Australian Crosswords

The consolidation of print media and the rise of internet news services has led to reduced outlets for cryptic crosswords – we all know that. One crossword can now service a stable of newspapers and an online site can have just a single cryptic for world-wide consumption. The demise of The Stickler had me scratching around for alternative outlets, one of which was The Guardian, a UK-based paper that launched an Australian website that actually employs Australian staff in Australia. Online news means that you can keep your core business and add components that cover news specific to a particular country or region. The owners of The Guardian have done this for Australia, the US, “International” and of course its homebase, the UK. I thought adding Australian content would be a priority, and therefore sent multiple emails asking them to consider an Australian Guardian cryptic for the website. I didn’t get a reply. It seems they believe their crossword section is covered by their regular setters, however, Guardian crosswords are still very English, and wouldn’t attract any more solvers than their UK site where the crosswords are freely available.
The other day I noticed that another English institution, The Spectator, has an Australian online version and I keenly went looking for the crossword section. Again, I think they had a great opportunity to add genuine Australian content, but chose to rely on their UK offering which has limited appeal here. If you believe a crossword like The Stickler Weekly has a place on The Guardian Australia website, drop the editor an email and let her know:
Lenore Taylor
Other Guardian contacts are here.

If you think The Spectator Australia could do with an Australian cryptic crossword, drop the editor an email:
Rowan Dean

Feel free to contact both!

A while back I was reading an article on the Australian version of The Huffington Post, which is what’s called a news aggregator. That is, there’s no printed version, just an ordered collection of news items from the internet. Most countries have a version of The Huffington Post, and Australia’s one has quite a few people working on it. This is quite different from the print-turned-online publishers, as the result is a tailor-made feed which some local comment (in the form of blogs) thrown in. It occurred to me that recommending a cryptic crossword to solvers would be an easy thing for such a site to do as pointing to other people’s work is largely what they rely on. I contacted the CEO in Australia, Chris Janz, who I knew through his News Ltd online work, and asked him to consider giving The Stickler Weekly a plug. He responded positively, but I’ve heard nothing since.

Maybe you’d like to suggest the Australian Huffington Post add a link to The Stickler Weekly? Here is his email address:
Chris Janz

Thanks for your support.

A couple of people speculated as to the reason for the recent Alphabetical/Alphanumeric interlude in the Stickler Weekly series. It wasn’t paid work, unfortunately, but it was R & R of sorts – a few weeks on the north coast of NSW, an area that my wife and I might retire to in coming years. As a professional crossword and word puzzle setter, time away from home presents a number of significant problems. In the Stickler era, where I was writing all kinds of puzzles full-time, there were four weekly deadlines with different papers, six monthly ones for magazines and websites, and various other ones associated (at different times) with puzzle magazines. In order to get away for any length of time a great deal of pre-planning was required, including building up stock of various puzzles to cover the non-working time. In the case of the Stickler, I tried to stay about 6 weeks ahead to allow for holidays and sickness, but given notice of time off I would attempt to crank up my stockpiling so as to never be too low on puzzles. This meant writing 13 Sticklers every two weeks (12 for regular publication and one extra) – a three-week break (the most I ever took while writing The Stickler) required the creation of an extra 18 puzzles to keep the stock levels the same, a task that would take me up to 6 months to complete.
These days things are much easier, of course, but planning is still very important to ensure a trouble-free time away. Not only should everything needed for publication be sent before the time away, but I have to carry a laptop that is loaded with everything needed to fix a problem or create a puzzle just in case something goes wrong. I even cut a DVD loaded with all my crossword software, dictionaries and puzzle files just in case of laptop failure and the need to buy a new laptop and reload it. Internet connection and email are essential – I can’t afford to let publications down in the situation I’m in. (In one case involving magazine puzzles, a deadline was brought forward while I was on holiday due to a failure on the part of the people I was working with to realise that the printing house in Asia shut down for Chinese New Year.) I’ve now added website duties to my list of things that could need attention while away, so I’m prepared for that and a modernish phone keeps me up-to-date with emails and gives me the ability to do limited things on the move.
Such is the life of a crossword setter.

A couple of weeks ago someone asked me about the number of women involved in writing cryptic crosswords. I know for a long time in crossword history the identities of setters were largely unknown, so the role of women may never really be properly documented during this time. Things are different now as the internet has exposed just about everyone involved, even the anonymous Times setters can be found on bestforpuzzles.com (see below), even if they aren’t directly identified in the paper. I think more women have become cryptic crossword setters over the last 20 years as diversity and variety have demanded women’s views be included in the personalities of cryptic crosswords. That’s not to say women haven’t been writing cryptics – the SMH, in the time that I’ve been setting, has always had at least two women (currently RM & NS) in the weekly roster, and there’s no doubt they contribute something different to their male counterparts.
One of the ACC’s long-time daughters, Shirl O’Brien, was the first Australian of any sex to be a regular on any of the major UK newspaper crossword rosters. She compiled cryptics for the Courier Mail in Brisbane for 23 years, and her success there led to the limelight of The Guardian in the UK. Shirl encouraged me to submit some puzzles the The Guardian‘s crossword editor, Prof Hugh Stephenson, which I duly did, but his emphasis on diversity was a stumbling block for me. Effectively he told me he was looking for more women in the roster, showing that he believed women set cryptics differently.
This page on bestforpuzzles.com gives you a starting point to find out about all the setters in the major UK papers. Glancing through, there’s no doubt that men dominate the list, however women are represented across the board. The most prominent lady setter is probably Sarah Hayes who is a crossword setter in The Guardian (as Arachne), in The Independent (as Anarche), in the Financial Times (as Rosa Klebb), and in The Times. She once wrote a brilliant clue for MASTITIS, (I did a spiel on it), and I believe only a woman could write such a clue without objection from anyone, perhaps highlighting one of the reasons why lady setters are so highly prized on the world’s crossword-writing rosters.