I’m preparing myself mentally for the impending return to work next week, trying to get my brain back into gear after the long layoff. One of the few things that has prevented me from descending to a state of complete vegetation has been the steady supply of crosswords over the holiday season. I’ve lost track of the number I’ve done over the last week or so. I enjoyed yesterday’s Araucaria puzzle in the Guardian nearly as much as the bumper double-sized one he set as the Christmas special puzzle. However, the Royal Mail has been so unreliable recently I fear I’ve little chance of winning the prize even though I posted my solution in what should have been good time. I didn’t get any mail at all for about a fortnight leading up to Christmas. In fact a card posted to me from Brighton, correctly addressed with full postcode a first class stamp, and postmarked on 15th December, didn’t arrived in Cardiff until Thursday 30th December.
One item of post that obviously did get through was my entry to the Azed Competition puzzle number 2010. This was a slightly strange one because the word (or in this case, phrase) to which entrants were requested to provide a clue wasn’t actually given a proper definition but implied by a rather cryptic preamble:
Special instructions: This puzzle marks an unrepeatable occasion, hinted at by the unclued entry at 1 Across (not given in Chambers as such). Further help in identifying the theme is provided elsewhere. Competitors should submit a cryptic clue to 1 Across with their entries.
I managed to do the puzzle quite quickly, which gave sufficient checked letters to make it obvious that 1 Across (which ran across the top of the puzzle) had to be “A COMING OF AGE”. It took me ages to find the “further help” alluded to in the preamble, however, until eventually realised that the first letters of each clue read “CROSSWORDNUMBERANDDATEOFYEARCOINCIDE”. In other words the clues themselves provide an acrostic reference to the phrase. The “unrepeatable occasion” is thus that puzzle number 2010 happens to be in 2010, which can’t possibly happen again – 2011 has started with puzzle number 2014.
“A COMING OF AGE” is a tricky one to provide a clue because it doesn’t appear in the standard Chambers dictionary. Although it has a wikipedia page it’s actually rather vague.
My attempt at a clue was
Breaking of German Enigma by one early pair of computers gives something to celebrate
I chose an appropriately unspecific definition “something to celebrate” and the rest is an anagram of OF G (for German)+ENIGMA, indicated by “BREAKING”, by (i.e. next to) A+CO (early pair of computers). The reference to Bletchley Park and the Colossus Mark I and II computers was a deliberate red herring. I thought it was a bit clumsy, but was delighted to find it got me a VHC and has pulled me up to 19th in the annual honours table, with five competitions complete. As always, though, the winning clues were a lot better than mine!
Azed’s competition puzzles usually appear about once a month (there are thirteen in each year). However, there was another competition puzzle (No. 2012) just before Christmas, which I didn’t really enjoy as much because of the number of non-words that needed to be entered in the grid. Today’s Observer has another one, No. 2014, which I shall do this afternoon. I don’t know why there’s such a glut – perhaps Azed is planning a holiday in the New Year?
In the Dark 