Crossword 805 solution

Annotating my clues, as I do, many weeks after writing them often reveals to me flaws and oversights that lead quickly to little regrets and moments of self-reproach. Add to that the occasional complaint from a solver, and it’s little wonder that this blog regularly features excuses and apologies.

I take comfort however from the esteemed Guardian crossword editor Hugh Stephenson, whose monthly blog posts frequently consist at least in part of apologies and explanations for slips and misjudgements.

With eight different puzzles, some daily, some weekly, spread over two papers – the Guardian and the Observer (effectively the Guardian’s Sunday paper) – Hugh Stephenson has many more opportunities to slip or nod than I do, and many of his apologies relate to technical glitches, often just in the online versions, that are not really the editor’s responsibility. Nevertheless I do feel considerable sympathy for some of his difficulties. I know this one too well.

No New Zealand newspapers have any such post as “crossword editor”. Their daily straight and cryptic puzzles (and sudoku etc.)  are bought for what I imagine are negligible sums from English and Australian syndicators and reprinted without much checking, as frequent typos and wrong grids reveal.

My local paper, the Dominion Post, used to run old Times cryptics three times a week, which at least had a touch of class. Those puzzles have been replaced now by ancient puzzles from the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph puzzles are, for some reason, noticeably more parochial than the Times ones (not that that’s a bad thing –  if you’re in England), and much older. A reference recently to Hancock’s Half Hour would I am sure completely baffle most New Zealanders.

I know newspapers are struggling these days – I don’t expect them to commission new puzzles daily – but I do feel that with this sort  of old rubbish they are showing something very close to contempt for their audience.