The name of a Welsh town that most people would struggle to spell even on their best day is the longest word in a crossword ever.
On St David’s Day, we’re looking back on this history making cryptic clue, published by prolific crossword author Roger Squires (UK) in the July 1979 edition of Telford Wrekin News.
If we told you the clue was "Giggling troll follows Clancy, Larry, Billy and Peggy who howl, wrongly disturbing a place in Wales (58)", where all but the last five words formed an anagram, would you get it?
The answer is: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.
Congratulations if you worked it out!
Roger also holds the record for most crosswords compiled in a lifetime.
The record was updated numerous times throughout his career, for the final time in 2015 with a grand total of 77,854 crosswords.
He worked as a professional crossword setter for more than 50 years, with his work appearing in many national newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Times, often published under pseudonyms.
Roger sadly died in June 2023 at the age of 91.
His record-breaking crossword career almost didn’t happen as he actually came close to dying years earlier in the Royal Navy.
In March 1961, his aircraft crashed into the Indian Ocean and sank.
The cockpit escape hatch was jammed shut with the pressure of the water and he was trapped inside.
The Telegraph reports he once said: “The water was up to my face. I hung on to a bar above my head with my hands and kicked at the door.
“It gave way. By then I was 60 ft under, and I popped up like a cork, covered in oil. Luckily a helicopter was waiting to rescue me.”
The pilot did not escape and tragically lost his life.
It was during his time in the Navy that Roger found his love for crosswords. He’d work his way through around 12 puzzles a day, and when he was at sea and didn’t have access to newspapers, he’d start compiling his own instead.
He first had a puzzle published in 1963, the year he left the Navy.
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