In the winter of 1989, in the seaside town of Port Elliot, near the mouth of the Murray River, the writer and crossword fan Tess Brady solved a literary crossword she thought was so bad that she decided to show the paper what it should look like.
That summer her seaside cottage filled with artists, writers and university students whose holiday job became creating word and visual puzzles for the newspapers of Adelaide and Melbourne. Out of this flurry of activity evolved Snodger Puzzles.
The name Snodger came from a word used in the first crossword puzzle. It is an old Australian word used by CJ Dennis in a poem where he declares it to be 'a snodger of a day'.
Snodger continues to make specialist crosswords for weekend newspapers, though now it is based in Clunes, in rural Victoria. The company has used the changing skills of Tess her daughter, Catherine Gough-Brady, and now Snodger also makes educational DVDs on Australian writers and artists.
Snodger is also slowly acquiring an art collection depicting the alphabet.
Snodger Media
6 Tourello St,
Clunes, Vic 3370
Australia
ph: (03) 5345-3147
Snodger phonetic alphabet & main references
Snodger extra clue phone line
Need a hint to help solve the puzzle? $1.65 per min. (More from mobiles and public phones)
For the Adelaide Advertiser, Saturday & Sunday Age call:
1902 242 514
Books of Crossquizes, Sunday Giants and Codewords.
All you need to run a hassle-free trivia night
Especially for the puzzle fan that you know