Actually, it’s your bonus for fifteen from University Challenge broadcast on Monday September 29th 2025:
Moratorium over. Please feel free to discuss
Question 1
Edward Powys Mathers, author of the puzzle book Cain’s Jawbone and the first person to publish crosswords compiled exclusively of cryptic clues, used the name of which Dominican friar and leader of the first Spanish Inquisition as his pseudonym?
Answer
Torquemada
Question 2
Derrick Somerset Macnutt, known as a cryptic setter by the pseudonym Ximenes, served as Torquemada’s successor at which weekly newspaper whose crosswords are today set by Ximenes’ immediate successor, Azed?
Answer
Observer
Question 3
Accompanied by an article in which he praises Ximenes, who published the first-ever cryptic crossword written by an American in a 1968 issue of New York Magazine? His musical Company would receive its Broadway premiere two years later.
Answer
Stephen Sondheim
Does anyone other than Amol Rajan pronounce Azed as AS-ED (ie with short A)?
I’ve always pronounced it like the two letters AZ.
Are the spelling errors deliberate?
Absolutely not. I copied them from the Sky Q subtitles and entered them manually. Please let me know by emailing admin.
OK, I just noticed that they spelt Ximenes wrongly. I thought it looked odd as I typed it.
kenmac@2: ditto, as did Morse in the TV series.
This was the first time I have heard X pronounced as a proper Spanish name. Everyone else I know (except me sometimes) has it as
ZIM-KNEES
That was it kenmac @5 š
Goujeers, I’ve always thought it was a long A (especially given his book title), but I guess the rationale for a short A comes from the fact that Azed was chosen as the reversal of Deza (Diego De), another Spanish Inquisitor.
Go to 27:20 to hear Azed himself say it! https://vimeo.com/297517318
That’s a great link Twmbarlwm. Great to see some of the famous names live. š
Many thanks, Twmbarlwm!
Thanks a lot, Twmbarlwm. The video on ‘How To Solve A Cryptic Crossword’ was well worth an hour of my time. I’ll be passing the link on to some of my crossword friends.
An interesting factoid apropos Question 3: while collaborating with Leonard Bernstein on West Side Story (1955-6), Sondheim introduced the maestro to British-style cryptics. Here’s the lyricist in a 2004 interview:
“The Listener was published Wednesday and would reach the U.S. on Thursday. Iād grab a copy on my way to work, and I got Bernstein hooked. Thursday afternoons no work got done on West Side Story. We were doing the puzzle.ā
If I recall correctly it was Phi who once greeted Stephen Sondheim by shouting “HEDONISM!” in the middle of a hotel lobby(?).
That may very well be true Charlie@13, if Phi’s Independent 1159 is anything to go by (see 28A).