rec.puzzles.crosswords competitions

rec.puzzles.crosswords is a Usenet newsgroup for the discussion of cryptic ("British-style") crosswords.

rec.puzzles.crosswords frequently runs crossword-related competitions, which are the subject matter of this website. They are of various types, which are summarised here.

The rec.puzzles.crosswords FAQ file was written by James A. Lundon. It is in three parts. Parts 1 and 2, last updated in 1994, have information about books about cryptic crosswords, about some of the types of clue that the solver should expect to see in a cryptic crossword, and about crossword-related software. Question 7, "What software is available for doing crosswords?", is listed as question 4 here. Part 3, last updated in 1996, concerned the competitions; this web site is intended to bring it up to date.

Crossword competitions in British magazines—some background

Clue-writing competitions have a long tradition in the UK. Ximenes (Derrick Macnutt) started a monthly one in The Observer in 1945, and continued it until 1971, the year of his death. In 1972, Azed (Jonathan Crowther) took over from Ximenes as crossword setter for The Observer, and also resumed the clue-writing competitions. The solver solves the crossword, and submits a cryptic clue to a word specified by the setter. Typically, that word is the answer to a simple definition clue in the crossword, which is cryptic apart from that clue. When announcing the prize winner, the setter will also comment on a couple of the entries.

The magazine Crossword also holds such a competition bi-monthly.

What's new

• Tue 25 Jul 2006: Latest updates: CWC 236i, PCWC 168, PVPCWC 35, SCWC 10, hall of fame
• Fri 25 Nov 2005: Latest updates: FSCC 53
• Tue 19 Apr 2005: Latest updates: ACC 195, CWC 223, PCWC 166, PVPCWC 25, hall of fame, answers
• Thu 10 Feb 2005: Latest updates: PVPCWC 23
• Sat 18 Sep 2004: Latest updates: ACC 187, CWC 218, PCWC 161, TCWC 16, hall of fame
• Thu 1 Jul 2004: Latest updates: FSCC stats up to FSCC 44
• Tue 1 Jun 2004: Latest updates: FSCC 40-43, KKK (under "Competitions")
• Sun 16 May 2004: Latest updates: answers. Reorganised the links page a bit.
• Mon 24 Nov 2003: Latest updates: Electer
• Sat 8 Nov 2003: Latest updates: rot13 page has 2 text areas which automatically rot13 each other.
• Sun 2 Nov 2003: Added prescribed words of FSCCs and ACCs 41 & 51 to the "answers" table.
• Sun 5 Oct 2003: Support IE6 (which, unfortunately, isn't compatible with IE5).
• Sun 17 Aug 2003: Add C5 crosswords in Crossword Compiler format (printable and Java-applet).
• Sat 2 Aug 2003: TCWC tables. Professional clue stats in PVPCWC tables.
• Sat 26 Jul 2003: Opera 7 support.
• Thu 24 Jul 2003: Add C5, TCCCC, UCPP to "answers" list.
• Sun 20 Jul 2003: TCWC proposal. Site has all CDC, NACC and ACC clues that Google Groups can find. C5, TCCCC and UCPP winners. Rot13 page uses the faster "regexp" algorithm.
• Wed 16 Jul 2003: Hit-counters. First rot13 page, using the straightforward algorithm.
• Sun 13 Jul 2003: Uploaded this web site for the first time. ACC clues only as far as ACC 61.