Puzzle solvers’ unique way of thinking was utilised as a recruiting tool for Bletchley Park. The true enigmas, though, are the people who come up with them in the first place
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The world of crossword setters is not enormous. A solver who had completed a puzzle which turned out to have been a recruiting tool for Bletchley Park recalled:
I was told, though not so primitively, that chaps with twisted brains like mine might be suitable for a particular type of work as a contribution to the war effort.
These recruits where chosen after completing a crossword competition in under 12 minutes at the Telegraph offices in Fleet Street – a sure sign, it was thought, that they’d fare well breaking German codes. As it is with the twistedness of solvers’ minds, so it is even more for setters. This is why your favourite Guardian setters can also be found writing for other publications: there are only so many twisted minds.
One place you can find Carpathian, Enigmatist, Dice, Paul, Soup and doubtless others is the 3D Crossword Calendar for 2027. As if the idea of crosswords in three dimensions was not already compelling enough, they are in aid of charity, as the brainchild of a man who is registered blind and uses the calendar to raise funds for the RNIB Pears Centre in Coventry and Children in Need. (By the way, the links on the setter names above lead you to profiles, in case you ever wanted to get to know these people better.)
Those are puzzles of the future; I’ve also been enjoying a puzzle of the past. The New York Times is celebrating 175 years (a birthday the Guardian reached nine prime ministers ago, but who’s counting?), including a look at its first puzzle.
I was tickled to read that even though the newspaper succumbed to the crossword craze because Pearl Harbor suggested that readers might welcome a playful diversion from the news, the puzzle was initially tasked with being more topical than you might expect:
Take UMBRELLA at 77-Down. Today, crossword editors love to focus on a lively angle, such as the 2013 clue [Sidewalk cafe sight] or the trickier [Kind of insurance policy], first used in 1999. A 2007 acrostic puzzle even used [Prop for a filmed dance by Gene Kelly]. But in the first Times crossword, the clue is [Symbol of appeasement], possibly a nod to the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s famous rolled umbrella, carried during negotiations for the 1938 Munich Agreement. Talk about a deep cut.
Well done to all solvers who managed to unravel October’s Genius. As the solution grid for this stiff challenge from Enigmatist shows, there were a lot of Borises – some good Borises and some other Borises – hiding in the completed grid and the remaining entry was in fact BORISES itself, even if “Boris” and “remain” are words you don’t necessarily expect to encounter in the same sentence. Congratulations to winner Roslyn Shapland. November’s Genius awaits you.
Clue of the week
My favourite clue from elsewhere recently was from the Independent’s Tyrus, known in this parish as Vlad:
14d Overlapping signs for places of learning (9) [ wordplay: two star signs which share a common letter ] [ LIBRA + ARIES, but sharing their A ] [ definition: places of learning ]
I do hope the newspaper finds a way to maintain its excellent and lively cryptics.
Readers’ cluing contest
The runners-up are David Des Jardines’ sadly topical “Little green man backs trolley up against McKellen”, which we have removed a “Sir” from per house style and Tony Kelly’s striking “Swallow, gulping a little green man?”.
The winner is Paul Firth’s intricate
Matt Damon gutted to receive partial cut at beginning and end of his film role?
This week, the word we’d like you to come up with a clue for is UMBRELLA. Please send entries to cluesletter@theguardian.com.
