Posted on 31 May 20261 June 2026 by Jolt

Our lunch on Saturday 23rd May was an excellent occasion. Miller & Carter, Marlbrook, did us proud and their separate function room gave us plenty of scope for speeches and presentations. Garry Stripling sent us a crossword from Paris, and Nick Inglis brought us a picture quiz. These acted wonderfully well as icebreakers and entertainment combined.

I welcomed everyone and in the break between mains and puddings, said a personal thank you to Alan Goddard for all his work for the 3D Crossword Calendar. Alan took over the leading role when ill health caused Eric to withdraw from the day to day work. I had been doing the marking for several years and to have Alan take up the reins and keep the whole thing going was a huge relief to us all. While still involved, Alan reduced his role in our venture last year and I thought he deserved a rousing round of applause, our huge thanks and a pack of Yorkshire biscuits — we do know how to celebrate things.

Alan didn’t quite get away with being there just to eat biscuits however — and to escort our ace photographer Lynn — as he had to let us know how the fund-raising was looking from the accounts point of view. Fortunately he had good news to pass on, letting us know that with another year of increased sales we are able to up our contributions to the two charities.

After lunch, Alan George Chamberlain (known to us as George because we already have an Alan) told us about the running of things from his point of view as Editor in Chief. George paid heartfelt thanks to Jos Tait, our IT guru who does a vast amount of work from creating and maintaining our website and the electronic marking systems, through the preparing and production of the calendar, and we would be lost without her.

George also wondered how we could reach a wider audience and how we could involve more people in the general tasks required to keep us going, and asked everyone (including you dear readers) to come up with ideas and/or volunteer your time to this fun and entertaining way of raising monies for our two charities, RNIB and Children in Need.

Eric gave us an idea of his role in things and which hats he wore and when. With a graphic display of hat-changing he had us highly entertained. When Eric started the 3D Crossword Calendar it was a solo effort for some years and his generosity and innovative ideas for fundraising have raised significant amounts for our charities. Eric then presented the certificates and prizes, the first being the Oberto Solver of the Year going to Andie Johnson from Idaho. She couldn’t be with us but her sisters and mother were there to receive her award and entered into the spirit of things straight away.

Eric then explained about the RPM Trophy being in memory of Ray Parry-Morris, who devised crossword grids under the name ‘45’, this being why the trophy is made up of — you guessed it — 45rpm records. This was awarded to Mark O’Connor (aka Cranberry) for his excellent grid.

Then came time for the presentation to the 2025 World Champion Jonathan Treml, whose grid and clues were outstanding. Again, Eric reminded us that the piece of quartz might look like a piece of cake but it is ‘not a piece of cake’ in the same way that solving 3D crosswords isn’t either. He then awarded the trophy to Jonathan, and this rounded up proceedings.

Nora Boswell

Many thanks to Nora for a sterling job of organising the event as usual.

See below for photos of the event.

Solutions to puzzles: crossword, picture quiz.