This was posted by "Cullen" last month
Hello - I have had the pleasure and privilege of setting the monthly Saga Prize crossword for the last 17 years under my setter's name of 'Cullen'. Quite apart from the honour, it has been fun watching the questions and answers by Saga crossword aficionados on this blog. May I please say 'Well Done' to all of you! Unfortunately, the bean counters have been at work at Saga, seeking to enhance the magazine's and the group's profitability with the result that from January 2015 all the Saga puzzle pages are moving across en bloc to the Puzzlermedia plc people. Consequently, December's prize crossword is due to be my last and I am going to lose my mandate through no fault of my own. It has appeared that many of you have enjoyed my setting style down the years and I would also like to say a big 'thank you' for that too. I have no firm indication of the standard which the Saga Prize crossword is going to be in future but suspect that it may well become another 'Times', 'Independent', 'Guardian' or even 'Telegraph' all of which are rather below the sort of cryptic I had always sought to create. So I would like to take this opportunity to say - "If you don't much like the sort of prize crossword you are going to be offered from January 2015 onwards, then do please write to The Editor at Saga (her name is Katy Bravery and she's very nice indeed - it wasn't she who is responsible for the forthcoming change - it's the bean counters!). If she receives enough grumbles from any of you who are going to be unhappy with the new crossword style, I might get my mandate back. If not, so be it". Thank you so much to all you solvers whose handles have become quite familiar from scanning the blog over recent years and I have to also say how impressed I have been with many sparkling answers. Please forgive this cri de coeur at probably saying goodbye after 17 years. With best wishes to you all. Cullen.