2013 – Centenary Year of the Crossword

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Announcement
This year is the centenary of the crossword, the first “Word-Cross” puzzle having been published in the New York World on December 21st 1913. To mark this, John Halpern, a Times setter who also sets under various pseudonyms for other papers (e.g. Paul in the Guardian) is organising a series of events around the country during the year, culminating in a Crossword Awards ceremony in December.

John is planning a number of awards including:

‘Crossword of the Year’
‘Clue of the Year’
‘Setter of the Year’
‘Times Setter of the Year’
‘Telegraph Setter of the Year’
‘FT setter of the Year’
‘Guardian Setter of the Year’
‘Independent Setter of the Year’
etc

As part of this he’d like us to submit our “puzzle of the month” and “clue of the month” at the end of each month. Fifteensquared and Big Dave’s will be doing similar for the puzzles they cover.

I’ll put up a post at the end of each month for you to add a comment to giving your selections. The preferred format will be:

Puzzle of the month: DATE, PUZZLE NUMBER, LINK TO PUZZLE
Clue of the month: DATE, PUZZLE NUMBER, CLUE NUMBER, CLUE

I hope as many of you as possible will cast your votes each month. Please only vote for Times puzzles here.

John has set up a website dedicated to the crossword centenary. Please pay it a visit, particularly if you want to know if any of the events are taking place near you.

4 comments on “2013 – Centenary Year of the Crossword”

    1. That question occurred to me as well (agree that today’s ST was excellent), and then it also struck me that selecting a Times setter of the year might be difficult to reconcile with the anonymity of the daily puzzle. I guess our votes will be assessed by someone who knows the identity of the setters in question and the veil will be lifted on the setter whose puzzles /clues were best received over the year? If that’s the case, I imagine the Times award will be particularly interesting, as the voting ought to be done without any bias, conscious or unconscious, towards a particular setter.
      1. I’ve emailed John for clarification, but for now I’d say that we should count ST puzzles (also agree about today’s). As John is a Times setter perhaps he has access to information that we don’t (or at least he can ask the editor afterwards).
      2. Here’s John’s reply:

        “Can I suggest I leave it to you to consider appropriate categories? What would YOU like to see acknowledged?”

        I suggest that for puzzle of the month we vote on Daily and Sunday cryptics together, and for clue of the month we count Jumbos as well. I’m open to suggestions though, and also not sure whether to have a separate category for Mephistos. Suggestions welcome.

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