In October ROY EARLE– Mac An Iarla – took over from the late Derek Crozier as the compiler of the Crosaire crossword. Two months on, how's it going?
MY ONLY REGRET so far is that I no longer have a daily Crosaire puzzle to solve. Apart from that, I really enjoy the challenge of continuing the work Derek Crozier did for T he Irish Timesfor nearly 70 years.
I’ve got lots of feedback from readers, through the Crosaire blog and by email. The welcome greetings and messages of good luck in those first couple of weeks were a great help. The most common feedback early on was: “Oh dear, this looks really hard! But then, I realise if I stick with it, the answers are forthcoming.”
Over time, people have grown used to the style, and solving times are coming down.
Solvers seem to like the fact that everything they need to solve the puzzle is in front of them. They may need to reach for a book to understand a clue, but as there are always two ways to get to the answer, they can still solve the crossword while travelling home on the train.
Not everyone is happy with the new puzzle, and I try hard to take on board specific feedback and use it to bring as many solvers as possible into the fold.
My challenge is to keep enough variety in the crossword to provide a consistent challenge. The most difficult thing to reconcile is difficulty level, as there are still some solvers who just think the puzzle is too hard and others who think it too easy. Working with the crossword editor, my goal is to provide puzzles at a difficulty level that suits as many solvers as possible.
The Crosaire blog gets a lot of visitors each day. Now, instead of just consulting the solved grid, solvers can learn about the rationale behind each clue. They can also write a comment, telling me what clues they do or do not enjoy. I pay a lot of attention to such feedback, which has helped the puzzle evolve.
I’ve been providing Crosaire puzzles now for two months, and I’m still aware of what an honour it is to be working with the loyal fan base that Derek Crozier built up over almost seven decades of creating crosswords. I can’t help feeling he is looking over my shoulder and making sure that I treat everyone fairly. It’s nice to know that his example is there.
So far, I've been so busy creating my own puzzles for The Irish Timesthat I've had no time to tackle anybody else's. But as soon as I get a breather I'll dip into the thousands of crosswords that Derek bequeathed to us and enjoy a Crozier special over a mug of tea.
