Tony Sever – RIP
I heard today that Tony Sever died last Friday. Tony was an erstwhile occasional contributor to Fifteensquared and ran his own crossword related website at https://tony-sever.livejournal.com.
He was, in his heyday, a tough opponent in the Times solving Championships.
Very sad news. I’d the pleasure of talking to him at S&Bs in London. A very successful solver who always gave a valuable, fair, view.. Condolences to his family and friends
I never met him but I remember him contributing regularly to the original “Times for the Times” blog. He had super quick solving times.
Sad news indeed and best wishes to his family.
Great guy and source of wisdom on many a crosswording topic.
RIP
Nice guy. Remember talking to him after several Times competitions and about the new Times site.
Nick@2 – Indeed. He often appeared in TftT and his solving times were astonishing – stratospherically quick. I will never forget his name for that reason. An iconic solver…..
Requiescat in pace
Oh, this is sad news. I remember meeting him on occasion at The George and always found him charming. My condolences to his family.
Sad news indeed. Tony won the Times championship in 1981, and when I looked at the Times online archive last week, I found him mentioned as placing fourth in the 1976 final, and also fourth in a 1973 London regional final. (His first final appearance may well have been before 1976 (only about the first six were mentioned in reports on finals), though it may not have been in 1973, when I think the final was still restricted to about 8 people rather than 20-24. I think he must have been in the final at least 30 times, and the results for my first attempt, back in 1989, show Tony qualifying from the same regional in 3rd place, with three people who now edit some kind of crossword for the Times or Sunday Times finishing in the 20s-30s behind him.
He was almost certainly one of the chorus of “older generation” solvers who once recited, in chorus, the first verse of Faithless Nelly Gray when I expressed puzzlement at a championship about “Ben” indicating “Battle” or vice versa, and able to remind people how things used to be if they moaned about tough literary refs.
When I spoke to Tony at the 2019 Championships, he was really looking forward to the 2020 event, as he’d taken part in every Championship held since they started in 1970. Sadly the pandemic put paid to any celebrations.
A lovely man and a crosswording legend
Always a welcoming face – a sad loss. Someone may wish to track down SPLIT PERSONALITY by DUCK
He famously told me at a final that (8,3,4) immediately suggested HEREWARD THE WAKE
I like that story, Don. I had to Google Hereward the Wake. Crazy name, crazy guy!
Sad loss- he used to solve some puzzles in four minutes or so. RIP
A brilliant solver and a courteous man. RIP.
My memory of Tony goes back to 1967 and a company known as ICT (International Computers and Tabulators!). I was a Trainee Programmer and Tony an ‘old hand’ with a year or two’s experience. So I learnt from him.
He was solving the Times crossword even then. And I think he sang in one of the leading London choirs.
Tony used to work for me, in 1975/76, designing and developing one of the first SQL databases: he was an extremely good an conscientious programmer. I used to drive him to work each day and I remember it was often a struggle finding things to discuss on our 45 minute journey as he seemed to have researched many things each weekend at our local Ealing library (as part of his crossword pursuit) :-
RIP Tony!!!