Posted on behalf of Mitz
2023 in many ways felt like a year of transition for the Guardian crossword, and not just because
towards the end of the year the retirement of Crossword Editor Hugh Stephenson came after a
quarter of a century in post. There were 2 debuts and a new collaboration (just as there were in
2022) but perhaps more significantly there were 5 setters and 1 collaboration that were active in
2022 that were not seen in 2023, and 4 setters who retired completely. 83 of the year’s daily
puzzles were provided by 12 setters with fewer than 50 in total to their names – an unusually high
number. No fewer than 15 of the 28 setters (or collaborations) that were active either equalled or
set new personal frequency records. Here are the individual totals:
Paul – 40 (level)
Picaroon – 37 (down 1)
Vulcan – 26 (level, joint record)
Brendan – 17 (down 3)
Brummie – 17 (down 3)
Tramp – 16 (up 3, new record)
Vlad – 15 (down 1)
Anto – 14 (up 2, new record)
Fed – 14 (up 8, new record)
Pangakupu – 14 (up 9, new record)
Imogen – 13 (up 1, joint record)
Pasquale – 12 (level)
Qaos – 12 (down 7)
Philistine – 10 (down 3)
Jack – 8 (debut)
Carpathian – 7 (up 2, new record)
Brockwell – 6 (debut)
Maskarade – 6 (up 1, joint record)
Boatman – 5 (level)
Matilda – 5 (down 1)
Arachne – 3 (up 3 – her return after being absent since 2019)
Harpo – 3 (level, joint record)
Nutmeg – 3 (down 18)
Soup – 3 (up 2, new record)
Kite – 2 (up 1, new record)
Nutmeg & Arachne – 2 (new collaboration)
Sphinx – 1 (first puzzle since 2017)
No puzzles were seen from Chandler (1 in 2022), Crucible (8 in 2022, now retired), Enigmatist (2 in
2022), Mobo (the collaboration between Harpo and Tramp, 1 in 2022), Pan (1 in 2022) or Puck (1 in
2022, now retired). 2023 was the first year to see no puzzles in the Guardian from Enigmatist since
1979; his various alter egos in other papers have been active so I really hope that we’ll see his return
in 2024. Chandler has been active in the Quiptic slot (see below), but there has been no sign of Pan
at all. I hope that all those who have not been active here in 2023 are well.
Very sadly, we said goodbye to Nutmeg. Her 182 daily puzzles and 80 Quiptics over 17 years, not to
mention the 2 final puzzles completed for publication by Arachne, were a wonderful contribution
and she will be much missed.
Two personal milestones were reached during the course of the year: on January 17th with puzzle
28,969 Boatman reached 100, and a couple of weeks later on February 3rd with puzzle 28,984 Vlad
followed suit. They were the 39th and 40th setters to reach a century of daily puzzles in the Guardian.
The two debuts came within a week of each other: Jack was first with puzzle 29,046 on April 17th ,
quickly followed by Brockwell with puzzle 29,051 on April 22nd .
Two setters are rapidly approaching 300: Brummie will probably get there first as he is only 8 away,
while Picaroon is on schedule to reach the landmark some time in August. They will be the first new
triple-centurions since Chifonie, who got there on March 24th 2019. Meanwhile, Paul is likely to pass
1,100 before the end of 2024. At his current rate of 40 per year it is still going to take him another
6.5 years to overtake Rufus and move into 2nd place on the all-time list…
Apart from Paul, other setters in the upper echelons of the all-time list are Pasquale (13th ), Brummie
(15th ), Picaroon (16th ), Brendan (17th ) and Enigmatist (18th ). Tramp is currently 25th, Qaos 27th and
Philistine 29th . Vulcan is very likely to break into the all-time top 30 during 2024.
Brendan supplied at least one puzzle for each day of the week for the 4th year in a row (and 6th in
total), and Philistine also completed the set for the 2nd time. Philistine’s total for the year of just 10
puzzles is the smallest number to be spread across all 6 days since Crucible did it with a record low 8
puzzles back in 2012.
Paul dominated the Saturday Prize with 16. Other Saturday contributors included Picaroon (11);
Maskarade and Philistine (4 each); Brockwell (3); Boatman, Brendan, Qaos and Tramp (2 each);
Arachne, Brummie, Imogen, Pangakupu, Soup and Vlad (1 each).
Over to the Quiptic: as expected, Hectence, with 9 new puzzles, became the first setter to go past
200 puzzles in the series, and has now reached 202. Pasquale and Bartland also provided 9 each,
Anto and Chandler 8 each and Carpathian 6. There were just 1 each from Matilda and Kite; no
debuts were seen. With Christmas Day falling on a Monday, we were left 1 short for the year.
As for the Genius, Pangakupu followed in the footsteps of Picaroon in 2022 by providing 3 puzzles, in
February, September and November. The other months’ puzzles were set by Karla (January), Qaos
(March), Harpo (April), Pasquale (May), Picaroon (June), Jack (July), Kite (August), Claw (October) and
Eccles (December) – the last two being debuts in the series.
Thanks Mitz. Fascinating.
Thank you Mitz. I very much enjoyed reading about all the setters’ contributions last year.
Much appreciated.
Thank you Mitz, very interesting and much appreciated.
On the subject of record keeping, I wonder if anyone knows if the George Ho dataset is still being maintained. The webpage suggests it was last updated at the end of 2022…
Great work, as always. Thanks Mitz.
Thanks all. Incidentally, I’ve checked the data: there have never been as many as 12 active setters in the Guardian stable with a total number of published puzzles under 50 before. The total number provided by these 12 “new” setters (83) is the 4th highest for any year, behind 139 from 7 in 1971 (which doesn’t really count as it was the first full year of the pseudonym era), 116 from 10 in 2014 and 101 from 7 in 1975.
2014 was the last “transition year” by this method of counting: the 10 were Picaroon, Nutmeg, Tramp, Qaos, Philistine, Crucible, Imogen, Boatman, Maskarade and Otterden – they had all got into their stride by that year without yet reaching a total of 50 since debut.
In contrast, last year there were 11 “new” setters yet to reach 50 in total, but between them they only contributed 46 puzzles.
In 1987 the only active setter with fewer than 50 puzzles to his name was Mercury, who made his debut with a contribution of 8.
However, in 2002 there were 2 from Auster (taking her total to 8), 3 from Fidelio (total 27) and 1 from Egoist (total 5) – just 6 of the 311 puzzles of the year, an all-time low!
Interesting to read this statistical retrospective. Thanks to Mitz.
Thank you so much Mitz , very comprehensive and interesting. Your comment @5 about 2014 rings a bell , for a few years before 2014 there was quite a change taking place and this year is similar. Very disappointed to have no Enigmatist all year , the last of the hard setters, fortunately he sets once a month as IO in the FT. First task for the new editor should be to get Enigmatist back or recruit some harder setters.
Thanks Mitz – I always look forward to your annual Guardian round-up.
I wonder if anyone could produce something similar for other publications? I know I would be interested to see what’s happening in the FT and the Indy. I appreciate it’s no small feat though mind you…
Hi Raider,
Keeping a tally of the current setters in the FT and Indy would not be so hard, but getting an accurate database together for the historical numbers would be a monstrous task, and difficult to achieve. One day I’ll have time to make a start…
Thanks Mitz, I always enjoy reading your round-up and agree that it felt very much like a transition year even before your figures confirmed as much. It is a shame to hear that Crucible and Puck have definitely retired, though this was suspected earlier: I have greatly enjoyed the work of both. But onwards and upwards and I wonder who the movers and shakers of 2024 will be?