It’s known in every newsroom that a paper making almost any mistake is preferable to dealing with the fallout from moving the crossword. You’d rather print a weather forecast of locust rain. A recipe for poisoned cakes. Just so long as the puzzle is in its usual place.
Puzzles do, however, move – not often. Sometimes they even move publication, like when the Listener’s tricky one moved to the Times. What’s about to happen in these parts is not that dramatic but it does mean – we must brace ourselves – that three puzzles will not be appearing in their usual places.
Here are the answers to some anticipated questions as the Observer moves to its new premises.
Where have you put my beloved Azed?
Azeds up to 2,757 will remain in place on this website, accessible from the Azed index. From 2,758 (27 April), Azeds will appear at observer.co.uk. There will be a new postal address for entries, while the PO box for the clue-writing competition will be just the same.
Right … but what about Everyman? And the Speedy, come to that?
The entry-level Everyman puzzle and the noncryptic Speedy will likewise be found at observer.co.uk from numbers 4,097 and 1,542 respectively. Older ones will stay where they are in their archives.
But I like to do a new quick crossword every day, including Sunday. Why didn’t you think about that?
A fair point, and we did. From 27 April, a Guardian quick crossword will appear seven days a week (and our noncryptic Weekend crossword is always there on Saturdays). For aspiring cryptic solvers, we have the weekend quick cryptic, then the Guardian week now begins in earnest on a Sunday with the gentler quiptic. For a more demanding, Azed-style puzzle, we have our monthly Genius and we hope to add some exciting new puzzles after the dust has settled.
I’m still not happy about the time you ran the quick on the same page as the cryptic.
In the 1997 redesign, yes. My predecessor, Hugh Stephenson, remembers households with more than one solver “fighting turf wars over the same section or, worse, tearing it in two”. Everyone learned plenty from that experience, and now the Tortoise and Guardian teams are working together towards a seamless segue. Sorry again about 1997, though. Any other questions?
No, you seem to have covered everything.
Thanks. I’ll check the comments in case anything else comes up.
While I’m here, it’s hard to comprehend that Paul has now been setting for the Guardian for 30 years, an anniversary we will return to here.
And in our cluing conference for SOUNDALIKE, the audacity award goes to GappyTooth’s self-referential “Alan’s hollow kludos that is distributed when one’s won, perhaps”. The runners-up are AmusingJay’s “A thumbs up online after solid cryptic clue”, and Schroduck’s “Type of crossword clue that’s even more decent, as a Geordie might say?”. And the winner is the arty “Impressionist is very French, a surrealist and extremely knowledgable”.
Kludos to Mr_Rob_T and please leave entries for CHANGE below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted.
