It appears that The Observer is planning to enable digital submission to their crossword competitions from 6th July for both Azed and Everyman.
From our contact at The Observer:
I fully understand concerns when traditions change, but I’d like to reassure you (and the other solvers) that this isn’t some hidden data collection effort; it’s a necessary and carefully considered update to an outdated system. I have also discussed this change in detail with [key individuals] before announcing it, and they both assured me that it would be welcomed.
To put things in context, they receive hundreds of entries for these competitions each week, and currently, each submission has to be checked manually. It’s very time-consuming, inefficient, and restricts their ability to grow the audience. Digital entry streamlines that process, as they aim to welcome new generations of solvers.
Important points to note:
- Postal submissions remain fully accepted. Nothing is being taken away.
- The information submitted online (name, email, postal address) is no different from what’s already written on a postcard entry.
- Correctly completed grids can be automatically checked, rather than manually
- The only real difference? They’re saving solvers the cost of a stamp, which, let’s face it, only ever goes up.
- The move isn’t about collecting data; it’s about expanding access and preserving the legacy of these puzzles.
Opening up the option to enter digitally allows them to:
- Maintain fairness and accuracy of judging at scale
- Increase accessibility for newer, younger solvers
- Future-proof the puzzle for both the print and digital age
It also allows those of us from other continents to realistically enter the competition, which means that their submission rates should go way up. Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad.
If the puzzles continue to be as easy as today’s there will be thousands of correct entries (at least!). The online version tells you that it’s all correct, of course.
First of all, it is difficult to differentiate who is ‘kenmac’ and who is ‘The Observer’.
If you take away my Azed, my life will be poorer.
I do not always agree with him but that’s over fifty years now.
The new owners can muck about or *uck about.
Stefan
@3
All wording is from The Observer. I have changed pronouns etc as necessary for readability.
The block quote is a direct quote.
mrpenney @1. Do you have to a) subscribe to the Observer, and b) be a UK resident, to enter their competitions, as you do to be eligible for the Guardian Prize?
currently, each submission has to be checked manually. It’s very time-consuming, inefficient
Another example of human workers being slower than electronic checkers/checking. Someone will be out of a job at the Observer…
I suppose it is only a matter of time before crossword setters are no longer required because AI will create the puzzles instead of humans and be more efficient.
michelle@6. What a sad, sad thought. Maybe pre AI, but there have been computer-generated crosswords (and solutions) for some time.
> each submission has to be checked manually
If that’s really what they’re doing, it’s a ridiculously inefficient method. The process should be:
1. Pick an entry at random
2. Check that it’s correct
3. Repeat steps 1-2 until enough winners have been found
paddymelon@6 – I was not aware that there are already computer-generated crosswords (and solutions) – I am so out of date!
I agree with Andrew@8 – that seems like a much better method for the written entries. For the digital entries they could use an online randomiser app for entries to be considered in a certain order? I have done that in the past for contests that were organised online.
Just before I came here, I see that another group of humans have lost out to technology – there will be no more line judges at Wimbledon. From now on they will only use electronic line calling.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/jun/27/what-to-watch-out-for-at-wimbledon-2025-no-line-judges-and-more-expensive-strawberries-tennis
Biggest advantages of this are saving cost of stamp (very high today) and making it much easier for people outside the UK in view of deadlines.
Decent of them to continue accepting paper entries while urging people to change. Would have thought entries would only have to be checked till the full number of prize winners was found, with a random selection from all entries received having been carried out first. New systam might be useful though in gathering data – how many entries there were and what proportion got it right, giving guide to defficulty of the puzzle.
Azed competition entires generally include a clue written by the submitter of the entry. By necessity these will continue to have to be checked manually.
Andrew @ 8—brilliant! The Observer needs an Efficiency Manager. I am too old but you will do.
I don’t know where mrpenney lives but I am 13,000 miles away. I get Azed while most British people are asleep and I usually (but not always) solve it before they wake up.
I don’t know what I’d do with a £25.00 book token—post it back to my sister in England?
Which means I could have two addresses. Hmmm. Does anyone know what ‘accuracy of judging at scale’ means?
