A self-described “Crossword Connoisseur” is unhappy about the state of modern crosswords.
“I was visiting my family over the holidays and my grandson wanted to show me the crosswords he was doing,” said Graham Peters. “My excitement vanished when I saw he was playing a crossword game on his phone! It was disgusting! The silly machine had extra letters flying across when you got an answer right and it told you when you got an answer wrong. Since when did crosswords turn into crass video games? Crosswords aren’t a game!”
Graham tried to teach his grandson how to complete a newspaper crossword, but it didn’t last long.
“The poor kid wondered why I used a pencil and wanted to know where the answers were as he said it was too hard. I decided to cut my losses, let my grandson go back to his disgusting video game, and finish the crossword myself. The lack of attention spans in today’s general is all because of the TikTok and Twenty20 cricket! No wonder children’s brains are being turned to mush!”
A veteran crossword writer for various newspapers in Australia and overseas, and author of a few crossword books, Graham has devoted his life to puzzling.
“I complained to my son about these horrible games, but he hit back with my popular ‘How to Play Crosswords like a Master’ books from back in the day. I said that was different: I was helping people to get the most out of their crossword experience. I never gave them the answers or told them when they got something wrong. I called it a guidebook for a reason!”
Graham has fond memories of learning to play crosswords as a child.
“Every Friday night, my father would collect the weekly newspapers and we’d spend the weekend completing the crosswords together, only breaking for the Saturday night family movie and church on Sunday morning. And I always got a nice, big crossword book for Christmas. It saved my parents a fortune on noisy toys that would end up in the trash after a few weeks. I would spend countless hours completing the puzzles from start to finish. And I never looked at the answers page. If I didn’t know an answer, I would think about it carefully until I solved it. And I always completed every puzzle.”
