{"id":350,"date":"2005-07-19T13:53:14","date_gmt":"2005-07-19T12:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/?p=350"},"modified":"2005-07-19T13:53:20","modified_gmt":"2005-07-19T12:53:20","slug":"he-is-the-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.willhowells.org.uk\/blog\/2005\/07\/19\/he-is-the-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"He is the champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve not heard a fanfare from The Independent<\/em>, but according to the website of The New Zealand Herald<\/em><\/a>, the winner of the Indie’s Sudoku Grand Master Championship 2005 was Edward Billig.<\/p>\n

Edward Billig, 23, the new star in the quiz firmament, is a tall, ursine youth with close-cropped hair and beard, who resembles a Motorhead roadie. <\/p>\n

He is, in fact, an audio technician who lives in Wapping and works in Fleet Street. <\/p>\n

Maybe there’s something in his pedigree – the fact that his father was a maths teacher who did music and sound recording – that explains how he can finish six hard sudokus in only 22 and a half minutes. <\/p>\n

He doesn’t have a secret plan. <\/p>\n

“You just look at groups of numbers and work out what’s missing,” he said. <\/p>\n

He practises by timing himself at work. <\/p>\n

“Carol Vorderman says she can do a pretty fiendish one in 19 minutes. I can manage it in about 10.” <\/p>\n

He seemed a little stunned by success. <\/p>\n

“My head’s hurting a bit now,” said the Independent Sudoku Grand Master 2005, as he left, bearing his Waterford crystal trophy, his champagne and other paraphernalia of victory. “I think something’s broken inside it.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bad luck to those readers who made the final but didn’t win. I’d be interested to hear any accounts of how it went.<\/p>\n

(Via<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve not heard a fanfare from The Independent, but according to the website of The New Zealand Herald, the winner of the Indie’s Sudoku Grand Master Championship 2005 was Edward Billig. 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