Is it something to do with weighing your sheet of paper?
I’m going to be very interested in how this develops. I suspect we’ll find out that Azed is flying like Mercury more than he ever expected. Thousands of solvers?
Stefan
If people around the world who only see the Observer crossword online can now enter the competition, then that will significantly cut the chances of those of us here who buy the paper and (very occasionally!) send the completed puzzle in – since the number of entries will now increase. Personally I’d have thought it fairer to limit the prize to buyers of the paper itself…
NB – you can currently enter by fax as well as post.
Actually, I find the whole idea of trying to do a crossword puzzle online rather weird. It seems to me to be a rather different beast. I gather from what’s said on this site that you can tell whether something you’re put in is right or not. But surely half the fun of a crossword is not necessarily knowing you’re right until you’ve worked out the intersecting clues? To my way of thinking, being told you’ve got something right before you’ve finished the whole thing (or seen the solution the next week) is almost like cheating. And it also seems to elevate the end result over the process, when it’s the latter which makes a crossword fun.
Be very interested to see if online submission is also enabled for the monthly Azed clue-writing competition… that would require an additional field for entrants to populate, and which would need to be switched on and off accordingly. What could possibly go wrong?
Just as an aside, the Crossword Centre (UK) has since April this year required e-entry for its monthly prize crossword. That’s usually a barred themed puzzle often with highlighting as part of the final endgame. It’s worked well so far (thanks to Adam Vellender), with no personal data collection involved that I can see which must disappoint the conspiracy theorists. 😉
I can’t understand the negativity here! I’ve been doing Everyman for 50 years, but haven’t submitted for at least the last 25 because finding an envelope, stamp and postbox became such a faff. This can only be a good thing, and should have been done years ago.
I really don’t see the point of offering prizes, it seems out of step with today’s global media
On a roughly related point, anyone know what to do when you’ve won the Everyman book voucher but it hasn’t shown up after two months?
As I have said, many times before, Azed has always been a worldwide institution. He might not quite like being an ‘institution’.
I used to live in Leicester and Leeds. My first part of Sunday was a visit to the newsagent, usually very early. I always started solving on the toilet when I got home.
It happens that I migrated half way round the world. Many people did. Some not by choice. If I did not have my Azed, I might feel like some of them.
If I happen to win £25.00, I’ll probably post it back to Leicester City Library, which gave me my introduction to books and reading and words.
Stefan
I see some functionality changes on the Observer site today. Archives include all my previous completed grids (and times, not that I care much about those) and there is a email submission option on both Everyman and Azed.
Not even 9pm in the UK and the pdfs for tomorrow’s Everyman and Azed are already available (just change the date in the url from the previous week).
I’ll save them for tomorrow though.
All roads in to Everyman today asked for a name and an email address. Perhaps this is in preparation for online submission of puzzles?
Is it just me having issues with the Azed and Everyman online?
The new format asks for name and e-mail address, then takes you to last week’s puzzles! And you can’t get the PDF anymore. What a cock-up
Skinny@23. Take a breath. I had the same experience and thought it must have now been behind a paywall. But after a couple of attempts, I just put in my email address, and something that looked like a name, and it was accepted. The PDFs are there.
Meanwhile am currently working on today’s Everyman. It’s all doable, at this stage.
No problems for me and the only time I was asked for an email was on submission of the completed Everyman puzzle.
If you are having problems try these links for the pdf copies…
https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.AZED.20250706.pdf
and
https://cdn.observer.co.uk/media/documents/obs.everyman.20250706.pdf
Jay@25. This is the first time that cdn etc has come up. What does it mean? Is this secret squirrel stuff?
One thing I noticed with today’s pdf for Azed is that the closing date for online entries is Monday week following publication (postal entries have to be postmarked no later than Saturday following publication). If this is the case, the appearance of the Azed blog on here may need to be adjusted to appear on a Tuesday rather than Sunday.
I’ve just looked at the Azed today and I don’t see how we can submit our clues online. Can anyone explain?
It seems to me that the ink-saving print version isn’t available at the moment.
It just downloads an ordinary pdf.
