Sunday, 29 August 2021
Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle September 2021
Wednesday, 18 August 2021
Crossword News August 2021
Crossword News August 2021
Here are some of the comments from solvers.
I found this tough going.
Lots of clever but tricky clues, lots of dictionary referencing, and
lots of gratification as each answer slowly but surely fell. But solving the clues was the easy part,
unscrambling the 'cryptic' instructions took more time, was left staring at an
almost filled grid without knowing how to proceed. Maybe it's just me, but I would hardly have
expected resolving clashes would involve removing chunks of letters and
anagramming them to find names of stations I've never heard of! Not sure how I
stumbled on to that, but once a couple got revealed, it was smooth sailing the
rest of the way. A fantastic puzzle, had
me quite absorbed, and an oh-so satisfying solve, many thanks.
This was a challenging and entertaining puzzle in which the
PDM took a while to arrive! Though by no means 'London-centric' (I'm from The
Black Country originally) the appearance of St James, Haymarket and Monument
from the clashes had me scouring London street and tubes maps for far too long!
Happily, with my yellow highlighting pen I think I've incorporated the
requisite logo! Howay! Once again,
thanks to both Urchin and the Crossword Centre for such a good quality puzzle.
Thanks, and kudos, to Urchin, not only for finding answers
to produce clashes which could produce station names, but also for avoiding any
other Ms in the grid. For a little added touch, I did my two lines in the
appropriate colours.
We Geordies have been lucky these last couple of months
following June's Blaydon Races themed crossword. My first to drop in this one was Central
Station. Well, of course there are a few of those around the world and I never
thought we'd be focusing on one I've used countless times. As a former resident
of Jesmond for nearly 20 years within a stone's throw of the Metro station.
I've done many a crossword over that time and I've never seen Jesmond as a
crossword puzzle answer, and doubtless never will again. Hats off to Urchin, is he/she a fellow North
Easterner I wonder? I now live in Tynemouth, 5 minutes away from the Metro
station. Anyway, I hope my Metro Logos are legible. Many thanks Urchin for a cracking puzzle.
Dead canny!
There were 42 entries, of which 8 were marked incorrect. The
lucky winner, picked from the electronic hat, was Peter Smith of Faringdon, who
will soon be receiving his prize of Chambers Crossword Dictionary, which is
donated by Chambers.
There is a full solution at https://crosswordcentre.blogspot.com/2021/08/solution-to-map-by-urchin.html
You still have lots of time to email your solution to Diet
by Curmudgeon. As has been announced on the message board, an error in the grid
will be spotted by solvers. If they wish, they may enter two letters in one
cell.
The September prize puzzle will be Juggling Jellyfish by
Chiffchaff.
We would welcome submissions for a puzzle for November.
***
Since the 90s, subscribers to the New York Times crosswords have had the option
to open the puzzle as a .puz file in Across Lite. The NYT have announced that
they will stop supporting these files on the 9 August and will replace it with
their own in-house software. This has infuriated many crossword fans. https://kotaku.com/crossword-fans-are-mad-at-the-new-york-times-1847417645
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/02/crosswords/nyt-games-no-longer-available-on-across-lite-as-of-aug-9.html
***
Our March Prize Puzzle was Cracking by Soup. There is a very interesting
interview with Soup in the Guardian blog. It is fascinating to see his research
with bees and to find out how he chose his pseudonym.
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2021/aug/02/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-soup
***
The death has been announced of Maki Kaji, the man credited as the creator and
father of the sudoku.
One day in 1984, Maki Kaji came across a drably named game called “Number
Place” in an obscure American magazine and spent an enjoyable half an hour
placing numbers in the boxes of the puzzle’s geometrical grid.
“It was a very interesting puzzle, fun to solve and I fell
in love with it,” he recalled. As the publisher of the Japanese puzzle magazine
Tsushin Nikoli, which he had founded four years earlier, he set about adapting
it for his own readers.
Kaji made a number of significant adjustments and came up
with a grid of 81 squares, divided into nine blocks of nine squares, some of
which already contained a figure, leaving the puzzler to fill in the empty
spaces so that the numbers one to nine appear once — and only once — in every
row, column and block.
He named it “Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru”, meaning “numbers
should be single and unmarried” and it first appeared in his magazine in 1984.
The puzzle swiftly became known by the abbreviation, sudoku, and Kaji as its
“godfather”.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/17/maki-kaji-godfather-of-sudoku-dies-aged-69-in-japan
***
On the CC Clue Writing Competition, the August challenge is to write a clue to
BIBLIOMANIA. http://www.andlit.org.uk/cccwc/main.php
The June challenge was a Right/Left clue to NELSON/PRINCE. The winner was Tom
Borland with this fine clue.
Hold lens trained on Royal pair, finding nice shot
***
Someone has pointed out that the counter on the Crossword Centre clicked over 3
million earlier this year.
Best wishes
Derek
Monday, 9 August 2021
Solution to Map by Urchin
Map by Urchin - Solution
The grid
represents a plan of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. Letters from clashes can be
rearranged to give the names of stations on the Tyne Wear Metro network.
DISLI(MNED + JOS)TLE =Jesmond b(ATHY)al +pace(MAKER) = Haymarket (MAJ)or +
(TESS)ella =St James. tanta(MOUNT) + ape(MEN)=Monument, d(ORM)ition + gos(SAN)
=Manors. ge(NERALST)aff + eru(CTATION)= Central Station. The next station south
is GATESHEAD. Initial letters of redundant words give NETWORK LOGO. The logo is
upper case M on a yellow background.
Redundant words are shown in [ ]
Across: 2
SLIM in dined, 7 I + PE in PUP, 11 C(uldesa)C in REE, 13 2 meanings, 16 anag.
cruel _ (m)OUS(e), 17 LIT < in PANE, 18 METTLE less M [Necking], 19 PAST +
A(lbergo) &lit, 21 BATHYAL thy in Baal, 23 lei + R, 24 nap in spy
[Exciting], 26 prIesTesS 27 anag. receding plans [Trade], 31 MAJOR, JO in MAR 32
TANTAMOUNT anag. TO MAN in TAUNT, 34 GOSSAN anag. SONG + A + S, 37 Hidden [Wooden],
39 Dan (Daniel) in IT, 41 I in LOPE 2, 42 RENT in WIT, 45 LINCH + PIN, 46 A +
NON, 47 Hidden [Oxidising], 48 etat < in S + D, 49 GENERAL STAFF anag. flag
fastener. [Rigid]
Down: 1
anag. slurped, 3 lexicon minus lex [Key], 4 scouts minus O, 5 2 meanings, 6
JOSTLE T + L in Jose ref. José Mourinho,
7 PACEMAKER EM + A in PACKER, 8 T in anag. REPLY, 9 homophone EIGHTS
[Londoners], 10 Lulu < + ate, 12 YUL(e) + an, 14 USHERS minus H, 15 ap in
JE, 20 Homophone HEIR, 22 APEMEN me in a pen, 24 nags cycling letters
[Official], 25 2 meanings, 28 O in anag. pistol, 29 NO (Japanese play) N
(noon), 30 DORMITION DORM + I + INTO* [Garderobe], 31 TESSELLA LESS < in
TELA, 32 I + PC in TAT, 33 N (new) in AIRS, 35 2 meanings [Officers], 36 KIN +
DA, 38 Po in BID, 40 RUN < in A(quari)A, 42 2 meanings, 43 ERUCTATION anag.
ROUTINE ACT, 44 T (cross) + ref.
Thursday, 29 July 2021
Crossword Centre Prize Puzzle August 2021
Diet by Curmudgeon
Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Crossword News July 2021
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





