Another new blog – Crosaire

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Announcement
Hot on the heels of the new Telegraph blog, I’ve just discovered a daily blog about the Crosaire puzzle in the Irish Times. If you’ve never tried Crosaire, the first thing to know is that he’s been setting puzzles in the Irish Times since about 1943 – no typo there, nineteen-forty-three. As you might guess, his puzzles use some of the tricks you might have seen in the Times puzzle in 1943, like an indication of “two E’s” as the only wordplay for the word INDEED. But although his puzzles would wear out most modern-day xwd editors’ red pens in minutes, he has charm and wit, and the puzzles I’ve tried are generally solvable once you understand his rules.

The blog is at http://www.crosaire.paxient.com/
Current Crosaire puzzles are online for free at http://www.irishtimes.com/games/crosswords/

6 comments on “Another new blog – Crosaire”

  1. Thanks for the plug, Pete. I appreciate it, and the nice words for Mr. Derek Crozier, the man behind the puzzle since 1943. Many of us from the other side of the Irish Sea grew up with the Crosaire crossword, so even though it is a little old-fashioned, it’s a labour of love!

    Just in case, a little tidbit … “crosaire” is the Irish for “crossword”, and pronounced cruss-arra.

    Bill

    http://www.crosaire.paxient.com
    bill@paxient.com

      1. My 88 year-old aunt does this puzzle every day, and I remember wrestling with it years ago. 69 years must be some sort of record!
  2. Another interesting point about Derek Crozier, the compiler of the Crosaire puzzle, is that he doesn’t even live in Ireland. He is a native Dubliner, living in Zimbabwe since the late 1940s. He farmed tobacco, and was then an English teacher. He is now long retired, and the ripe young age of 92 this year.

    Truly, a crossword institution.

  3. Good to have this feedback for my Friday and Giovanni Toughie puzzles. Does anyone know how puzzles on CluedUp are solved in under 3 minutes regularly? Is someone solving them in print and giving them to a fast typist to reenter on line — or are there Vogons out there? DFM

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