizes essentially (7)

    25    Fees, we are told are mostly for the bard's one who settles business (7)

    26    Singular person with body covering - one who curses (7)

    27    Enclosure of disorderly clan welcomed by first lady (7)

    28    Street now and then mauled; brought to a standstill once (5)

    30    Not oddly, help busiest before end of service - worn out in Maxim's (6)

    32    In Glamis, stagger laddie inordinately (6)

    34    Put up special containers for storing small bolts on Clydeside (5)

To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format including the highlighted cells, to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th April 2022. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book which has been donated by Chambers.

Crossword News February 2022

 Crossword News February 2022

Last month our Prize Puzzle was Obi by Wan, a puzzle that ended with a very pretty grid. The hint from down clues gives WORDS WINGS TO BIRDS WINGS. Solvers were to use the letters in pairs to replace letters in the two end columns forming birds in eight rows. The ninth pair was to be used along with the title to make ROBIN, which had to be written under the grid.

Here are some of the comments from solvers.

A most enjoyable puzzle, thank you Wan.  After getting a few answers I then found it quite difficult to progress, not knowing which across clues had the removable letters.  So I concentrated on the down clues and progressed from there.  Some words that were new to me (always a pleasure) made it a little more difficult here and there.  I had no idea of the next stage until I had almost all of the down clue missing letters.  I had wondered if 18a was a hint and so it proved to be.  THRUSH was easy to spot then BIRD but that did not fit the letters removed from the cross clues.  A nice PDM when I realised that the new entries had ten letters each.  The spare RN neatly made the title into the 9th bird.  Very neat and most enjoyable.  A good start to the year.

What a fantastic puzzle! This might be my favourite Crossword Centre puzzle so far. I had a completely full grid before the penny dropped with quite a loud clunk! A fantastic construction; quite remarkable to fit ten-letter birds in alternate rows without needing to resort to anagramming/cycling etc.  Thanks for the puzzle,

This was an entertaining puzzle which didn't yield its secret until quite late on. The double letters in the 9 across clues were well-hidden - not knowing which clues made things harder! The extra letters in the downs gave a suitably cryptic message (which I hope I've correctly interpreted!). All in all, a pretty good puzzle - clever of Wan to find enough suitably 'alterable' 10 letter birds and even cleverer to distribute them evenly. Let's not forget the ROBIN! Thanks!

There were 52 entries, of which 2 were marked wrong. Those solvers who wrote ROCK PIGEON were marked correct. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Michael Crapper, from Whitchurch, who will soon be receiving his prize of a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary which is donated by the publishers.

There is a solution to Obi at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/02/solution-to-obi-by-wan.html

There is still lots of time for you to solve our February puzzle, Missing Letters by Conto. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2022/01/crossword-centre-prize-puzzle-february.html

Our March Prize Puzzle will see a return of popular setter, Chalicea, with Endless Shame. We will be welcoming submissions of puzzles for the summer months.
***

Although it was twice cancelled, Richard Heald has announced that there will be a special lunch at Wolfson College, Oxford, on Saturday 28th May to celebrate the 50th anniversary this year of the Azed crossword in The Observer.  The price of the lunch will be £60 per head, and will include a three-course meal plus wine, followed by afternoon tea at Azed's house close to the college.  For further details and a booking form please contact heald.richard@googlemail.com.
***
Richard gets a mention in E. Dawid’s winning clue for BALDERDASH.

 In clueing, R. Heald’s bad? Nonsense! (anag.; ref. leading AZ competitor).
***
February is the month when last year’s statistics are published. We now know the results of our Prize Puzzles for 2021. 104 solvers entered the competitions and a grand total of 6 people managed to survive the 14 puzzles of 2021 unscathed.  In descending order of total all correct streak, they are:

Matthew Auger
Brian Betker
Andie Johnson
Philip Wood
Gerry Murtagh
Clive Walker

As the first three have already had possession of The Cup and have since maintained their all-correct run, the Crowther Cup passes to the next longest all-correct which is Philip Wood, so hearty congratulations to Philip!

