Happy Birthday & Farewell, Roy Dean

Author   petebiddlecombePosted on Categories Announcement
Roy Dean, first Times Crossword Champion and current setter, is 83 today – the day when his last puzzle is printed in the Times. I believe the printed version has a note to tell you, though there’s nothing visible on the club site yet. (Written before looking at the puzzle)

6 comments on “Happy Birthday & Farewell, Roy Dean”

  2. Yes, there is a note in the “jotter box”.

    Happy birthday and retirement Mr Dean, on your SWANSONG. ADIEU!

    JamesM

  3. I first came across Roy’s name reading Bill Bryson’s hugely enjoyable “Mother Tongue” in 1990. One chapter opens:

    Six days a week an englishman named Roy Dean sits down and does in a matter of minutes something that many of us cannot do at all: He completes the crossword puzzle in the London Times. Dean is the, well, the dean of the British crossword. In 1970, under test conditions, he solved a Times crossword in just 3 minutes and 45 seconds, a feat so phenomenal that it has stood unchallenged for twenty years.

    Bryson sometimes chooses not to let the facts stand in the way of a good story, so I’m not certain of the accuracy of the statistic. But given how tough most of us found the reprinted puzzles from that era, it would indeed be pretty impressive. Roy must be the world’s second most famous crossword solver (after Inspector Morse, obviously).

    1. 3:45 is the right time – Roy recorded this against the watch on a radio programme in the early 70s. He wasn’t confident as it was a Saturday puzzle, and those were usually difficult. But some editorial/printing mix-up meant that the Monday puzzle (then always easy) appeared that day by mistake. I’m sure Roy would cheerfully admit that 10-time Times champ John Sykes was more celebrated as a solver. Most top solvers have beaten 3:45 once or twice, but not in the presence of a witness.
  4. Many thanks and congratulations to Roy Dean. Best wishes for a long, happy and healthy retirement.
  5. If Roy Dean hadn’t been abroad on diplomatic duty so often during the 1970s and 1980s, then John Sykes might have had a tougher time of it in The Times Crossword Championship!

    I’ve sometimes suspected that a puzzle with a number of references that are easy for (comparative) oldies like me might be one of his, so I’m pleased to see that I guessed right with No. 24,464 (TRENT’S LAST CASE, DOWDING and SWANSONG all presenting no problem).

    I wish him a long and happy (second) retirement.

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