One complaint about that article, wofa.

A cross section of Americans and Brits would assume that we are both doing the same kind of crossword puzzles, not knowing that when crosswords crossed the ocean, they lost their cryptic quality. Recently, in our cross-cultural society, cryptic crosswords have been catching on in the United States.

Which way did crossword puzzles cross the ocean?

Here's the world's first, from the New York World in 1913.

http://thinks.com/crosswords/first2.htm

And despite 18-19 (or 18 Across, as we would say today) it is quite easy and not the least bit cryptic.