John Derek Crozier (12 November 1917 – 3 April 2010), under the pseudonym "Crosaire" (), was the compiler of the
cryptic crossword
A cryptic crossword is a crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth nations, includi ...
in ''
The Irish Times
''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...
'' from its inception in 1943 until the year after his death.
It was formally named "The Irish Times Crossword", as opposed to the non-cryptic "Simplex crossword" which was published alongside it from 1951.
As Crozier was the sole cryptic compiler for 68 years, the crossword itself became known as "the Crosaire" by
metonymy
Metonymy () is a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something closely associated with that thing or concept.
Etymology
The words ''metonymy'' and ''metonym'' come from grc, μετωνυμία, 'a change of name' ...
. The pseudonym "Crosaire" is a play on his own surname and ''crosaire'', the Irish for "crossroad".
After Crozier's death, ''The Irish Times'' formally renamed its cryptic crossword in his honour.
Biography
Crozier was born in Dublin and educated at Castle Park
preparatory school in
Dalkey
Dalkey ( ; ) is an affluent suburb of Dublin, and a seaside resort southeast of the city, and the town of Dún Laoghaire, in the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown in the historic County Dublin, Ireland. It was founded as a Viking settlement ...
and
Repton School
Repton School is a 13–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, Independent school (United Kingdom), independent, Day school, day and boarding school in the English Public school (United Kingdom), public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, ...
in England.
He graduated from
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
in 1940.
He worked in administration at the
Guinness Brewery
St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is ...
in
St. James's Gate
St. James's Gate, located off the south quays of Dublin, on James's Street, was the western entrance to the city during the Middle Ages. During this time the gate was the traditional starting point for the Camino pilgrimage from Dublin to Santiag ...
.
He first compiled a crossword to amuse his wife, Marjorie, who remained much better at solving them than her husband. Soon after, he was introduced by
Jack White
John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...
to ''Irish Times'' editor
Bertie Smyllie at the paper's 1942 Christmas party in a Dublin pub, where he claimed that compiling crosswords was a longstanding hobby and persuaded Smyllie to commission some, the first printed on 13 March 1943.
Initially the ''Crosaire'' appeared weekly on Saturdays, with Wednesdays added in 1950, Tuesdays in 1955, and a daily puzzle from 1982.
In 1948 Crozier emigrated to
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kn ...
, now
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, to work as a tobacco and maize farmer in Sinoia, now
Chinhoyi
Chinhoyi, known until 1982 as Sinoia, is a city in central northern Zimbabwe in the Makonde District. It has a population of 90,800 and is primarily a college town, although it was originally founded as an Italian group settlement scheme. The ...
.
He found farming difficult and the meagre income from his puzzles was important.
In the
1962 Southern Rhodesian general election
General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia on 14 December 1962. Voters elected 65 members of the Legislative Assembly. The election was notable for bringing to power the Rhodesian Front, initially under Winston Field, which set the colon ...
, he stood for the
United Federal Party
The United Federal Party (UFP) was a political party in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
History
The UFP was formed in November 1957 by a merger of the Federal Party, which had operated at the federal level, and the Southern Rhodesian ...
in the
Gwebi constituency, losing to
Rhodesian Front
The Rhodesian Front was a right-wing conservative political party in Southern Rhodesia, subsequently known as Rhodesia. It was the last ruling party of Southern Rhodesia prior to that country's unilateral declaration of independence, and the rul ...
candidate
James Graham, 7th Duke of Montrose
James Angus Graham, 7th Duke of Montrose ID (2 May 1907 – 10 February 1992), styled Earl of Kincardine until 1925 and Marquess of Graham between 1925 and 1954, was a Scottish-born Rhodesian politician, farmer and aristocrat. He served as Min ...
. From 1963 to 1989, he taught at
St. George's College in Salisbury, now
Harare
Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...
.
His puzzles were often delivered to Ireland through visitors from abroad to avoid the vagaries of the Zimbabwe postal system.
The backlog of puzzles submitted but not yet published had grown to over a year's worth by his death.
He travelled to Dublin in 1993 for the 50th anniversary of his first puzzle, during which he appeared on ''
The Late Late Show'' and at a forum for 400 fans chosen by lottery.
He died at his home in
Nyanga Nyanga may mean:
*Nyanga Province, of Gabon
* Nyanga River, in Gabon and Congo
*Nyanga people, an ethnic group from Congo
*Nyanga, Zimbabwe, a town
*Nyanga District, Zimbabwe
*Nyanga National Park in Zimbabwe
* Nyanga, Western Cape, a township in S ...
, aged 92.
A memorial service was held at St. George's College, attended by his three sons.
''Crosaire'' under Crozier and his successors
Until about 1988, Marjorie made the grid and Crozier only created the clues. Subsequently, Crozier took three to four hours to compile a puzzle. He retained an idiosyncratic approach to clues, which never came to conform to emerging British standards synopsised by "
Ximenes".
Crozier's daily puzzles recycled a small number of 15×15 grid patterns, each with
fourfold rotational symmetry. The Simplex crossword used four of the same grids,
excluding the Saturday ''Crosaire'' grid, which had 13-letter answers on the four edges and, latterly, a theme connecting these four.
Crozier's final puzzle, number 14,605 of 22 October 2011,
was the first to be analysed on ''The Irish Times''' new Crosaire
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
.
Roy Earle
Roy Earle is a former compiler of ''Crosaire'', a cryptic crossword published daily in ''The Irish Times''.
Roy Earle's sole predecessor was John Derek Crozier, under whose stewardship the crossword became enormously popular, inspiring a daily ...
, using the pseudonym "Mac An Iarla", compiled the ''Crosaire'' from 24 October 2011 to 9 June 2012.
Earle was succeeded by Paul O'Doherty, pseudonym "Crossheir", who compiled the crossword for a 10-year stint that ended on . O'Doherty was succeeded by a pair of alternating setters: Tony Davis (pseudonym "Dominic") and Niamh O'Connor (pseudonym "Le Corsaire").
Bibliography
The following anthologies have been published:
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*
Notes
Sources
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crosaire
1917 births
2010 deaths
People educated at Repton School
Crossword creators
Immigrants to Rhodesia
Irish emigrants
White Rhodesian people
Rhodesian farmers
Rhodesian politicians
Rhodesian businesspeople
20th-century Zimbabwean businesspeople
People from Dublin (city)
People from Harare
Zimbabwean farmers
Zimbabwean educators
Irish emigrants to Zimbabwe
Alumni of Trinity College Dublin
United Federal Party politicians
20th-century Irish farmers