Just behind the top 6 were the following, with just one error in the year:

Keith Williams
Tony Harker
John Reardon

This year entrants can request their individual records for the full year 2021 if they so wish.  They should email Robert Teuton toots@tinyworld.co.uk Please keep separate from competition entries and please be patient.
***
The results are now in for the voting on Inquisitor puzzle of the year 2021. In top place was Character Assassination by eXtent, the team of eXternal and Serpent, It was based on Mark Dunn’s “progressively lipogrammatic” novel Ella Minnow Pea, in which letters intermittently dropping from the pangram on a monument are banned from use on the isle of Nollop. In second place was Clue Two V by eXternal closely followed by Hedge-sparrow with Fieldwork. You can see all the results at http://www.fifteensquared.net/2022/01/22/inquisitor-review-of-the-year-2020-21/
***
More results are posted in the Magpie. A select group of super solvers got all 72 puzzles correct in 2021.

1= Daniel Angel 12 12 72 [210.3]
1= Tim Burt 12 12 72 [204.2]
1= Shirley Curran 12 12 72 [207]
1= Andrew Dunn 12 12 72 [213.2]
1= James Leaver 12 12 72 [212.4]
1= Simon Melen 12 12 72 [210.5]
1= Sara Rae 12 12 72 [213.3]
1= John Reardon 12 12 72 [194.6]
1= Keith Sutherland 12 12 72 [211.3]
1= Don Thompson 12 12 72 [204]
1= Clive Walker 12 12 72 –
1= Philip Wood 12 12 72 [204.5]
***
On our clue-writing site the results are out for the 2021 season. Congratulations to John Tozer who came top in a close tussle with Tom Borland. You can see all the results here http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/ann_results.php?year=2021
John only made it with his winning anagrams for the Christmas Boxed Set.

Cue: Bring Presents / Demand Santa Hat / Turkey Dead, Chablis On Hand

(Bruce Springsteen/Adam and the Ants/Ian Dury and the Blockheads
***
Congratulations to John Grimshaw. The Times Concise Jumbo No. 1539 was the 1000^th that John had created since his first on January 3 2004.
***
Since its inception a few months ago, the word game Wordle has enjoyed exponential success. It has been announced that the game’s inventor, Josh Wardle, has sold his game to the New York Times. He has promised that the game will continue to be free and that your scores and streaks will be maintained after the change.
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2022/jan/31/wordle-new-york-times-buys

However, it seems that there are two versions of Wordle each day as well as a half dozen copies and expansions such as Quordle.
***
The Listener statistics will be announced at the annual dinner in Stirling. I will not be going to the dinner this year due to debilitating arthritis/carpal tunnel pains.

Best wishes
Derek

Solution to Obi by Wan

 Solution to Obi by Wan

Highlighting is just for clarity and not required for submission. 

The hint from down clues gives WORDS WINGS TO BIRDS WINGS. Solvers were to use the letters in pairs to replace letters in the two end columns forming birds in eight rows. The ninth pair was to be used along with the title to make ROBIN, which had to be written under the grid.

 

 

Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle February 2022

Missing Letters by Conto

For each clue, one apposite letter is absent from the wordplay. Clues are listed alphabetically by answer. Answers should be fitted into the numbered grid.

PDF version

A mature saying (5)

Fruit beer distributed with obscure packaging (9)

East of Switzerland, old queen makes trench (7)

Situation in court – ten playing against ten (7)

One committed to assasinate the King in state capital of Eswatini (7)

Fish used to provide these, cryptically – roe upon sea’s surface (9)

Father nude…Nude? That’s a crime! (5)

Come to be cuddling a special seal (6)

How mum passes buck to a guy for shark wrestling (2,3,4,6)

Attic smell (5)

Bill and Dorothy’s dog eaten by eagle – filleted or whole? (4-2-3)

That man sung songs (5)

One key number that is imaginary or unknown (5)

Young person (that’s posh) by the banks of Venice river (8)

City leaders in advance talks with Conto’s waste disposal facility! (8)

Starts to lay out utensils and to serve oriental fruit (7)

Mother with large boy getting the train? (7)

Meals regularly dispatched by one very loud dog (7)

Standard or dairy-free Galaxy? (2,3)

Dog and Duck football team (7)

Broken toy, buckets, bottles and locks one’s gathered (9)

Socialist’s repeatedly taken drugs, thus declines (7)

Misguidedly met up with her online, i.e. exchanged contact (9,6)

Turnover of three-hundred dairies containing teats (5)

Heated with heat (6)

‘Bungle Bear’ is an animal (5)

 To enter this competition, send your entry as an image or in list format, to ccpuzzles@talktalk.net before 8th March 2022. The first correct entry drawn from the hat will receive a book which has been donated by the Chambers.