Is this to be permanent?
Come on everyone, give them a chance. I think they’ve been forced into a situation where they’re testing in a live environment. Constructive feedback will be welcomed but keep your criticisms to yourself
Marmite Smuggler @19 – given recent controversies, some might say institutionalised would be the appropriate term…
Admin @30 – a lot of people just don’t appreciate the complexities involved in making crosswords work online (what I know on the subject is second-hand from Raider who created mycrossword.co.uk – it has taken a hell of a lot of work for him to make his site so slick), especially with the added layer of accepting online submissions. Even those that have been available to solve online for a long time still have regular technical problems. And it’s still not possible to submit entries to the Guardian Prize online, so the new Observer owners have already gone one better than their predecessors!
Still can’t see any way of uploading my clue + explanation for the Azed competition. Do please let me know if you’ve worked this out. I’m abroad this week without easy access to a printer, so if it works this update will be a godsend for me
Instructions in the newspaper for both Azed and Everyman say that entrants must be 18+. Why? I don’t suppose many teenagers want to enter but should they be forbidden? Might I be asked for proof of age?
Herb@32, no I don’t see that option either. Maybe if we give it a day or two they will add that functionality. More time to think about the clue!
paddymelon @26 – cdn means content delivery/distribution network and is a way of delivering information to end users using servers nearer to those people accessing the site.
Yes Widdersbel@31, I do appreciate the complexities involved in making crosswords work online, including submission. I’ve written a shed load of code in the past and I’m very impressed with Adam Vellender’s e-submission software for the Crossword Centre which shows what can be done.
Admin @30, I hope my post @27 wasn’t seen as a criticism of the new owners attempts at bringing the submission process up to date. I was just warning that this site may need to change its blog schedule.
Etu@29: I’ve noticed the same over the past 2 or 3 weeks. The upshot is that the printed version uses such tiny print as to be virtually unreadable to me (I’m 76), largely I think because it seems to be designed to look like the newspaper version, including sacrificing a lot of space to fit in last week’s solution, which I for one could well do without. This is decidedly a change for the worse.
As to the online submissions: about time I say, and more power to them. The Guardian Prize should do the same.
So far as I can see what we haven’t been told is how the clues in the clue-setting competition will be given to Azed. Will he receive a whole lot of anonymised clues, as (at any rate used to be) with the Crossword Centre clue-setting competition, or will he receive each clue together with the name of the person setting it?
Has anyone found The Observer Everyman for today (Everyman 4107)
@39 Palustris
No, it is taking us to last week’s
Thought I was having deja vu till I realised
Functionality for Azed clue submission with explanation is now available and will appear when you submit the completed grid.
Palustris@39: works for me. Maybe refresh the page and/or clear cookies.
This week’s Everyman 4107 is at http://www.observer.co.uk/topics/everyman, with all the Observer puzzles at http://www.observer.co.uk/crossword
Don’t know if this has been mentioned anywhere else but I’ve just seen this announcement from Derek Harrison on social media:
“After 53 years of setting weekly crosswords, Azed is to share the load. He will continue to set the puzzles on the first Sunday of the month and judge the clues. On the other weeks the setter will be Gemelo, Colin Thomas aka Twin.”
Wil@38 this quote from Doctor Clue of the ClueClinic answers your question on the judging of clues…
“…once the grids have been checked and those with errors disqualified, the clues submitted by the remaining solvers will be anonymized and sent to Azed for his consideration. Once the judging is complete, the clues will be reunited with the names of their authors in order that the results can be published”.
Poc, 37
Yes, I’ve found that the pdf file for printing has very small writing too.
However, when you hit “print”, you’ll probably get the printer’s dialogue box where you can change the scale percentage. I found that 130% gives a reasonably readable print with today’s, although depending on the clue layout other puzzles might not fit on a single A4 sheet.
I hope that this is some use.
Online submissions for Everyman (and by mail) :
https://observer.co.uk/puzzles/everyman/article/everyman-ts-and-cs
Jay @41
I’m still not seeing anywhere to submit a clue online for Azed. My printer retains its sole occupation.