Jonathan Crowther

[1] He was born in Liverpool on 24 September 1942, the son of a doctor, and grew up in Kirkby Lonsdale in the Lake District.

[3] However, reversing the last name of one, Diego de Deza, gave Azed, which (to British ears at least) resembles the first and last letters of the alphabet.

These still continue and in the monthly "slip", he gives details of each competition and discusses points of technique and more general interest relating to his puzzles.

[1] Glimpses into his private life can be found among the technical comments – for example, he is very interested in cricket and less so in football, he took part in a performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass at Radley College, and one of his sons is a rock musician.

[5][6][7] Proudly Ximenean in his crossword philosophy, he favours puzzles whose setters have similar ideas (Dimitry, Duck and Phi, for example).

These include Cherchez la Femme,[8] Eightsome Reels,[9] Give and Take,[10] Overlaps,[11] and Spoonerisms.

When cluing, Chambers Thesaurus is a standard aid, assisted by a wide variety of reference books (many now out of print) which he has accumulated over the years.

He believes that "the whole business about the setting and solving of crosswords is that it is a battle of minds – a tussle of wits between the setter and the solver.