In a little over 22 years he provided 949 puzzles and is fifth on the all-time list. He wasn’t there right at the beginning of the Guardian’s pseudonym era, but was very well known by his 1974 debut. “No prize for this one – it’s just for fun.”ġ0 April 1978 15,040, the debut of Apex (carpenter Eric Chalkley).Ģ5 October 1996 20,793 is the final puzzle by Custos ( obituary). Custos sets a double puzzle titled Literal Transplants as the 15,000th Guardian puzzle. The only comparable gap is between Imogen’s first and second puzzles (10 years, three months).ġ March 1977 14,702, the debut of Hendra (former collier and founder of the Merseyside Concert Orchestra – and cousin to Paul McCartney – Bert Danher). He wrote his own book, Teach Yourself Crosswords, in 1975.ġ7 October 1974 A glitch in the numbering system: the puzzle should have been 13,977 instead it is numbered 13,978.Ģ0 January 1976 14,361 is the last we’ll see of Logodaedalus for more than 12 and a half years: after the death of his wife, he won’t provide another Guardian crossword until September 1988. Custos is already a giant in the crossword world, having collaborated with Ximenes (Derrick Macnutt) in Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword, in 1966. Photograph: The GuardianĢ September 1974 13,938, the debut of Custos (classics teacher Alec Robins). Debut years for Nimrod, Lavengro and Xerxes are not known likewise Nimrod and Xerxes’ identities.Įaster prize double puzzle, 1978, by Araucaria. Known debut years: Crispa 1954 Araucaria 1958 Bunthorne 1966 Gordius 1967 Janus 1968 Audreus 1969. Janus (sometime army pay office employee Frank Blakesley, latterly a serial quizshow contestant)Īraucaria (country parson the Rev John Graham)īunthorne (photographer and newscaster Bob Smithies)Īnd Audreus (former kitchen maid, factory worker and pig farmer Audrey Young Meet the Setter). Gordius (parish priest the Rev David Moseley Meet the Setter) Lavengro (Stanley Watt, who, the crossword editor tells readers in 1978, had “jacked in banking to write for himself”)Ĭrispa (former civil servant Ruth Crisp, one of the few to make setting their living) It is doubtful that this was John Henderson (Enigmatist of this parish and Nimrod in the Independent) as he was aged seven. Photograph: David McCoy/The Guardian The 1970s: the setters take on namesĢ8 December 1970 Under crossword editor John Perkin, pseudonyms are introduced: Nimrod is the first, for puzzle 12,819.
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