18 NOVEMBER 2006, Page 30

Not compiling

From Tom Johnson

Sir: I read Sandy Balfour’s review of the A-Z of Crosswords by Jonathan Crowther in last week’s edition of The Spectator with interest. I am sure that Jonathan would like to defend his stance personally. As crossword editor of The Spectator I wish to point out some factual errors in Sandy Balfour’s review. The main team of compilers of The Spectator crossword consists of Columba, Dumpynose and me along with Ascot. Balfour omits his name, yet includes Mass who retired as a Spectator compiler early in 1997. Smokey’s very few puzzles for The Spectator appeared well over 20 years ago, at the time when Jac, the instigator of the series, took a breather from compiling.

Tom Johnson ‘Doc’, crossword editor of The Spectator