Season’s greetings to all from the IQ solving team, and many thanks to all setters for another splendid year of puzzles: I hope that you all enjoyed them as much as we did.
A Trivial Pursuit – V
As an indicator of the changing balance of themes, here’s the usual breakdown in the (approximate) style of Triv categories, last year’s count in brackets:
- History & Geography 10 (7)
- Film & TV 6 (7)
- Sport & Leisure 4 (5)
- Music & the Arts 3 (9)
- Science & Nature 4 (7)
- Literature 11 (9)
- Lifestyle 8 (8)
- Logic 5 (1)
Even with overlapping categories and the subjective nature of my sorting (Serpent’s Fibonacci clock went into Science and Phi’s different-symmetries Carte Blanche went into Logic, for example) the distribution was not as even as last year; and within some of the ‘&’ categories the division was skewed – particularly in the first, Geography heavily outweighing History this year.
One of the great pleasures of puzzles in this series is their educational value. As ever, the puzzles taught us a lot. The distortions in the gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte, say, and Hempel’s Paradox; the Swedenborg Cross and the (un)weaving of Laertes’ Shroud; the Fibonacci clock and the workings of the James Webb Telescope. And who knew that 1800 was an Exceptional Common Year?
Requiescat in pace
Gosh, it’s been another year of big losses. The crossword community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Geoff Moss (this site), Dave Morton (the eponymous founder of the Big Dave site) and Tony Sever (valued contributor to Times for the Times) for their work in getting would-be solvers started on the cryptic trail and (especially Dave) promoting the work of would-be setters, many of whom are now well-known names in the national press. The puzzles of one such compiler, Mike Holmans (Alchemi, Chalmie and Hemical), were a regular feature on that site. I was shocked to learn of the death of another, my good friend Roger Squires (Rufus, Dante etc), while solving a Guardian puzzle set in his honour. Most relevantly here, we also lost Margaret Irvine (Nutmeg), one of our four female setters. While I search for a candidate to step into the void – or persuade Arachne to set at least her second puzzle for the series – I’ll be putting Ladies’ Month on hold in 2024. And last but certainly not least, Liz Geear, Inquisitor’s biggest fan and one of the earliest recruits to the Saturday solving club, died in November. A fond farewell to them all.
Give Me a Clue
Clearly for the continuity of my weekly mini-column, I rely on the cluepersonship of the setters in our national press, but also on the input of a relatively small group of regular correspondents, whose amusing crossword-related anecdotes and clues which they may have spotted in outlets further afield. Please do join the group if you see a clue or crossword-related story worthy of publication.
Statistically …
Up one on last year, I count thirty-four different setter names this year, including five collaborating teams (Dash, Eclogue, eXtent, IN and PINK) and six new individuals (Arcadia, Elpenor, Inkling, Kirsanov and Soup – all in a month of debutants – and, later, a date-specific Methuselah). A few notable names missing from the 2023 list are – don’t worry – in the 2024 schedule.
Voting’s Open
I invite you all to register your favourite puzzles of 2023. As usual, a handy list (and bracketed memory jogs) follows, with the team’s average difficulty ratings appended as asterisks in each bunch of five. Of course, each puzzle has a full blog on Fifteen Squared.
