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A new Beelzebub (update 15 May)

May 15, 2016 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

As promised, I am putting up one of the several completed Beelzebub puzzles that haven’t seen the light of day.  This one very nearly made it (there was an early proof), but in the end was replaced by the ‘special’ I produced containing the names of all the setters. I have something like a dozen in the unpublished heap (and even some unclued grids – I always worked well in advance!), so I will probably add them to the site from time to time.

Unless, of course, something else happens.  I note that the Jumbo General Knowledge crossword has reappeared on the Independent puzzle site – I’m pretty certain it wasn’t there one day, and there the next, though there is a plethora of icons to negotiate, and I might have missed the precise date of reappearance.  So there may be hope for Beelzebub yet.  There would need to be a print or pdf option (as noted previously) – which I do provide, of course (e.g. PDF of puzzle).

If you solve and enjoy the puzzle, please let me know.

There was a very positive review on the relevant blog to a recent (anonymous) puzzle of mine – I think I’ll settle for the Down clues being less pyrotechnic than the Acrosses.  (Since I don’t generally clue straight through – and often try clueing from the last clue forwards – there isn’t much justification for assuming I was tiring on the home stretch.)  And I was able to savour one of the simple, if somewhat malicious, pleasures of a setter: observing an editorial amendment coming in for criticism…

You might still find yesterday’s copy of the i lying around somewhere, and can thus try Something Fishy.  A blog will follow on 25 May or thereabouts.  It’s a rather complicated background to this puzzle, and the blog will even indicate why there could be a brief hiatus on updates in the next couple of months.

The annual APEX (update 1 May)

May 1, 2016 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

Even allowing for the most desultory postal messages, the results should have reached participants by now, so I can put up the annual puzzle that got the site and blog started in the first place: the 2015 edition of the APEX Christmas Crossword.  You can click through to the solution, and at the bottom of that page you’ll find the winning clues.

As always, let me encourage you to keep logging in to the Independent crossword.  The link is here.  The adverts seem to be getting shorter, to the extent that by the time I realised one was about a new cat product, it had finished.  And has it reappeared…?

You can’t log in to see the Beelzebub puzzle, alas, of course, but to remind you what you’re missing next time round I shall put up the one that nearly made it into print. I find I have another dozen of virgin examples, all typed up and ready to go, so I may drip-feed you with them over the next year.  Please let me know if you’re enjoying them, though I don’t mind waiting in line for you to let The Independent and/or the i know first.

Before that, though, you may find me in the Telegraph Toughie slot on 5 May, while Friday 13 May will live up to its reputation since my regular Independent appearance will be matched by a spot in The Times.

The consequences of change (update 17 April)

April 17, 2016 By Phixwd Leave a Comment

Well, if I’m going to start titling these updates then occasionally something portentous-sounding will emerge.

This time the puzzle is an Independent daily from 2005.  It doesn’t feel entirely like one of mine – far too many cryptic definitions, for one thing – but I seem to have been paid for it!

The Independent daily is now online only, of course –  you access it here.  There’s an advert to play through – I seem to keep getting the one for a branch of Westpac in Auckland (filmed on what seems to be a wet Saturday evening), though I did see a strange one that implied chewing gum in a hotel bedroom could change you into something suitable for a Rio carnival – but once through that the interface is now much friendlier, with a clear set of instructions, and a print option.  It’s also possible to put brief instructions at the top of the puzzle, somewhat as The Guardian does occasionally.  A PDF option is not (yet) in place, but the printed-out version is perfectly acceptable.

I saw a report this week which mentioned that a ‘you-must-watch-this’ video advert was the least successful online approach, leading to clicks away even for popular content such as crosswords, so I do urge you to persevere.  Perhaps the videos for other national markets are more interesting (and is NZ chewing gum really like that?)

One other consequence of the change is that there is no longer a prize puzzle on Saturdays, which also means the loss of the ‘bucketful’ of entries as a means of assessing interest in the puzzle in general.  It wasn’t ever a very good assessment approach (things like the sort of prize offered could affect the likelihood of people entering, and no-one ever quite imagined that people might just like solving the puzzle without entering), but it has now gone.  The consequence of losing the prize puzzle is that Saturday is just another day now, and thus you may see the occasional shift in days setters appear.  All of which is a long preamble to noting that next week’s Phi puzzle is on Saturday.  I wonder why…

I do occasionally check which pages on the site have been most popular and there has been a continuing run of hits on the Beelzebub announcement of 20 March.  I hope that’s a sign of continuing interest.  Well, 20 March was something of a non-announcement, I suppose, and there is scarcely anything to add now.  I hear some stories of pressure to restore it (along with the Saturday General Knowledge Jumbo), so I’m holding fire on using unpublished puzzles here yet awhile (equally, though, I’m not creating any new ones beyond the seven or so I tried to keep in hand in case of unexpected events).  Certainly the experience of other outlets has been that the interest in puzzles is unabated and probably growing, and the online arena is an economic way to feed that demand.  But if nothing transpires, I will sneak the occasional unpublished one on to this site.

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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.

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