Warning: Local Content
No offence to DAVENTRY, a God-fearing town of 22,000 Poms, but what the hell is it doing in today’s Times crossword, published in The Australian? COVENTRY – fine. At least that has a critical mass, a Lady Godiva, a Peeping Tom, a Clive Owen, a postcard cathedral and a place in worldwide idiom on its side.
(What does Daventry possess? According to the great god Wiki, this stagnant backwater brags a roller-bearing factory, a farmer’s market and a lapsed women’s prison known as Moot Hall. My point exactly.)
So why not sidestep the parochialism altogether? Faced with the genial letter pattern of __ A __ E __ T __ Y, why didn’t the UK setter plump for TAPESTRY or LATENTLY to keep the offshore clients happy? I’d say the good chap failed to empathise beyond the pale, patently.
Making crosswords for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, I can be forgiven the odd COWRA or WARRANDYTE. In fact, if reader’s feedback is any guide, the practice is encouraged, mainly since the puzzles are intended for the homegrown solver. The Fairfax puzzles offer a provincial point of difference from the imported stuff. The fact that GRINSPOON is a jumble of SPONSORING seems a joy worth celebrating.
Brisbane mother of seven, Shirl O’Brien, knows all about the joy of the local. Under the alias of Auster in The Guardian, and Southern Cross in The Courier, Shirl has been cranking out puzzles for the best part of 20 years. And when it comes to the Queensland paper, she loads the grid with QUOKKA and INDOOROOPILLY. (Mind you, stuffing up the spelling of STOREY BRIDGE [sic] can kinda short-circuit the advantage.)
I should talk. Early in my setting career I mishandled PARRAMATTA, thieving the suburb its second R, and didn’t the editor tsk-tsk in stereo? With bloody good reason. If neighbourly references are trump cards, you need to play them smart.
And fair. And having DAVENTRY in an exported grid is a stinker. Even the clue was pile of stoat droppings:
Bloke’s attempt to secure new place in Northants (8)
My tentative nib entered MALENTRY, since MALE is the closest semblance to ‘bloke’ that obeyed the crossover letters. But just to be sure I ran all the other macho-options through my scone, those that matched the pattern anyhow, and fudged half a dozen likely villages: DALENTRY, JAKENTRY, MATENTRY, GABENTRY, ZANENTRY…you get the drift. Bad clue. Bad answer. Send the culprit to Coventry.