| 2022 PUZZLES | |||
| 24/12/22 | 1783 | Retrospective (James Webb Telescope) | Ploy** |
| 31/12/22 | 1784 | Profile (Leaning Tower of Pisa) | Eclogue** |
| 2023 PUZZLES | |||
| 07/01/23 | 1785 | A Face To Be Reckoned With (Fibonacci) | Serpent** |
| 14/01/23 | 1786 | Seen From a Window (Grace Darling) | Hedge-sparrow** |
| 21/01/23 | 1787 | Moggie (Morris Minor) | Chalicea* |
| 28/01/23 | 1788 | Power Discharge (Greatest try) | IN** |
| 04/02/23 | 1789 | Capsized (4-letter capitals) | Artix** |
| 11/02/23 | 1790 | Great Parliamentarians (Super Bowl) | Cranberry*** |
| 18/02/23 | 1791 | Seesaw (Multum in parvo) | Kruger** |
| 25/02/23 | 1792 | Trios (3 Musketeers) | eXternal** |
| 04/03/23 | 1793 | Green Light (Partial Eclipse) | Check*** |
| 11/03/23 | 1794 | Snack Time (Scooby Doo) | Phi* |
| 18/03/23 | 1795 | Come Into Force (USS Enterprise) | Apt** |
| 25/03/23 | 1796 | Rock Group (The Nine Tailors) | Ifor** |
| 01/04/23 | 1797 | Commutability (12+1 = 11+2) | Eclogue** |
| 08/04/23 | 1798 | A Change of Pace (No silly endgame) | Gila*** |
| 15/04/23 | 1799 | Eyes Down (Bingo calls) | The Ace of Hearts** |
| 22/04/23 | 1800 | 1800 (Exceptional Common Year) | PINK* |
| 29/04/23 | 1801 | Good Spelling Essential (Triwizard) | Kruger** |
| 06/05/23 | 1802 | Not Bad (De mortuis …) | Dash** |
| 13/05/23 | 1803 | Intersection (Venn Diagram) | Vismut*** |
| 20/05/23 | 1804 | Get Into One’s Stride (Fats Waller) | Skylark** |
| 27/05/23 | 1805 | Goal (Everest) | Chalicea* |
| 03/06/23 | 1806 | Clash! (Flash Gordon) | eXtent** |
| 10/06/23 | 1807 | See for Yourself (“Rhyming slang”) | Nathan Panning** |
| 17/06/23 | 1808 | Are You Sure? (Hempel’s Paradox) | Jaques** |
| 24/06/23 | 1809 | Carte Blanche à Trois (varying symmetries) | Phi** |
| 01/07/23 | 1810 | Freedom of the Press (To His Mistress) | Ifor** |
| 08/07/23 | 1811 | Headingley 2019 (Ashes Test) | Eclogue** |
| 15/07/23 | 1812 | Impression (Soleil Levant) | Inkling* |
| 22/07/23 | 1813 | Cross World Squares (Norse myth) | Arcadia*** |
| 29/07/23 | 1814 | Tailors (Third Commission) | Kirsanov** |
| 05/08/23 | 1815 | Watch Your Step (Vaux-le-Vicomte) | Elpenor** |
| 12/08/23 | 1816 | Gridlocked (Congested cities) | Soup** |
| 19/08/23 | 1817 | 7 Across (Renamed countries) | Shark* |
| 26/08/23 | 1818 | A 60s Trial (Just A Minute) | Kruger** |
| 02/09/23 | 1819 | Mirror Image V (Swedenborg Cross) | Serpent*** |
| 09/09/23 | 1820 | Wallace Collection (i.e. Wallace Stevens) | Ifor** |
| 16/09/23 | 1821 | Duck (Circular firing squad) | Charybdis* |
| 23/09/23 | 1822 | Filling Cells (Prisons) | Phi*** |
| 30/09/23 | 1823 | Open Minds (Iconoclasts) | Cranberry** |
| 07/10/23 | 1824 | Flight Plan (The Great Escape) | eXternal** |
| 14/10/23 | 1825 | United (“The Frog Chorus”) | Eclogue** |
| 21/10/23 | 1826 | Forgery (Missing Link Hoax) | Radler** |
| 28/10/23 | 1827 | Sixty Happy Years (Pru & Me) | Nimrod** |
| 04/11/23 | 1828 | Night Follows Day (Laertes’ Shroud) | Karla** |
| 11/11/23 | 1829 | A Journey From Lindisfarne (DCI Ryan) | Kruger** |
| 18/11/23 | 1830 | Arable Land (Lee Israel) | eXtent** |
| 25/11/23 | 1831 | Shipshape (TARDIS) | Methuselah** |
| 02/12/23 | 1832 | Phases (Pied Piper) | Phi** |
| 09/12/23 | 1833 | £25 Club (Tetrathlon) | Vismut** |
| 16/12/23 | 1834 | Golden Gun (Persuasion) | Check** |
The rules:
1 You have six points to distribute to a minimum of three puzzles from 2023, including the end-of-2022 puzzles Retrospective by Ploy (1783) and Profile by Eclogue (1784) but excluding Easy As … by Shark (1835) and Blithe Spirit by Hedge-sparrow (1836).
2 You may allocate no more than three points to your top puzzle. If you are unable to decide between two or more puzzles, you may use half points (but no other fractions, please!).
3 Please register your vote in any of the following ways: publicly on the thread below; privately by emailing me at nimrod1@jetdoc.co.uk or via Direct Message on Twitter (X) to @enigmatistelgar.
4 Compilers may not vote for their own puzzles or puzzles which they have jointly compiled.
5 Example, using my own vote:
3 pts: 1790 Great Parliamentarians by Cranberry
2 pts: 1822 Filling Cells by Phi
½ pt: 1798 A Change of Pace
½ pt: 1826 Forgery by Radler
Please use the above format when voting.
