Phi Crosswords

phionline.net.nz

  • About me
  • Types of cryptic crossword
    • Solving crosswords
    • Outlets
  • APEX Crosswords
  • My other puzzles
    • BBC Music Magazine crosswords
    • Beelzebub Crosswords
    • Church Times puzzles
    • Enigmatic Variations
    • The European crossword
    • Independent Inquisitor
    • Independent: newspaper
    • Jumbos
    • Magpie
    • Other puzzles
  • Setter’s blogs
  • Book Reviews
  • Cats

RIP Araucaria

November 27, 2013 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

In the last few weeks, there have been a number of ‘history-of-the-crossword’ books published in anticipation of the centenary next month.  If you’ve looked through all of them, it is impossible to avoid the Rev John Graham (aka Araucaria).  It’s a puzzle of his that structures Alan Connor’s book, John Halpern recounts his own awed first meeting with the man, and an anxious David Astle is able to bring his book to its 2013 conclusion with an Araucaria puzzle.

That puzzle was – well, notorious isn’t quite the word – notable for its announcement of the setter’s terminal cancer.  Its first appearance in One Across led to a reprint in The Guardian, and the news was out to the widest audience.  From then on, it has been a simple matter of time, although Araucaria continued to supply puzzles with scarcely undiminished vigour..  (I recently downloaded the composer Elliott Carter’s 103rd birthday concert – the producer of the recording commented that he’d rather decided Carter was immortal.  Araucaria was cut from the same cloth.)

But in the last few weeks, the Saturday slot in The Guardian has been filled by others, and One Across hasn’t had its headline pair.  And so today’s news isn’t unexpected.

I cut my teeth on Custos (Alec Robins) and Araucaria was at the other end of the clueing spectrum.  But the frisson of knowing an Araucaria double or jumbo was lined up for the Bank Holiday or that an Alphabetical Jigsaw might pop up on any Saturday was unavoidable.  It was the exemplification of what you could actually do with the contents of a crossword grid.  If it’s not quite what got me into crosswords, it’s very much the glue that kept me there.

Ave atque vale.

Share
Tweet
Pin

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Phi RSS feed

  • RSS - Posts

About me

This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

Blogroll

  • Alberich Crosswords
  • Alchemi's puzzles
  • Anax Crosswords
  • Azed slip
  • Big Dave's Crossword Blog
  • Boatman Cryptics
  • Crossword centenary
  • Crossword Centre
  • Crossword Club
  • Crossword Unclued
  • CrosswordMan: Crossword construction software
  • Crosswords by Chameleon
  • Crosswords by Hasslethymi
  • Fifteensquared
  • George vs The Listener crossword
  • Guardian Crosswords
  • Hoskins Crossword
  • Hubble Crosswords
  • idothei
  • Independent Crosswords
  • Listen with Others
  • Listener Crossword
  • Magpie Crossword Magazine
  • One Across
  • Peter's Cryptic Crossword Corner
  • Telegraph Crosswords
  • The Stickler Weekly
  • Times Crossword Club
  • Times for the Times
  • Undisclosed Enumeration

Comments

  • Erin on A forthcoming loss
  • Tim Myall on A forthcoming loss
  • William F P on Happy Easter
  • Erin on Happy Easter
  • Erin on Under siege

Copyright © 2022 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in