Fifty years of The Spectator crossword

During the early spring of 1971, a package of eighteen unsolicited crosswords arrived in the post at the Spectator’s offices in Goodge Street. These puzzles were compiled by Jac who had already established himself during the 1960s as a challenging and inventive setter for the Listener series. The name John Adelmare Caesar hid behind the pseudonym Jac who had recently retired from the post of Town Clerk for Rochdale, it is believed.

JAC’s first puzzle for the Spectator appeared in the magazine exactly fifty years ago today. In an accompanying editorial on July 3^rd 1971, it was claimed that the series aimed to be “the most sophisticated published anywhere”. For ten years Jac presented a weekly puzzle, the vast majority of which included a set of unclued thematic solutions which were referred to cryptically in the puzzle’s title. His first crossword, entitled “To Hell with it” was on the theme of the wines of Burgundy. Many of his puzzles were compiled on 15×15 grids, but during the latter part of his tenure, he moved to the 14×14 patterns which still distinguish our puzzles to this day. Jac’s style was distinctive, quirky and certainly not beholden to the traditional “fair play” cluing style of Ximenes and Alec Robins, say. Consequently a “Jac-pot” was offered to solvers, so that, should no correct solution be received, that week’s monetary prize would be added to the prize for the next puzzle. This happened twice during Jac’s tenure.

After ten years Jac decided to reduce his commitment and so Harold Massingham and I were invited to join him in presenting our puzzles in a three-weekly cycle which began in July 1981. Just over ten years later Jac decided to retire having compiled just under 650 puzzles for the series.

MASS, Harold Massingham, was born in 1932 and after leaving Mexborough Grammar School, he read English language and literature at the University of Manchester.