The name of the village became the longest word ever found in the crossword puzzle

The name of a British village that most people would struggle to pronounce is the longest crossword puzzle word in history.

This was reported by SSPDaily.

Crossword puzzle writer Roger Squires from the United Kingdom created a new riddle in the July 1979 issue of the Telford Wrekin News.

The clue was as follows: "The giggling troll follows Clancy, Larry, Billy and Peggy as they howl, mistakenly disturbing some place in Wales (58)".

Answer: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllllantysiliogogogogoch. This is the name of a village located on the island of Anglesey.

Roger is also the record holder for the number of crosswords he has completed in his lifetime. The record has been updated several times throughout his career, most recently in 2015, when the total number was 77,854.

He worked as a professional crossword puzzle solver for over 50 years, and his work appeared in many national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, and The Times.

Sadly, Roger died in June 2023 at the age of 91.

His record-breaking career in crossword puzzles might not have happened, as he once had a near-death experience in the Royal Navy. In March 1961, his plane crashed into the Indian Ocean and sank. The cockpit's emergency hatch jammed under water pressure, and he was trapped inside.

The Telegraph reports that he once said: "The water was up to my face. I hung my hands on the bar above my head and pushed the door. It gave way. By then I was 18 meters down and came up like a cork covered in oil. Fortunately, a helicopter was waiting for me."

The pilot did not survive and tragically died.

While serving in the Navy, Roger fell in love with crossword puzzles. He solved about 12 puzzles a day, and when he was at sea and didn't have access to newspapers, he started collecting his own instead. He first published a puzzle in 1963, when he left the navy.