Roger Squires

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Roger Squires (born 22 February 1932, in Tettenhall, Wolverhampton, England) is a British crossword compiler, living in Ironbridge, Shropshire, who is best known for being the world's most prolific compiler .

Squires was educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School where he gained his School Certificate before joining the Royal Navy at age 15 as a Boy Seaman. At 20, as the youngest ever Seaman Petty Officer, he became a Lieutenant in the Fleet Air Arm and flew for 10 years from various carriers, visiting over 50 countries. As a Member of the Magic Circle he was banned from aircrew games of cards for money when weather prevented flying. Instead he began solving crosswords then, when at sea without newspapers, he began compiling. His first published puzzle appeared in 1963, the year that he left the Navy, in the Radio Times and in the same year became a regular compiler with The Birmingham Post. 1981 was a good year - he joined the Guardian and Financial Times and became the Birmingham Post crossword editor for 22 years. In 1986 he joined The Daily Telegraph and the Independent. He compiled for The Sun (1992-1998), The Times (1993-2005) and the Times Educational Supplement (1981-2006). He has set crosswords for virtually every British newspaper, under pseudonyms including Rufus, Icarus, Hodge and Bower^[1]. In 1999 he captained the Great Britain crossword team in the 12 nation International Crossword Marathon in Bjelovar, Jugoslavia. In the early 1970s he officially registered his company name of "Cryptic Crosswords".

He has now published over 66,000 crosswords in total, and on 14 May 2007 what was estimated to be his two millionth clue was published in the Daily Telegraph. The clue was 'Two girls, one on each knee (7)'.^[2]. Squires is recognised by Guinness World Records as "The World's Most Prolific Crossword Compiler".^[3] He appeared in the Guinness Book of Records from 1978 until all crossword records were dropped in 2002, though they were continued online until 2006. An update to December 2005 was included in the 2008 print edition. His crosswords have appeared in 564 outlets, including 105 publications in 32 countries outside the UK. He holds the record for the longest word used in a published puzzle, the Welsh place name: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which he clued as an anagram. He is one of only four setters to have been on the regular teams of all five quality newspapers (The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent and Financial Times). He holds the Guinness Record for the Longest Crossword. He has also produced a 3D crossword that fits on a Rubik's Cube.^[4]. Since passing his two millionth clue Roger has cut down his workload and now only provides regular crosswords for the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Glasgow Herald, Yorkshire Post and for two Syndicates, Gemini Crosswords and the Press Association.

Apart from crosswords, he is a member of Mensa^[5] and The Magic Circle, and he was a Fleet Air Arm observer in his twenties, during which time he qualified for the Goldfish Club (for survivors of aircraft ditchings) by escaping from his Gannet AEW aircraft 60 feet below the surface off Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in March 1961.^[4] From 1964 to 1977 he made over 250 appearances on TV as a comedy magician (26 Rolf Harris Shows (BBC1), five Crackerjacks (BBC1) ATV Today etc); as an actor (three months in the weekday Crossroads(ITV) as Amy Turtle's nephew Harold Bracket, and roles in Dr Who, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy, War and Peace, Licking Hitler etc plus films inc. The Beauty Jungle); and as a contestant (Countdown, Crosswits (twice), Catchword, and captained the Wolverhampton teams in both the IQ programme Pencil & Paper (ITV) and Crossword on Two (BBC2). In 1977 his marriage foundered and he gave up professional acting and magic to work from home so that he could look after his two pre-teenage sons. To earn a reasonable living he had to provide 40 crosswords a week. The head of crosswords at Central Press Features suggested he claim the title of "most prolific crossword compiler" and Norris McWhirter of Guinness Records accepted this claim in 1978. Roger is now married to Anna who brought along a stepdaughter Tamsin, now a doctor, to add to his stepson Simon, a property developer, and his own son Michael, a Vet. Michael, with wife Charlotte, who have now provided grandchildren Esme and Oscar. A keen sportsman, Roger represented the Royal Navy and Fleet Air Arm at football and cricket and is a qualified Football Association Coach and Referee, and played competitive squash until age 65.

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