When The Times cryptic was a religion

British newspapers, notably The Times, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent, carry some of the world's finest cryptic crosswords. My own favourite has been The Times cryptic which I first began solving in my teens, together with my father who was a devout crossword buff. He used to compile them in the 1970s for the erstwhile Sunday Standard, the Sunday edition of Indian Express.

The Times of India subscribed to The Times crossword for several years before it abruptly stopped carrying it somewhere in the early 1990s. That single act of foolishness must have cost the leading daily scores of readers. For, the crossword had legions of loyal fans among the readers of ToI. Before its sad demise, the crossword used to appear in the bottom left-hand corner on the last page of the paper, in black and white, as all crosswords should be. The cryptic was replaced by an American-centric crossword and buried in the entertainment section. I have never solved it.

So popular was the London Times cryptic among crossword fans in Bombay, it was not uncommon to see early-morning commuters, travelling to work by the local suburban train network, having a go at it. I know people who merely glanced at the headlines and promptly turned to the back page, for better part of an hour or even a day. You just didn’t give up on the crossword till you had cracked a decent number of clues.

The joy of cracking a London Times cryptic clue was indescribable while unravelling a 15-word anagram was an absolute delight. You felt a true sense of achievement, like a medical or engineering student clearing his or her entrance. I don’t know how far this is true but the crossword, I am told, is compiled by many hands, which probably explained why there were “good days” and “bad days” every time you tried to solve it. On some days you got through most of the intelligent clues and on other days you barely made it past ten, up or down. So you counted your friends and foes behind the cryptic by the clues you could, or could not, solve.

In many ways the departure of the famous cryptic in The Times of India marked the death of the crossword in Bombay, to be replaced by that numerical brain teaser Sudoku. People still solve the “concise” or “quick” or “easy” crosswords but it’s not the same thing. Now Hindustan Times has brought back the crossword, by arrangement with The Times, London, which is running 23,005. May its number keep growing.

Scrabble sacrilege

Nothing is sacred anymore, not even Scrabble. One of the world's most popular board games, Scrabble is doing a 360° turn. News has come in that US toy giant Mattel, which owns the game and has sold an estimated 150 million sets worldwide, is spicing up the board game in a way that already has traditional lovers of the game scrabbling for cover and screaming "double letter" and "triple word" cuss words.

Mattel is reportedly changing the rules of the game, invented by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in 1948, to allow the use of proper nouns, like names of places, famous people and companies.

As a story on The Washington Post website noted, "To Scrabble purists, this would be like lowering the height of the baskets in the NBA, or doing away with the net in tennis. Suddenly, any idiot could spell, say, "Bjork", and score a quick 18 points."

So, for every "Beyonce", you will have a "Barack". Ditto for "India" and "England". Or, "Pepsi" and "Walmart". Throw out the dictionary and bring in the encyclopedia!

But wait, it gets worse. It seems players can spell words backwards and upwards, and even place words unconnected to letters already on the board. "Unconnected", did they say?

Here's my own rule, No.3: two players can now sit facing each other across one board and play at the same time without having to play with each other. Or, make that two pairs of players without one having to play with the other, if you like. Is Mattel listening?

The toy company is dead serious about savaging the 62-year old game’s rules, the first time in its history. Mattel expects the changes to add a "new twist" to the board game. "We believe that people who are already fans of the game will enjoy the changes and they will also enable younger players and families to get involved," The Telegraph of UK quoted a Mattel spokeswoman as saying. Thankfully, Mattel will continue to sell the board game with the original rules.

Even if they don't, you and I can still play Scrabble the traditional way.

Recommended article: Beyonce on a triple-word score? Scrabble to upset purists with 'dumbing down' rule change at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1263658/Scrabble-upset-purists-proper-noun-rule-change.html#ixzz0kPAGYTZi