About
Shabbo Crosswords
Shabbo is otherwise known as Mark Elliott. The nickname goes back to student days, but its origins are lost in the mists of time!
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I started solving cryptic crosswords during chemistry lessons at school and have continued on and off ever since. Compiling was always of interest and I had a puzzle published in a Daily Telegraph book of “Prize Winning Crosswords” way back in 1987. I had a brief spell compiling for the local newspaper and then wrote golf themed crosswords for Golf Monthly for 100 months in the 1990s.
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In May 2017, the current Mrs Shabbo and I attended a gathering of crossword people at The George in Borough High Street and, with my confidence boosted by several pints of fine ale, I approached The Times crossword editor and told him that he needed to sign me up before anyone else did. He quite rightly pointed me in the direction of Big Dave, who was not difficult to find. BD ran (he sadly passed away in May 2023) the eponymous Big Dave’s Crossword Blog at www.bigdave44.com and could not have been more helpful. He advised me to submit a puzzle for consideration for inclusion in the site’s Rookie Corner and also introduced me to Jane and Sue who continue to be enormously helpful to me as test solvers. I duly submitted a puzzle and BD was kind enough to publish it in July 2017. I was pleasantly surprised by the favourable feedback, albeit there were inevitably a few technical errors that needed ironing out. A few puzzles later and I found myself elevated to the Not The Saturday Prize Puzzle slot and my crosswords have appeared there regularly ever since. In June 2020, I fulfilled a lifelong ambition by becoming a nationally published compiler when a puzzle of mine appeared in The Independent and I am delighted to be one of a very distinguished group of Independent compilers.
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Since retiring in January 2019, I have kept myself busy compiling crosswords, proof reading, doing DIY at my daughter’s house (and occasionally at ours!), helping my son run his new business and doing “stuff” at my rugby club, Welwyn RFC. Having completed a major project at the club in the autumn, the aforementioned Mrs Shabbo accused me of being bored, a charge which I struggled to defend. I produce more puzzles than NTSPP or The Independent can use and I needed an incentive to continue to compile more regularly. The answer was fairly obvious, even for me – create a website and aim to publish puzzles on a regular basis. Hence, www.shabbocrosswords.com was born in December 2022. Many thanks to my wonderful techie, Iain Murray, for sorting it all out – it was way beyond my very modest IT skills.
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I hope you enjoy the puzzles and please feel free to leave a comment where indicated. There are no prizes – it’s just a bit of fun (hopefully!).
Happy puzzling!
Mark Elliott/Shabbo
January 2023