Crossword News July 2021
The June Prize Puzzle was June
Journey by eXternal. Correct letters
give SCOTSWOOD ROAD, PARADISE, COLLINGWOOD STREET; incorrect letters give
BALMBRAS, MECHANICS HALL, ARMSTRONG’S FACTORY. These are locations in the song
BLAYDON RACES in which the narrator receives a broken NOSE and two black eyes.
This was an original concept where all entries were affected and both correct
and incorrect letters gave the theme.
Here are some of the many comments
from solvers.
Many thanks for a most original
puzzle. Our solution is attached. I've
just enjoyed blacking a couple of eyes in a puzzle that worked well, as once we
had the theme down the diagonal, the solving was massively speeded up by the
places we could insert in the misprint letters, helping us solve the rest. Clever, different and good fun.
Another absorbing puzzle from the
Club, thank you and special thanks to eXternal.
It was a novel (to me) approach that left the grid filled with non-words
and I was glad to have the locations letters to help. You do not need to be a Geordie to know of
the song but for the more specific knowledge I was grateful to Google. The black eyes and broken nose was a nice
idea.
This was a very entertaining
puzzle with great surfaces and well-woven clues. Entries with misprints in the grid was a
twist that threw me (lost time at first putting in the correct answers!) before
I realised what was expected. Made it a
bit easier though since clashes did not arise requiring resolving. The route to unravelling the endgame proved
both interesting and informative. Thanks
for the fun, a good workout after a long vacation.
There were 56 entries, of which 17
were marked incorrect. This was a high percentage of errors...highlighting
omissions/errors (highlighting letter "Is" rather than the
appropriately placed "Os") and grid entry errors probably due to the
grid containing non-words.
The lucky winner, picked from the
electronic hat, was David Beamish, who will soon be receiving a prize of a copy
of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, donated by Chambers.
A full solution is available at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/07/solution-to-june-journey-by-external.html
You still have time to email your
solution to Map by Urchin before the closing date of 8th August.
The August Prize Puzzle will be
Diet by Curmudgeon.
***
John Henderson and Jane Teather are hoping that there will
be a real York Sloggers’ and Betters’ weekend this year on Friday 29 to Sunday
31 October, with the main event on Saturday 30 (and the usual diehards at the
station on the Sunday).
For details, and to register your interest, see:
http://www.fifteensquared.net/2021/06/28/sb-york-2021-friday-29th-and-saturday-30th-october-2021/
***
I have been recommended to read a novel which might involve crosswords. The
blurb begins thus: “Seventy-seven-year-old Judith Potts is blissfully happy.
She lives alone in a faded mansion in Marlow, sets crosswords for The Times,
and there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to
drink.
One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith
witnesses a brutal murder. When the local police don’t believe her story,
Judith and two unlikely friends decide to investigate for themselves. Together,
they are the Marlow Murder Club.” The Marlow
Murder Club is published by Harper Collins this month.
***
When a friend was clearing a house, they found a copy of the Listener from
January 1968. They thought that I would be interested in the crossword and sent
me a scan. The crossword was Triagrams III by Sam. It was fascinating to see
how clue-writing has changed in 50 years. The grid, although not symmetric, is
very clever as it is not easy to find words that can have at least three
anagrams. If you would like to try the puzzle it is on the blog.
Triagrams
III by Sam
***
Joke of the week tweeted by Cracking the Cryptic showed Pooh and Piglet.
“What’s the
strangest thing that has happened to you, Piglet?”
The strangest
thing that happened to me, Pooh, was when I worked at the United Nations and I
was aske to get Kofi Annan a gram of cocaine. I picked up the phone. “Kofi,” I
said, “right now the only one I can think of is ‘oceanic’.
***
On the Clue-writing Competition site your challenge for JULY is a STANDARD
CRYPTIC clue to MACARONI (8) by the closing date of MIDNIGHT BST FRIDAY 30th
JULY.
In the
competition for TOERAG, Peter Milne was voted winner with this.
Love great
wobbly bum
2nd
Anthony Nannini
Dog got ear treated
3rd
Tom Borland
No fellow of great rank
As we
mentioned last month, Azed chose the same word to clue in his June competition.
The winner was that Don Manley again.
Tinker’s no. 1,
tailor’s no. 2 – ergo, in organised sequence, I’m no. 7
(anag. incl. t, a; ref. beggar man in nursery rhyme).
In his slip, Azed had this to
say. “A few of you drew my attention to the fact that the word was set at the
same time for an on-line clue-writing competition. The odds against such a
thing happening must be great, but I didn’t look to see if regular Azed
competitors had entered both competitions and if so whether they had produced
different clues in each case. I know of only one who produced a different clue
for this comp (with signal success!). I’ll say no more. There are now plenty of
crossword-related websites, competitive and otherwise, but I rarely consult
them.”
Best wishes
Derek
