The Stickler Weekly 77 Solution

Most of my crossword career has been dedicated to producing top-quality cryptic crosswords, always remembering that the solver is much more important than me. To this end, and with the help of the right web tools that allow solvers to pick the clues they want help for, I created Clue Hints for the daily Stickler and Australian Financial Review crosswords starting in September 2011. This has been continued for the Stickler Weekly. The last thing I want is for solvers to feel helpless and give up and new solvers especially need to be encouraged. As far as I know, no other setter in the world offers such help for active crosswords and I hope the clue hints and worked solutions ultimately extend the life of the cryptic crossword in Australia. I know a number of U3A and other crossword groups use these crosswords, clue help and solutions to increase their understanding and learn about the art of crossword solving.
The cryptic “extras” come at no charge and I can assure you I’ve never received any extra money from the papers for doing this. It all takes time so I don’t supply help for all clues, just those I consider may be trickier than others – there’s the invitation to ask for help on any clue where I may have misjudged the difficulty and not included a hint. Over time I’ve developed shortcuts that you don’t see to make producing the clue hints easier, but I still can’t do it for every clue – but the offer is always there of course.