Solution to In The Chair by Phylax
Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle August 2020
Minor Variations by Phi
Crossword News August 2020
The July Prize Puzzle was What’s Here? by Vismut. Extra
letters/words generated by the wordplay in across clues spell out CROSSWORD DOT
ORG DOT UK, the location of The Crossword Centre. The circled letters spell out
APOSTROPHE; the letter inserted in the middle of the grid is S. All the s’s in
the grid are shaded to show an S which can be found at the crossword’s centre.
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
Very clever puzzle - what a lovely idea for a theme. Thank
you, Vismut! Of all the aspects that impressed me, the most impressive was how
Vismut managed to have esses only in the places where they mattered!
I didn't have much trouble solving the clues except for the
two across clues with wordplay generating three extra letters, and I only
solved those after I realised that the location was a web address. When there
are clues of two types, I suppose I shouldn't assume that all clues are of the
more common type, especially with clues like 30a where I initially thought that
the wordplay was generating too many letters, but I still didn't think that it
was one of the clues generating three extra letters. I had guessed the contents
of the central cell and what to highlight before I understood what was meant by
"insertion to the location's name". Now I wonder if S is supposed to
be both the letter at the centre of the word "crossword" and the
letter at the centre of this crossword. I liked that every cell containing S
needed to be shaded.
An entertaining solve and a nice play on the site name. I spent far too long trying to find Derek
Harrison in the grid before the penny dropped!
Thanks to Vismut for an enjoyable puzzle.
There were 51 entries, of which 5 were marked incorrect. The
lucky winner from the electronic hat was Phil Caine from Formby, who will be
receiving a copy of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by
Chambers.
A solution to What's Here? is available here. https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/08/solution-to-whats-here-by-vismut.html
The September Prize Puzzle will be Minor Variations by Phi.
Phi was first paid for a crossword over 40 years ago, and
has been setting for The Independent for over thirty years, now in a weekly
slot. He also provided nearly 700
Beelzebub puzzles for The Independent on Sunday. There are also over 50 Listener puzzles, over
150 Inquisitors, nearly 300 for the BBC Music Magazine, over 100 for the Church
Times, and over 60 Enigmatic Variations puzzles in the list, but this is his
first one for the Crossword Centre.
You can find out more about Phi and his puzzles on his blog
at https://phionline.net.nz/
***
As part of the Edinburgh Book Festival, New York Times digital crossword editor
Joel Fagliano will be explaining how a crossword is made, how the team works,
and you’ll get to take part in a live mini crossword-making session. Joining
him in this event is Adrienne Raphel, author of Thinking Inside the Box:
Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them.
This event will take place at 17.30 on Sunday 23 August and, as the festival is
entirely on-line, you don’t have to go to Edinburgh. More details at this link
- https://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/working-with-words-inside-the-new-york-times-crossword
***
I have to recommend a YouTube video from Cracking the Cryptic, where Simon
Anthony solves a sudoku with a Fawlty Towers theme. Fascinating to watch his
brain working https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE-4k9s9aZc&feature=youtu.be
***
During lockdown I have tried some word games on my iPad. One that is very
simple but also a challenge is Word Collect. You have to make words by
anagramming letters from a key word. The words fill spaces, so you can see the
lengths required and they are listed in alphabetical order. It probably is a US
app so there are occasional American spellings, labor for example. This app can
be very annoying because of the frequent and tedious adverts. However, there is
an easy way to stop them. You just switch off the wi-fi on your iPad.
Best wishes
Derek
The July Prize Puzzle from the Crossword Centre.
What's Here? by Vismut
Crossword News July 2020
Last month our prize puzzle was That’s Life by Flowerman.
Extra letters spell MACROMOLECULES followed by A HOMOPHONE OF THIRTY-FIVE and
EG AN ENZYME. A homophone of JEANS is GENES, which are composed entirely of the
biological macromolecule DNA, a nucleic acid. The other nucleic acid is RNA.
Almost all enzymes are PROTEINs.
The CENTRAL DOGMA (of Molecular Biology) is a phrase coined
by Francis CRICK. His colleague James WATSON subsequently associated this
phrase with a two-step process.
DNA and RNA codons (CODONS obtained from initial letters of
normal clues) code for amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. One of 61
different examples* is: AGT (DNA codon) yielding AGU (RNA codon) (by
transcription) which induces addition of Serine (SER) (by translation) in the
synthesis of a peptide/protein.
*There are 64 possible DNA codons; however, three (STOP
codons) do not code for an amino acid.
The title suggests a biological theme. The Central Dogma of
Molecular Biology is fundamental to all life on Earth.
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
Another terrific puzzle from Flowerman! Pretty complex, but
so cleverly designed and executed, with the multiple aspects and assigned tasks
seamlessly incorporated. And a top-notch set of clues - very witty, great
surface readings. Many thanks, Flowerman.
As soon as I saw Flowerman’s name I knew I was in for a
science lesson! What initially looked like quite a frightening preamble was
actually not too bad in the end. I thought the clues were good with the extra
letters in some cases not at all obvious to spot - and I really liked the
‘JEANS/GENES’ clue. The DNA/Crick & Watson theme seems to come up fairly
regularly but ‘central dogma’ was new to me. The final part was a step too far for
me - I did start looking up codons but it was all getting a bit too advanced
for me so I’m glad it was left as an optional highlighting requirement.
This was a tricky solve! Clues were generally 'challenging'
and I'm still not confident about my parsing of 24a and 30a and, as a result,
I'm not sure what the two non-word elements given by initial letters are. I
have lingering doubts about my highlighting of AGT/AGU/SER....... That aside, the incorporation of a lot of
thematic material is impressive in a 12x12 grid and I feel relieved at having
arrived at some sort of conclusion!
Thanks to Flowerman for something of a tour de force.
This proved to be a difficult puzzle. There were 37 entries,
of which 1 was marked incorrect. The lucky winner, picked from the electronic
hat, was Mark Roberts from Luxembourg. He will be receiving a copy of Chambers
Crossword Dictionary, which was donated by Chambers.
A full solution is available at http://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2020/07/solution-to-thats-life-by-flowerman.html
You have until 8th August to submit your entry
for the July puzzle, What's
Here by Vismut
The August Prize Puzzle will be In the Chair by Phylax.
***
Good news for fans of the Enigma Variations puzzles. After receiving lots of
complaints from solvers, the Sunday Telegraph has reversed their decision to
stop the EV crosswords. They will now continue after August.
***
A fan of the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel has composed a rap in their
honour.
https://youtu.be/Au7i9oIDHv0
Fans of Cracking the Cryptic can now but t-shirts and mugs
at their store https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic/store
***
Philip Fine and Kathryn Friedlander have just published a new article looking
at the flexible problem-solving ability of solvers. There's a blog here https://bit.ly/3gn03kX which explains the
research in a slightly more approachable style, and contains a link to the
academic paper itself.
***
A video which is well worth watching is Peter Biddlecombe, crossword editor of
the Sunday Times and former winner of the Times Crossword Championship, talking
about himself and cryptic crosswords in a talk he gave to the Israeli
Translators Association. It is now on YouTube - https://youtu.be/hARTp5uNM5g
***
On the Clue-Writing Competition your challenge for July is a STANDARD CRYPTIC
clue to CAESAREAN (9) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT BST SUNDAY 26th JULY.
Hope you are safe and well.
Best wishes
Derek
