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There are currently only three barred, themed puzzles published weekly in UK newspapers - the EV, the Inquisitor, and the Listener. There are also, to the best of my knowledge, only three weekly crosswords of any type published in UK newspapers for which anyone can submit a puzzle and have their submission judged solely on its own merit - the same three. To lose the EV would not only deny pleasure to all those who enjoy the extremely varied challenge that it presents, but also dramatically reduce the opportunities available for aspiring setters of barred puzzles to reach an audience.

I support the campaign to save the EV, in whatever form may be possible.

Thank you for the support everybody. I have never been one just to roll over and accept things when I feel they are wrong. Let's hope that the Telegraph powers-that-be take note of our collective strength of feeling on this.

Coming late to this. I too hope that EV can be continued. The reason given for stopping it - that only a small number send in solutions - is specious. Plenty of folk do puzzles without sending them in, indeed there must be a fair few who don't finish them (a subset which includes me from time to time, alas) but are engaged on a learning process. It smacks of some of the ancient universities (and virtually all schools) no longer offering Greek because very few pupils wish to study it. What have numbers got to do with it? My subscription will certainly not be renewed when it runs out (not until well into 2021, dammit, so I shall be funding this otherwise execrable rag for longer than I care to).

Frankly I would be happy to see the current owners of The Telegraph penniless and living in a ditch even though I don't live on Sark. Perhaps it would be better to campaign for the EV to be adopted by something that isn't owned such a pair.
I stopped buying the Guardian when it went of the rails, I bite my tongue when buying Murdoch's Times on Saturdays but would pay the same amount for the Listener crossword if it was available separately.
Perhaps the answer is for subscriptions for good crosswords that aren't tied to our utterly mediocre printed media.
I may not be 'on message' but there you go.

That's a fine post Granama1. I wonder if there is any mileage in a business/service which syndicated the three weekly barred crosswords in a single pdf bulletin delivered over the weekend. There would be takers for that in the crossword community but I suspect it would be a nightmare to coordinate any agreement between the big print houses.

williamseal@16 - apart from the obvious Inquisitor (which means buying the i newspaper or subscribing to it), I can recommend the Crossword Centre's monthly puzzle (almost invariably set by an EV/IQ/Listener setter) - http://www.crossword.org.uk/ - and the monthly free puzzles that the Magpie (electronic-only) magazine is currently offering - https://www.piemag.com/category/public/sample-puzzles/

If you're not familiar with the Magpie, 'A' grade puzzles (which these free ones are) probably equate to EVs of lower-end difficulty - every issue includes at least one A grade puzzle, along with others that generally span the difficulty spectrum (but grade E puzzles, the toughest of all, are rare). A subscription to the Magpie, by the way, gets you five alphabetical and one numerical puzzle per month, and contributes solely to the upkeep of the mag, which is run by crossword lovers for crossword lovers (and no, I'm not on commission!)

I can’t help wondering if the decision is partly a result of the almost nonexistent responses to the EV blogs on Fifteensquared. A mediocre Guardian puzzle can get 70 responses while even the best EVs are lucky to get five.

We were lucky with the IQ in that Nimrod has enough clout that his sterling efforts did not go unrewarded. I’m sure the EV editor (Steve Bartlett, I believe) is fighting his corner too. Perhaps we should contact him to offer our support?

Loge, the Guardian puzzles are daily and freely available on line so you would expect more responses. However, if you look at 15squared responses to Azed which is weekly in the sister paper (and available on-line) the average comments are....about 5. Perhaps it's to do with one being daily while the other is presented after the competition is over. I haven't studied the figures for the Saturday puzzle which iirc is a competition puzzle. I suspect by the time they post the solution interest has waned.

loge - don't forget that the current Telegraph Puzzles Editor was himself the EV Editor for six years.

granama1 - there is a more extensive discussion of the fifteensquared situation on another thread, but suffice to say that in the last year IQ puzzles have received on average more than 14 comments each, while EVs have averaged out at less than 3. Even Azed, which, being typically non-themed and of exceptionally sound construction, you might expect to attract a smaller number of comments, has averaged out at 6.

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate that the time lag and paywall will put a damper on discussion, but my point was that if the Telegraph was looking for an excuse to cut costs by axing EV, perhaps they saw one in the apparent lack of interest. Not that it matters really.

More importantly we need to complain to the right people and one we’re agreed on who that is, my keyboard will be in overdrive.

I like Granama’s rant about the current state of our so-called quality press. Couldn’t agree more.