Thursday sees a public gathering of some of the Guardian’s crossword minds. Setters Boatman and Paul and our puzzle editor, Hugh Stephenson, have arranged a pow-wow in Brighton on the topic of crosswords, how they’re created and why we like them.
Appropriately, the event is marked with a one-off puzzle [PDF], which I’m excited to announce. Its setter is Soup, who is known to solvers of the Guardian’s Genius crossword for a pair of puzzles last year.
Soup is also the editor of crossword magazine 1 Across. His predecessors in that post are, in reverse order, Tom Johnson, Mike Rich, Enigmatist and Araucaria, who started the whole thing in 1984. 1 Across has quietly helped to shape British crosswording, so the Brighton event offers a nifty opportunity for an overdue Q&A.
Hello, Soup. How do the puzzles in 1 Across differ from those in daily papers?
Hello, Alan! In some ways, they are the same: we publish high-quality cryptic crosswords, usually 15x15, and so on.
But newspapers need to feature puzzles that can be tackled on the train or in a lunch break, so their weekday puzzles tend to be straight, without themes or conceits. Saturday puzzles in newspapers will often have something up: “x solutions are of a kind and not defined”, say, or an alphabetical jigsaw ...
The puzzles we publish are more like the latter: we offer a place for setters to have freer rein in their compiling, as well as publishing occasional puzzles that are a bit different from standard 15x15 grids. And, while we (alas) no longer have any more new Araucaria puzzles, we feature one from our archives every month; we think that his puzzles are good enough to stand up to a second battle, a couple of decades after they first appeared.
There is a monthly prize puzzle, too, kindly supported by Oxford University Press.
Some examples, please
This month we have a Printer’s Devilry puzzle, set by Chalicea. Instead of normal definition-and-wordplay clues, the solution has been removed from a certain sentence; after the gap has been closed and, perhaps, punctuation altered, the resulting sentence becomes the clue.
An example of Printer’s Devilry from Azed (answer at the bottom):
A galling remark – an effective riposte is difficult (7)
My team of testers found Chalicea’s puzzle really good fun and an interestingly different challenge. We have also had a barred puzzle where all vowels need to be removed from solutions before they are entered; a standard cryptic but with a blank grid (so the solver must fill in the blocks as well); circular puzzles; barred puzzles; a puzzle where one letter has been removed from the definition in each printed clue; a 3D puzzle … we’re limited only by our setters’ imaginations.
Having said that, not all the puzzles are so esoteric, and I try to limit off-the-wall puzzles to one per issue, and make the average difficulty of the rest around that of a Saturday Guardian puzzle, with the occasional stinker thrown in for good measure. There should be something for everyone!
What are the magazine’s connections to the gentlemen who will be talking in Brighton this week?
Boatman is the speaker most directly connected to the magazine. In 2001, he had his first crossword published in 1 Across (under the helm of Tom Johnson) and, after what Boatman describes as “seven years of support from Tom and persistent flattery of Hugh”, the first Boatman puzzle appeared in the Guardian. He has had more than 50 now (and has just published a book to prove it!).
Paul and Hugh are both connected via Araucaria. Paul was an early protege of Araucaria’s, and collaborated with him and two other Johns in the lovely “Biggles” puzzles occasionally seen in the Guardian. We’ve featured the occasional Paul puzzle in 1 Across, particularly in the earlier days of his setting. And Hugh, as a crossword editor, has benefited from up-and-coming setters learning their craft in what has been described as “the Araucaria nursery”.
Go on ...
Araucaria was always very encouraging of new setters. Back in 1984, when he founded 1 Across, websites were still a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye, and a blog was what [imitates blocked nose] you might hab id your dose whed you had a code.
He founded 1 Across to give Guardian solvers an extra dose of Araucaria puzzles and, as time went on, he featured other setters. Subscribers sent their comments (as they still do!), which were passed on to the setters (as they still are!); those comments help setters get better at what they do. Having a crossword editor on the magazine also helps setters get used to the process of being edited, which is vital if they’re to be published in a newspaper – understanding where an editor’s comments are coming from is a key skill.
The nursery model has paid off: Paul, Enigmatist, Picaroon, Gaff, Arachne, Boatman, Otterden, Chalicea, Moodim, Magwitch and others all had puzzles in 1 Across in the early days of their compiling. Christine, the magazine’s publisher, and I hope to continue the trend of supporting up-and-coming setters.
Of course, 1 Across was the first to publish ‘that’ Araucaria puzzle ...
Yes, Araucaria announced that he had oesophageal cancer in a crossword that was specially written for 1 Across back in December 2012.
Araucaria always referred to 1 Across as his baby, and it was important to him that he let his subscribers know first – after all, many of them had been loyal followers since the magazine’s launch.
The puzzle was reprinted in January 2013 in the Guardian, and made the front page of the newspaper the following day. I’ve just been back to have a look at that article and the comments below it, and it’s still hard to read without a lump coming to my throat, even five years on. I was so pleased to meet Araucaria a couple of times before he died; he was a lovely, gentle man.
What’s in the pipeline?
This year we’ve got a lovely range of puzzles scheduled, from at least 18 of our regular setters, plus some more from compilers new to the magazine.
We’ve got some anniversaries to commemorate, some interesting new themes and lots to keep people happy. At least, that’s what I’ve been promised; our setters are hard at work. I’m also looking at ways of encouraging more new setters, too; watch this space!
And, in the next issue, we have a really special Araucaria puzzle: his first ever alphabetical jigsaw. Recently, I spent some time trawling the Guardian archives in the University Library in Cambridge, and have found one from June 1968, a full five years before the previous earliest known example (which is in Puzzler magazine in 1973). I’m really pleased that we’ve been given permission to reprint it by Hugh.
Finally, what’s it like compiling a puzzle that makes reference to other setters? Personally, I would be terrified.
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that. Er … now you’ve mentioned it, it’s terrifying. I wonder what they’ll think.
I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it. Well, if Donald Trump causes the collapse of the worldwide newspaper industry, it will at least be good news for subscriptions to specialist magazines. Thank you to Soup and good luck to the Brighton gang.
Boatman and Friends is at Brighton Waterstones, 71-74 North Street, 7pm, Thursday 19 January. Free; booking details here. The attendees’ books are The First 50 (Boatman), Story of the Crossword (Paul) and Secrets of the Setters (Hugh Stephenson). More information about 1 Across and a sample issue can be found at the 1 Across site. Soup can be found on Twitter as @1AcrossEditor. And the answer to Azed’s clue is INSTATE: “Aga[INST A TE]lling remark, an effective riposte is difficult.”
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