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The Argus Thursday, November 10, 2016 News 3
Hold-upson trainshelp toinspiremy craftypuzzles
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For crossword setter,delays on rail give himtime to hone creations
THE ever worseningtrain service from Sus-sex to London is a sourceof heartache, frustra-tion and despondency formany.
But for Ashley Knowlesthe longer he spends ontrains, the longer he is able toindulge in his great passion –compiling crosswords.
The 57-year-old is known tothousands by his Guardiancrossword setter name Boat-man and now his fans are be-ing given the chance to learnthe secrets of the trade.
The Keymer-based setterhas just had his first book,Boatman The First 50, pub-lished and will be celebratingwith a special event at Water-
By Neil [email protected]
stone’s in Brighton from 7pmon January 19.
Mr Knowles said he didcrosswords as a child withhis parents but was “neververy good at them”.
When he met the future“Mrs Boatman” 20 years agothe pair would complete TheGuardian Saturday cross-word together.
After setting her a cross-word based on her dog in2001, the habit really kickedin and in 2003 he began set-ting for magazine One Acrossand then for The Guardianfive years later.
The compilation processof gathering themed ideas to-gether is very laborious andpuzzles’ construction cantake much longer than theircompletion. Mr Knowlescompletes 12 a year whilejuggling a full-time role as afinancial analyst where hiscommute gives him time towork on puzzles.
He said: “Travelling on therailways is a wonderful wayof picking up ideas. You haveto stay in one place and justlook at things.
“I pick up ideas and keepthem in notebooks until Ihave a few ideas that relatetogether.
“I manage to get two hoursevery day on the train tocome up with ideas. More de-
“AS SETTERS we see ourselves as something out of JamesBond, a super villain like Blofeld, and we find ways oftorturing people but we know in the end James Bond has towin.“I like people spending just a little bit longer than theyintended to finish the puzzle, to finish it just at the momentwhen they were about to give up and then realising that theextra five minutes needed to solve it was worth it.“Someone who wrote to me said they couldn’t quite finishmy puzzle but they never quite put it away and 440 dayslater they finally realised what the last clue was.”Ashley Knowles
lays mean more crosswords.”His own compiler name
comes from the time he firstbegan setting crosswords forhis partner while living ona 30-metre Dutch barge inBrighton Marina.
He said the current gen-eration of crossword setterswas different to the disci-pline’s founders who were allclassics scholars.
Mr Knowles said: “Wecertainly all have a love ofgames and playing, trickplaying.
“There’s a tendency frommost people who set cross-words to have music ormaths in their life.”
He added: “Ideally youwould be a poetry-lovingcomputer programmer.”
Ashley Knowles is known to many by his crossword setting nom de plume Boatman
TO celebrate the publication ofhis first book compiling hisfirst 50 crosswords in TheGuardian, Sussex setterBoatman has given Argusreaders a little challenge forthe old grey matter.Can you solve these six clues?
1. Gather all about! We are theplace to get your news (3,5)T-- A---S
2. Fool gave West Ham a daftepithet (1,4,2,3,6)A ---- -- --- -A----
3. Clue to U-boat command?(5,5) --D-- -B---
4. Doubt source of gospel?(8,4) -------- -A--
5. Imagine letters circulatingabout the end of the pencil (8)-----I--
6. Confident about homeworkthat’s easy (8)----C---Answers at bottom of page
Can yousolvethesefiendishclues?
1.THEARGUS(anagramofGATHERfollowedbywe=US)2.AGAMEOFTWOHALVES(anagramofFOOLGAVEWESTHAMA)3.ORDERABOUT(thesolutioncouldbereadasaclueforU-BOAT,bysuggestingananagramofABOUT)4.QUESTIONMARK(asimplecharadeofQUESTION+MARKbutthedefinition,attheveryendoftheclue,ishardtospot!)5.EMAILING(anagramofIMAGINEcontainingthelast
letterofPENCIL,andseveralwaysofreadingthedefinition)6.SINECURE(confident=SECUREcontaininghome=IN)
Solutions and explanations
