No more clues from world crossword ace Roger

"We thought it was about time to give up and do more travelling. I have always wanted to see the world," said Roger, of Ironbridge, who is married to Anna.

In a crossword career of nearly 55 years, he has seen approaching 80,000 published in 592 outlets in over 30 countries, with nearly 2.5 million clues set.

And naturally he slipped in some relevant clues in his last puzzles which appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, and Guardian, on Monday, December 18.

"In the Telegraph there was 'stop working and go to bed,'" said Roger, the answer being of course "retire."

And at the news of his departure the Guardian's crossword editor received 150 emails saying that he would be sadly missed.

"I shan't be setting new puzzles, but the Shropshire Star and the Express & Star are currently using two of my cryptic puzzles every week, supplied by a syndicate, which may interest your readers.

"I am still recognised by Guinness Book of Records as being the world's most prolific crossword setter, producer of a published puzzle including the longest word ever used in a published magazine, and so on."

Roger was, to his chagrin, actually dropped from the records book in its 2009 edition for the first time since 1978, as according to the then editor the young readership was "not interested in crosswords."

However, he was reinstated in the 2014 edition under a new editor.

His 2016 entry in Guinness World Records read: “Most crosswords in a lifetime. After 50-plus years of setting for some 115 publications, Roger F Squires (UK) had published more than 77,854 by Feb 2015, which equates to roughly 2.34 million clues.”

The editor apologised to Roger for leaving out various other crossword-related records he holds, such as the longest crossword.

Among some of the favourite cryptic clues he has set are "Bar of soap (3,6,6)"; and "Two girls, one on each knee (7)."

Roger was born in Sandy Lane, Tettenhall, Wolverhampton. There was a field next to Burland Avenue where he and his childhood pals would play football and when Billy Wright signed for Wolves he had digs in Burland Avenue and would join in with their kickabouts, occasionally bringing others, including Johnny Hancocks.

Roger went to Wolverhampton Grammar School and left at 15 to join the Royal Navy, serving in the Fleet Air Arm as an Observer flying from aircraft carriers.

He became a member of the exclusive Goldfish Club for ditched aircrew when the Gannet plane from HMS Hermes he was in stalled at 300ft and crashed into the sea off Sri Lanka.

He escaped from 60ft beneath the sea, but sadly the pilot died.

It was his hobby being a magician which led indirectly to him starting to compile crosswords.

"I used to do a trick where I shuffled the pack and dealt myself 13 spades.

"Every time it rained and stopped flying at our base at Cornwall, all the aircrew played cards for money, but after I showed them this trick they wouldn't let me play. So I started solving crosswords, eventually doing about 12 a day.

"Then when we went to sea and there were no newspapers, I thought I would try to compile one."

His first published crossword is sometimes said to have appeared in the Radio Times, but it actually appeared in the Express & Star on Monday, December 2, 1963, for which he was paid £3 and three shillings.

Readers had been invited to send in their crosswords, but Roger says: "I won it three times on the trot but then the Express & Star said sorry, they had had enough of my crosswords."

Roger's brother got round the "ban" by sending in Roger's crosswords under the name of his friends.

"It only stopped after about the 45th when my brother made a mistake when I was on holiday and sent in the same puzzle with different names and they questioned it and stopped it."

However, crosswords were just one string to his bow, as he also had a career in showbusiness, including as a professional magician and actor with many television appearances.

His acting credits included three months in Crossroads as Amy Turtle's nephew, and an appearance in Doctor Who as a soldier who was killed when a robot stood on his head, and he did 26 Rolf Harris shows with the BBC as a comedy magician.

He was for a time assistant entertainments manager at Butlin's at Bognor and appeared in the film "The Beauty Jungle" starring Sid James and Janette Scott shot there in 1963.

He was later to give up showbusiness and concentrate on crosswords, passing his one millionth crossword clue in 1989 and reaching the two million mark in 2007.

"My wife didn't do crosswords in the past, but now she tries to do them every day and is doing really well and loving them. But she never solved mine," said Roger, for whom solving other people's crosswords is still a hobby, and in the past he used to find ideas in them to adapt for his own clues.

Among his records, that for the longest crossword answer was Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, used as an anagram (the clue was "Giggling troll follows Clancy, Larry, Billy and Peggy who howl, wrongly disturbing a place in Wales (58)".)

And if you haven't been able to work out those clues we mentioned earlier, the answers were: 1. The Rover's Return and 2. Patella.