No prize crossword today but a Farewell to Dante.
Surely a sad day for many crossword lovers.
Today, the crossword editor of the FT wrote:
The first Financial Times crossword to be set by Dante, Roger Squires, was published on May 27 1982.
Since then he has compiled a further 1,401 cryptic puzzles for the paper as well as providing crosswords for many other UK newspapers and appearing in 600 publications worldwide.
He was accepted in the 1970s as the world’s most prolific compiler.
Now 85 years old, Roger Squires has decided to retire from crossword compiling.
This is, regrettably, his final FT puzzle.
Some weeks ago, someone told me this might be imminent but then I forgot about it.
And so it took me by surprise and I’m sure that many fellow solvers will feel the same.
I won’t get sentimental – sometimes people have to make decisions in their lives, for a good reason – but FT Mondays will not be the same anymore.
Roger, thank you for all the fun you’ve given us through the years, here in the FT and at other places (as Rufus, in particular)!
We sometimes ‘hated’ your cryptic definitions but one thing’s for sure: they will be sorely missed from now on, no-one writes them like you do.
Take care.
Definitions are underlined wherever possible and/or appropriate.
| Across | ||
| 1 | ADAGIO | Scored slowly (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 4 | AIRPORTS | Display wines duty-free here? (8) |
| AIR (display+ PORTS (wines) | ||
| 9 | VAINLY | How one acts proudly but ineffectually (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 10 | INTERVAL | Space travel in strange contrivance (8) |
| (TRAVEL IN)* [* = strange contrivance] | ||
| 12 | SLIPWAYS | Basic requirements for ship-launchings (8) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 13 | ASYLUM | A youth initially in hovel finds refuge (6) |
| A + {Y[outh] inside SLUM (hovel)} | ||
| 15 | RAIL | Track a bird (4) |
| Double definition | ||
| 16 | CONVENTION | Gathering custom (10) |
| Double definition | ||
| 19 | BYSTANDERS | Brandy’s set out for spectators (10) |
| (BRANDY’S SET)* [* = out] | ||
| 20 | PLEA | Request a slice of apple a day (4) |
| Hidden answer [a slice of]: apple a day | ||
| 23 | EXITED | Left in play (6) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 25 | ACREAGES | Measures of port take a very long time (8) |
| ACRE (port, in Israel) + AGES (a very long time) | ||
| 27 | INFRINGE | Break popular with those on edge (8) |
| IN (popular) + FRINGE (those on the edge) | ||
| 28 | BIG BEN | It gives time to see large mountain (3,3) |
| BIG (large) + BEN (mountain) | ||
| 29 | HERITAGE | Get heir a settlement he expects (8) |
| (GET HEIR A)* [* = settlement] Dante added ‘he expects’ to make the clue as a whole the definition, I guess. |
||
| 30 | SEVERE | Strict clergyman has a setback in the diocese (6) |
| Reversal [has a setback] of REV (clergyman) inside SEE (diocese) | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | ADVISER | He recommends Verdi as a change (7) |
| (VERDI AS)* [* = change] I think ‘a’ is out of place here. |
||
| 2 | ABILITIES | We can do with them (9) |
| Cryptic definition (and my LOI) | ||
| 3 | IN-LAWS | Marital relations (2-4) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 5 | IONS | They are naturally charged for half portions (4) |
| [port]IONS | ||
| 6 | PRESSING | Urgent job for a laundress (8) |
| Double definition | ||
| 7 | REVEL | Have fun setting up a purchase (5) |
| Reversal [setting up] of LEVER (a purchase) | ||
| 8 | SOLOMON | Scottish man going it alone; was he wise? (7) |
| I’ve read somewhere that, in Scotland, MON is a vocative term for a ‘man’ and when he’s going SOLO (going it alone), well, you can call him a SOLO MON | ||
| 11 | BYWORDS | How one verbally passes on proverbs? (7) |
| Proverbs will be passed on BY WORDS | ||
| 14 | AVARICE | Caviare might produce such greed (7) |
| (CAVIARE)* [* = might produce] | ||
| 17 | ILLEGIBLE | Unwell, say, with bile disorder? Hard to make out (9) |
| ILL (unwell) + EG (say) + (BILE)* [* = disorder] | ||
| 18 | FACE-LIFT | Brave pirate’s superficial improvement (4-4) |
| FACE (brave, as a verb) + LIFT (pirate, also as a verb) | ||
| 19 | BLEMISH | Some terrible mishap results in a scar (7) |
| Hidden answer [some]: terrible mishap | ||
| 21 | ABSENCE | The attendant’s not responsible for it (7) |
| Cryptic definition | ||
| 22 | RETIRE | Give up work and go to bed (6) |
| Double definition | ||
| 24 | INFER | “Not out” the umpire is upset to conclude (5) |
| IN (not out) + reversal [upset] of REF (umpire) | ||
| 26 | AGOG | Eager for silver turn-over (4) |
| AG (silver, chemical symbol) + reversal [over] of GO (turn) | ||
*anagram
All those comments on Rufus and nobody giving any attention to Dante! I didn’t actually do this puzzle but the last Dante is surely just as significant.
Thanks to Sil and Dante
Thanks Sil and Dante.
It has all been said on the Guardian site but it is indeed the end of an era.
Mr Squires was responsible for gently leading many into the arcane world of cryptic crosswords with his clever but gettable clues.
A well-deserved retirement awaits,
Crossword world won’t be the same without Rufus/Dante. Nice farewell puzzle in the telegraph today and the guardian posted their first ever Rufus.
22d is appropriate, I hope Rufus is also eager (26d) to have some fun (7d). All these years of Rufus puzzles.. Wishing Rufus a very happy retirement.
Certainly the end of an era. Many thanks to Dante in all his guises. It was a great pleasure finally to meet him at S&B gatherings. Variety of solving difficulty is a feature of every daily paper, I’d say, and most solvers would start with the easier ones, which Dante majored on. As remarked, he’s written more clues than anyone else but the decisions to publish are not his but those of his editors over the years who will sense what is popular. Have a very happy retirement!
Thanks for so much pleasure over the years Roger. I was certainly solving puzzles in 1982, but can’t remember if I did your first. You will be an extremely hard act to follow. Have a happy and well deserved retirement.
Thanks Dante and Sil
One of those moments in time when one pauses and acknowledges the end of something special. Like many, this man’s crosswords turned me from Australian puzzles to those published in the FT. Back in the early 1990’s, I spotted these funny coloured papers at my work in a bank – usually 3-4 days after they had been published. I used to read many of the articles in them and over time started to make a copy of the crossword to do on the train home. Often it was only the Dante one that I could regularly get out and so began my journey into doing the daily FT crossword !
This one I found just as pleasurable as I did back then and as I’ve been accustomed to on every second Monday in recent times. I actually started down in the SE corner and was able to work my way back up to the top using alternate across and down clues – just as something different. ABILITIES was also my last in and the only one done out of order ! Loved it !!!
Thank you, Dante, for many years of pleasure and may you enjoy the many spare hours that must come back into your day henceforth !!! I’ll miss your name in the banner !!
Bruce’s valediction says it all.
All best to Roger — one of my very earliest
Editors to publish one of my crosswords ( in the
Birmingham Post).
Have a happy and long retirement
Tom (aka Gozo/Maskarade/Doc)