Why is the Times crossword so famous? Well, it has become a national institution, rated as the benchmark of acumen and flexibility. Its devotees have included Churchill, Attlee and Montagu James, the former Provost of Eton who regularly completed the puzzle before his (soft-boiled!) egg was cooked.

In fiction, too, many persons of erudition have tackled this crossword. Among them we find Inspector Morse, who on a train from Oxford to Paddington solved every clue in the 12 minutes to Didcot Parkway — except one. Whereupon he quickly wrote in a few bogus letters in case any of his fellow passengers were waiting to be impressed.

Does it matter how long it takes to complete? Yes — and certainly on Sunday, when contestants will face a series of demanding puzzles against the clock and each other.

How long does it take me? On rare occasions I have made the “hard-boiled” time of seven or eight minutes. But there are days now when I can scan every Across clue with hardly a glimmer of illumination. How I envy some of my friends! Among them is Roy Dean, twice a previous winner of the championship, who has clocked a certified time of under four minutes. And once I was on a train with Don Manley, who had bought The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and The Guardian at Oxford station and had solved all four cryptic crosswords in the 23 minutes up to Reading.

Why do so many people enjoy crosswords? One reason is that most solvers relish their daily struggle with the setter. In such struggles we should expect our setters to “say what they mean” (the first and great commandment); and accurate in their handling of grammar and syntax. As a bonus, we can hope for an occasional touch of humour.

For me, it is the memorability and memorisability of clues that make crosswords such special fun. Examples? Let me quote two recent ones from The Times: the splendidly humorous So he has a zip? Sensible fellow (2, 5, 2, 3); and the visual penny-dropping of Boss of firm always in the black (7, 8).

There is one other reason. Our esteemed consultant Dr Thomas Stuttaford recommends solving crosswords as suitable medicine for postponing mental senility.

CLUE SOLUTIONS

Headline: CROSSWORD
(Times = x in multiplication)

Examples above:
NO FLIES ON HIM
FUNERAL DIRECTOR

CHAMPIONS AND CHALLENGERS

Tony Sever, retired software designer

I’ve been doing the Times crossword since I was 18. I’m 62 now and I do it daily without fail. I’ve perhaps missed one since 1970 — there was some sort of strike and only the Cornish edition got out, I think. Now I can do it online anywhere in the world. A number of us compete against each other to complete the times2 quick crossword in Race the Clock. You record your own time — someone supposedly did it in 54 seconds but my feeling is that that’s probably a bit too fast to be true. On a very good day, a very good solver might do it in under 1min 15sec.

The style changed about 20 years ago when they dropped the reliance on literary and classical allusions — a great pity for those of us who learnt poetry and Latin at school. But, that said, the clues are very sound these days; Richard Browne (Times crosswords editor) runs a very tight ship.

The reigning champion, Biddlecombe, is a very good man, but if I had to bet on the outcome of this championship it would be Goodliffe. That said, there is this strange character — code name ABEAL — who does Race the Clock in very fast times. If he can do cryptic, he could wipe the floor with all of us.

I do the crossword late in the evening — 9 to 9.30. I will do Race the Clock after seeing how fast others have done it during the day, then turn to the cryptic. I’m not as fast as I was: I don’t do it much under five minutes these days, sometimes more like 20 minutes and sometimes damned near 30 minutes.

Occasionally I even get the damn thing wrong, though that doesn’t happen often. On a very good day the top people might do it in under four minutes. I’ve a sneaking feeling that Biddlecombe did it in three minutes once, but you must ask him about that.

Mark Goodliffe, 41, finance director

I learnt to do cryptics as a teenager — I noticed that my parents always got excited when the compiler was Araucaria, and thought “what’s that all about?” I worked up to The Times at boarding school and did a daily crossword from then until 1999, when I won the finals.

Nowadays I’m much more interested in timing: ordinary solvers will find the times the quicker of us post ridiculous but once you get to the stage of being able reliably to complete a crossword, timing is the next stage to keep you on your toes. But there is no set goal; it is like golf courses — every crossword is different. I have one close friend whom I met at one of the finals; we’re on holiday together now — that’s how close we are. My wife doesn’t do crosswords.

The really interesting thing about this championship is that it’s the first for six years: there could be anybody in the field, people you don’t know about. And anyone could win on the day — occasionally there are very hard words that only one or two people may know.

Helen Ougham, 50, plant scientist

I started when I was about 14. My mother used to do the crossword daily and she’d get me to help her with the science clues. Then I started doing crosswords in my own right and entered my first competition when I was 17.

I notice that the rules for the Times championship this year say that anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. That’s a sign of the times, isn’t it? If they’d had that rule when I was young I wouldn’t have gone.

I do any of the cryptic puzzles; I like the Listener puzzle, though I can’t always finish it. I’m often travelling for work so I don’t necessarily do a puzzle every day and I have no routine and no system: I just scan the clues until one jumps out at me and off I go.

If I’ve had a demanding day at work and want to unwind, a crossword is absolutely the best way to do it. It’s the problem-solving that appeals to me; I don’t time myself or do Race the Clock. This may sound funny, given that I enter the competition and have won it, but I’m not a particularly competitive person. I really enjoy the concentration of the finals: my mother and husband were in the audience the year I won and found it unbelievably stressful. This year my husband will go for a walk instead.

Peter Biddlecombe, software specialist

Six years is plenty of time for someone to improve a hell of a lot. Someone who has never competed might be creeping up on me. One person I would expect to be there or thereabouts is Mark Goodliffe — he’s been all correct for The Listener for a whole year several times and is the current holder of the longest all-correct sequence.

I’m a bit of a tortoise myself and do better with harder puzzles. If a puzzle is easy, faster people will beat me.

I’ve tried to do a puzzle every day since 1977 and at least two since 1984. I always do The Times.

My average solving time for The Times is 9min 50sec. My personal record is three minutes but I haven’t been under four minutes for a year.

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