2022 World Championship & RPM Trophy Competitions

Now is the time for you to start preparing your entries for the 2022 World Championship and the RPM Trophies.

We are a small team and are always looking for grids for the Calendar Puzzles and the Extra Puzzles, which is why both challenges require the design of a 3D grid, or indeed, if you are feeling inspired, grids, with a little bit more for the World Championship entrants to do. We included two excellent grids from Calluna (one of our 2021 competition winners) in the 2023 Calendar.

The links below take you to the relevant pages of our website where the information leads you towards best practice. Those of you less IT confident are welcome to submit your grids any way that you find comfortable, but using one of the templates really does help the judges. We cannot stress more that our challenges are for your entertainment and to be enjoyed. Nothing helps your overall appreciation of crosswords more than adding grid design and clue writing to your solving achievements. Below is an outline of each challenge.

2022 World Championship

Qualification: you must have successfully solved 12 puzzles during 2022. When you submit your monthly puzzle entry, your acknowledgement email will contain your progress status. There is also a “check your progress” link on our Puzzles Page. Solving the November Extra will give you an extra boost towards getting the required 12. 

Your tasks will be:

1. To solve the November Extra crossword puzzle.
2. To create a 3D grid with a theme suitable for our 2024 calendar, i.e. the year after next. This can be an anniversary related theme appropriate to a specific month or a non-anniversary related theme which can appear in any month.
3. To write clues for the following two phrases:
   • Merry Gentlemen
   • Silent Night

2022 RPM Trophy

There are no qualifications required for this challenge and everyone is encouraged to enter, although World Championship entrants must submit a separate grid. Your task is to create a 3D grid with a theme suitable for our 2024 calendar, i.e. the year after next, or beyond. This can be an anniversary related theme appropriate to a specific month or a non-anniversary related theme which can appear in any month.

Deadline

The submission deadline for both competitions is 15 January 2023.

Help

3D Grid Design Guide pages are for guidance but nothing is cast in stone. 

3D Grid Templates (PDF) are there for you to use and adapt as you see fit.  Or you could create your own.  It also contains the information for where to send your grid.

Word Template (.doc for download) is our preferred method for you to submit the information about you and your grid.

3D Exemplar Grid and Word Table (PDF) is an example of your final submission.

November Extra Puzzle

The November Extra Puzzle and entry form can be found on the 2022 puzzles page.