6 Deadline for votes: midnight on January 13th, so a fortnight to think – you may need it. This year I managed, eventually, to whittle them down to ten, but after that it got extremely tricky. Commiserations to those that didn’t make my top four, in numerical order: 1783 Retrospective by Ploy, 1784 Profile by Eclogue, 1786 Seen From a Window by Hedge-sparrow, 1792 Trios by eXternal, 1795 Come Into Force by Apt and 1831 Shipshape by Methuselah.
Acknowledgments …
My thanks as always, to my ever-reliable, thorough and supportive solving team: in a couple of days I will owe them four New Year lunches. I’m sure we’re all grateful to Ken, doing a sterling job at the helm of the good ship FifteenSquared. I shouldn’t forget Richard Heald for his weekly checking of Give Me a Clue and, as always, Mike and Stuart who make sure that everything looks good on the Inquisitor page each week.
To all of them, to the compilers – and to you, the solvers, I wish a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year.
John
1 1814 Tailors 3 points
2 1830 Arable Land 2 points
3 1820 Wallace Collection 1 point
Here are six I singled out at the time (a seventh, by Radler, regrettably has to go); half a point each to:
1786: Seen From a Window by Hedge-sparrow
1792: Trios by eXternal
1820: Wallace Collection by Ifor
1823: Open Minds by Cranberry
1828: Night Follows Day by Karla
1830: Arable Land by eXtent
Many thanks to John & team for another great year of Inquisitors. All superb pizzles but I managed to whittle it down to a shortlist of 10, so:
2½ pts: 1806 Clash! by eXtent
1½ pts: 1811 Headingley 2019 by Eclogue
½ pt: 1792 Trios by eXternal
½ pt: 1798 A Change Of Pace by Gila
½ pt: 1816 Gridlocked by Soup
½ pt: 1818 A 60s Trial by Kruger
… with honourable mentions for 1783 Retrospective by Ploy, 1788 Power Discharge by IN, 1809 Carte Blanche à Trois by Phi & 1827 Sixty Happy Years by Nimrod.
Thanks again & Happy New Year to all!
I did every one of these I think.
So happy to give my votes.
1831 Shipshape 2 points
1784 Profile 1 pt
1819 Mirror Image 1pt
1826 Forgery 1pt
1827 Sixty Happy Years 1pt
I missed the truly original puzzles of other recent years , I thought the best available were Listener, but enjoyed solving them very much still.
Joyce here …..
Cillagoose@4 mentions that he missed the truly original puzzles of recent years. In my opinion the crossword that Ploy set at the end of 2022 was amazing and hugely original which is why I scored it higher than my other choices.
2pts
1783 Retrospective (James Webb Telescope) Ploy
I point to each of the following:
1822 Filling Cells (Prisons) Phi
1820 Wallace Collection (i.e. Wallace Stevens) Ifor
1792 Trios (3 Musketeers) eXternal
1788 Power Discharge (Greatest try) IN
I agree Joyce, 1783 was a good and innovative puzzle. As was another hexagon based puzzle, 1798 Change of Pace. But neither stuck in my memory like the joyous Wordle and Beggar Thy Neighbour ones from 2022.
I note with interest that two of my favourites are hexagonal, and the unconventional grid of 1813 Cross World Squares just missed out…
1½ pts: 1783 Retrospective by Ploy
1½ pts: 1792 Trios by eXternal
1½ pts: 1798 A Change of Pace by Gila
1½ pts: 1831 Shipshape by Methuselah
But there were so many excellent puzzles this year, too many to mention, that I thoroughly enjoyed.
This was, for me, the best year yet for Inquisitor puzzles since I started in 2018. There were only three that I could not attempt: nos. 1783, 1784 and 1828 (having been away at those times). There were 18 puzzles that I marked throughout the year as being potentially for my shortlist (which is at least six more than in any previous year), and rather than try to make a shortlist of (say) six or 12 I decided to pick the three that I finally thought stood out above all the other excellent puzzles. These were:
1798, Gila, A Change of Pace
1816, Soup, Gridlocked
1819, Serpent, Mirror Image V
2 points to each of these.
This was, I repeat, an excellent year, and I am in awe of the quality that was consistently maintained throughout.
