Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I too will stop buying the Sunday Telegraph, once the EV has been discontinued. I will save a few bob each week, but would really prefer, to have the crossword, alas.

Vismut here,
I am a little bemused as to why putting something into pdf format is so expensive. Compared to producing interactive puzzles it must be very cheap I would have thought. Just stick it up there for people to download. Job done.

Personally I shall be very sorry to see this puzzle go. It has provided me with a lot of pleasure, both setting and solving over the years.

Bit of an own goal here ST.

Bobby Collins

Thanks for the information. I didn't realise that it could be printed, but I have never needed to.

Chalicea and Vismut

I will really miss your lovely puzzles.

I hope we may be helped to understand the Telegraph's logic a bit better in making this decision. Some barred thematic crosswords do appear in interactive form (the CAM series) though that does limit the setter's options. And I do not really see why a pdf download cannot exist alongside the interactive ones.

The first battle is of course to see if the decision can be changed, but my suspicion is that the die is cast. If so, should we also be starting to think whether the EV can have a second life in some other form (I suspect many setters would waive fees), ideally weekly - but with the possibility perhaps of a book (there will be a fair number of puzzles in the editors' drawer already).

Looking even wider, if this series does close and the Crossword Club magazine ends as announced, we will face a reduced output channel just at a time when COVID has generated an increased input. Should some of us be putting our heads together to try and rectify that?

And let's not forget to say a big thankyou to Steve and all who have kept the weekly EV going in such good style, whatever happens.

Coming a bit late to this. When the Listener ceased publication donkey’s years ago The Times agreed to take over publication of the crossword. Might not The Sunday Times be persuaded to do the same. Could EV not exist side-by-side with Mephisto? They are both barred, but the similarities end there. Or even The Times, perhaps midweek - now there’s a thought!

To pick up on Jockie's suggestion, The Spectator is in the same ownership as The Telegraph. Could EV not be published alongside the usual Spectator crossword?

I will be joining those e-mailing to seek a reversal of the decision as I have derived great pleasure from the EV and will be most disappointed if it is discontinued.

This is the latest half-baked attempt by the ST puzzles editor to get rid of EV - it is beginning to look like a personal ambition on his/her part.

The previous attempt (about 2 years or so ago) was based on the false presumption that, because few entries were received for prizes, the puzzle must therefore be unpopular. This is a ludicrous assumption for 2 reasons:

1 - I, like many others I suspect, nearly always fail to complete the puzzle 100% - the odd answer intractable or the final denouement hard to fathom. But that doesn't mean I haven't had a lot of enjoyment getting as far as I have.

2 - If I do manage to complete the puzzle, why should I waste time and energy trying to win the antediluvian prize of a fountain pen? It might just as well be a bead-based abacus. I've won 2 of these in the past and had great difficulty even giving them away.

The puzzles editor should hang his/her head in shame!

I am as certain as I can be that the Puzzles Editor will be as furious about this as the rest of us. I am in no doubt that he will have fought his corner for the retention of the EV.

Very sad news. The weekends will never be the same again.