A page devoted to Irish Crosaire style crosswords. The puzzles are completely original and all feedback on difficulty levels and enjoyment levels is greatly appreciated.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Hi Everyone,
I am currently turning the first 11 puzzles into interactive format. The links will be shown in each puzzle. PDF versions will still be downloadable but some may prefer to solve interactively. They should all be up by the beginning of next week.
Posted by Mark Bell at Thursday, September 10, 2009
Now in his 92nd year, Derek Crozier, the man behind Crosaire - the cryptic crossword - is among the oldest daily contributors to The Irish Times, having survived two world wars, Irish independence, de Valera, JFK and any number of editors, writers, correspondents and "stringers" that came and went over the years.
While celebrating Christmas Eve in 1942 in the Palace Bar, Derek Crozier met Bertie Smyllie and Alec Newman, then Editor and deputy editor of this newspaper, and the idea of supplying a cryptic crossword was born.
The first Crosaire was published on March 13th, 1943, and the format was simply one each week on Saturday, with wife Marjorie filling in the grids and him conjuring up the clues. This was in addition to his day job in Guinness. This situation didn't change until 1950, when a Wednesday Crosaire was added to the schedule. Two years earlier Crozier had quit his job with the brewery to farm tobacco in what is now Zimbabwe.
Tuesdays were added in 1955. However, it wasn't until 1982 that the Crosaire crossword appeared daily. Crozier also taught English between 1964 and 1990 at St George's College in Harare and stood (unsuccessfully) for the Rhodesian parliament in 1962.
Derek Crozier's brain nourishment has become an enduring Irish Times phenomenon spawning crossword heats, readers' forums and an appearance on The Late Late Show in 1993 to celebrate 50 years of Crosaire, plus regular features celebrating his professional longevity.
There are the loyal fans who often phone or e-mail weeks after a crossword was published to plead for understanding of a clue that is driving them to distraction. Clues like "Zee CID error may eke out who we're talking about (6,7)". A clue as old as the paper itself.
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5 comments:
Hi Mark,
I've tried to get the interactive version of your puzzles working, but apparently I need a plug-in. Where can I get it?
Hi Bill,
I know that you use Google Chrome, so I downloaded it to see what the problem may be but the interactive puzzles worked fine. I searched the net and the only answer I can come up with is that you may need to update your JAVA software to see the puzzles. Let me know how you got on
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the great technical support :o)
Yes, the problem was the Java version loaded on my machine. I love my Chrome browser, but it does have a few shortcomings as it is not fully supported as yet.
All is running fine now. I might just steal your idea and add a Jave version to my WEB puzzles too. Clever!
No problem Bill, steal away lol. Actually I really like Google Chrome, have you considered working as their new marketing guy, because you converted me lol
Mark,
I am moving almost everything over to Google applications these days. I moved to Chrome a couple of months ago and love it. I'm just converting to gmail as well for prive email. I am really living Google docs, and would just love to dump Microsoft Office. They just do things really well.
Having said that, I know the company very well, and hate the Google culture. I've been to the Google campus many times, and dreaded every visit I made there. I guess I'm an old fogey that just likes doing business the old-fashioned way!
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