For those who may have missed it, we published a tribute cryptic puzzle on Friday 29 November to Araucaria (John Graham), who died on 26 November, aged 92. It was set by Enigmatist, Paul and Shed, who for some years have together with Araucaria been setting an occasional series of puzzles under the byline Biggles, chosen because all four of them shared the same first name (John), so that collectively they were "we Johns", or W.E. Johns, the author and creator of Biggles. The lunches to celebrate these occasional puzzles were held, naturally, at Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, conveniently close to Araucaria's home near Cambridge.
On 27 November the Guardian's G2 also republished John Graham's first and last puzzles for the paper. The first, anonymously, was in the Manchester Guardian for 10 July 1958. The last, as Araucaria, was in the Guardian for 16 November this year. I have been asked why the first was only No. 165, as the Manchester Guardian had been publishing crosswords regularly since 1929 and as the 2013 puzzle was No. 26,107. The answer is that the original numbering system was for each separate each calendar year. At some point John Perkin, my predecessor as crossword editor, put a wet towel round his head and computed how many daily puzzles had appeared since 1929 and then introduced our present numbering system.
One of Araucaria's best (and most quoted) long anagrams is "O hark the herald angels sing the boy's descent, which lifted up the world", which produces WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT/ALL SEATED IN THE GROUND. I vowed to trace where it first appeared, while he still alive. And I have failed. John knew, of course, that it was one of his clues and he was even modestly proud of it. But he couldn't for the life of him remember where or when it had been appeared. And, unlike most other setters, he never kept any record of his past puzzles, let alone any index of his past clues. This way of working was why all his puzzles were so fresh. But it reduced to zero his usefulness as a research assistant into his past work. Many people have offered me helpful suggestions as to where to look, but so far to no avail. The search continues.
As the centenary date for the publication of the first-ever crossword puzzle in a newspaper nears (21 December 1913 in the New York World) the Guardian folk are doing their best to mark and publicise the occasion. First, our very own setter, Paul (AKA John Halpern), has just published The Centenary of the Crossword (André Deutsch), which takes you on a personal journey through his world of the crossword. Then our very own blogger, Alan Connor, has come out with Two Girls, One on Each Knee (Particular Books), which explores in a new way the language of the crossword and the coding of clues.
Incidentally, Alan's title is taken from a clue set by our very own Rufus (Roger Squires): the two girls being Pat and Ella, giving you one PATELLA for each knee. This is the third time that a Rufus/Squires clue has been borrowed in this way. In 2002 Sandy Balfour published a personal memoir about his own actual and psychological journey from South Africa to England and the part that crosswords played in it. His title was a Rufus clue: "Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)": answer REBELLED (BELLE in RED). And in 2008 Val Gilbert, then still crossword editor of the Daily Telegraph, produced biographical essays on and typical puzzles from her "six greatest Telegraph setters". She chose a cryptic Squires clue for the title of her book: "A display of lights (9)". Answer CROSSWORD, as a "light" is variously a blank space in a crossword grid, or all the letters of an answer to a clue.
Complaint of the month. The Quick for 12 November (No. 13,576, 17 down) had a clue "River rising in Derbyshire and flowing into the Irish Sea (6)" for MERSEY. Not so, came many voices, questioning my grip on geography is addition to other academic disciplines. The Mersey is formed of three tributaries, I was told, the Rivers Etherow, Goyt and Tame. The Mersey only starts at the confluence of the Goyt and Tame in central Stockport, it was asserted. But, falling back on my (modern) dictionaries, I found in: a) the Oxford Dictionary of English – a river in NW England which rises in the Peak District of Derbyshire; and b) Collins – a river in W England, rising in N Derbyshire.
It also appears (though I have not been able to check this) that some maps show the Mersey starting at Compstall, which is a few miles up the Goyt, while the 1911 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica declares that the Mersey starts at the junction of the Goyt and Etherow, near Marple in Cheshire. It is all very confusing. How can the start of the Mersey be asserted with such authority to be in so many different places? I wonder if the constant reorganisation of local government over the years could have something to do with it.
Advance notice that this year's Christmas special puzzle will be published on Saturday 21 December. It is again being set by Maskarade. Also in that issue, as well as the regular Saturday Quick, the Guardian Review will be publishing a themed crossword to go with its Christmas literary quiz.
The November Genius (No 125 by Paul) caused difficulties when typing in the solutions, as on many browsers letters in the bottom half of the grid entered themselves twice per keystroke and it was tedious to have to delete the second of these each time. My apologies. We were not able to discover what was making this particular puzzle unstable in this way. It does not seem to be happening with the December puzzle. Despite this we had a high number of correct entries (327 by the deadline, with 43 of them on the first day). Dave H. was first in at 12.29 and "wat 5" second, 18 minutes later. Dave from Paderborn was the first overseas entry at 01:50.
Congratulations to Sheila Williams from London, who is the winner of our November Genius puzzle.
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