Sir, – John O'Mahony writes (Letters, June 8th) that he managed to complete the Simplex crossword online in a little more than nine minutes only to be beaten by someone who claimed to have completed it in one minute and 31 seconds.
I don’t do online crosswords, preferring the feel of paper and biro, but being retired and having some time to spare, I decided to carry out a little experiment.
Armed with the published solution to Simplex no 17,517 and a blank copy of the said puzzle, I set about transcribing the printed result to the blank copy.
The task took me four minutes and 31 seconds, which is exactly three minutes longer than it took the unnamed genius, working online, to complete the crossword ab initio.
:fill(white):background_color(white)/static.themebuilder.aws.arc.pub/irishtimes/1647534191476.png)
We must find this person. Such genius should not go unrecognised. – Yours, etc,
LOUIS
O’FLAHERTY,
Santry,
Dublin 9.