3 pts: 1783 Retrospective by Ploy
2 pts: 1811 Headingley 2019 by Eclogue
1 pt: 1788 Power Discharge by IN
Very many thanks to all the setters and the Editor for another great year of Inquisitor puzzles. There were so many that I could have included on my list – but in the end, I’ve stayed with my usual policy of giving one point to each of the six I enjoyed the most. So:
1785, A Face To Be Reckoned with -1 point
1798, A Change Of Pace – 1 point
1802, See For Yourself – 1 point
1812, Impression – 1 point
1820, Wallace Collection – 1 point
1830, Arable Land – 1 point
I score each puzzle when I finish (or, in one case, give up). It came as a surprise to me when I looked at my highest scoring puzzles: the setters all begin eXt… or end …ent (or both).
2 1792 by eXternal (Trios)
1.5 1785 by Serpent (A Face To Be Reckoned With)
1 1806 by eXtent (Clash!)
1 1830 by eXtent (Arable Land)
0.5 1819 by Serpent (Mirror Image V)
Thanks to John H & his team, and to my fellow bloggers plus all those who commented.
My annual thanks to all at Team IQ for another terrific year. I’ve enjoyed going through the year’s puzzles to distribute my points. It’s a fun task but not easy is it ? I have chosen six puzzles, for 1 point each :
1792 Trios by eXternal
1796 Rock Group by Ifor
1798 Change of Pace by Gila
1806 Clash! by eXtent (my fave of the year if pushed)
1811 Headingley 2019 by Eclogue
1823 Open Minds by Cranberry
Special mention to 1784 Profile by Eclogue & 1820 Wallace Collection by Ifor – they just missed my cut.
My no 1 is the one that had the hardest grid fill.
Thanks for all the fine puzzles.
1814 Tailors 3 pts
1807 See for yourself 2 pts
1796 Rock group 1 pt
Don’t know why I said a half point @2, when I must have meant one point.
Thank you for a really great year, the Inquisitors have really added a lot of fun to my weekends.
For the first time, I’ve cut out and kept all the answers so this has been a lot easier than in previous years.
One point each to:
1786 Seen from a Window (for the storytelling via the amendments)
1789 Capsized (I just like capitals)
1795 Come into force (I just like Star Trek!)
1797 Commutability (so pleasingly clever)
1799 Eyes Down (loved learning about Bingo)
1811 Headingley (for the totally different approach)
1783 Retrospective – Ploy 3 points
1822 Filling Cells – Phi 2 points
1785 A Face to beReckoned With – Serpent 1 point
Thanks once again to all setters for providing such imaginative, varied and challenging puzzles.
2pts = 1786 Seen from a window
1pt each:
1783 Retrospective (took me months to finish, glad I persevered!)
1806 Clash!
1811 Headingley 2019 (I’m a sucker for novel designs)
1831 Shipshape
Happy new year!
PS
I didn’t want to get into 1/2 points but had I done so then 1785 A Face to be Reckoned With would certainly have featured.
I seemed to have less time on my hands this year, so did not finish all the puzzles. Of those I completed, these three gave most pleasure and get two points each:
1788 Power Discharge
1798 A Change of Pace
1827 Sixty Happy Years
Hoping to complete more in 2024, which I hope will be a good year for everyone involved, whether setting or solving.
2 pts Arable land
2 pts Cross world squares
2 pts A face to be reckoned with
Bert here – time has run out and I haven’t been able to narrow down my choices. However, I don’t want to miss out on voting for the following:
2 points
1783 Retrospective (James Webb Telescope) Ploy
It took us ages to solve but the endgame was worth every minute.
1783 Retrospective by Ploy – 2 pts
1827 60 Happy Years by Nimrod – 1 pt
1822 Filling Cells by Phi – 1 pt
1818 A 60s Trial by Kruger – 1 pt
1811 Headingley 2019 by Eclogue – 1 pt
So many other good ones, it’s hard not to feel mean. Of the above, Nimrod’s and Kruger’s delivered the best penny-drops (& Kruger’s had the best title), Eclogue’s combined extreme weirdness with a classically satisfying ending, Phi’s defeated me but for once I was still able to appreciate it, and Ploy’s just seemed to keep revealing new wonders at every turn.
I’ve enjoyed the whole year of crosswords wherever I might be…and having managed to get one of the £20 digital i subscriptions, it’s ridiculous value. My memory’s not what it was but seeing all the following titles again evoked particularly warm feelings. Cheers!
1798 A Change of Pace, Gila, 1
1819 Mirror Image 5, Serpent, 1
1822 Filling Cells, Phi, 1
1803 Intersection, Vismut, 2
1811 Headingley 2019, Eclogue, 1