Tag Archives: solution

Everyone makes mistakes. We know this and put mechanisms, procedures and safeguards in place to minimise them, but sometimes circumstances thwart our best preventative measures. Crossword setters suffer the same lapses as everyone else and rely on various means to … Continue reading →

What kind of solver are you? A few of us from the Australian Crossword Club meet occasionally for lunch at the Harold Park Hotel to fill in the time between the official ACC functions every November. We don’t talk about … Continue reading →

A few weeks ago a regular contributor and friend, Steve, pointed out a flaw in one of my clues: Author’s claim must be heard (5).  Take a look a the discussion here. It took me a while to understand exactly … Continue reading →

A regular contributor to this blog asked me about 2-down, Dysfunctional topic men dislike ultimately? (9), a type of clue known in the trade as an &lit. This translates to “and literally”, and refers to the duplicity of the clue … Continue reading →

I read with interest posts by solvers who proclaim clues as creative but slightly of the mark. To me, these two terms can’t co-exist in a cryptic clue sense. It’s no good if an architect’s elaborate design can’t be built: … Continue reading →

I was told when I released the first Stickler Boxed Set that I was “giving it away” at the price I was asking, but believed I really couldn’t ask for more as the included crosswords had already been published. I … Continue reading →

I was reminded a few weeks back that as a setter I must not only cater for a huge range of solvers with different abilities but consider where people may be at in their lives and what experiences they may … Continue reading →

I’ve been solving cryptic crosswords since I was 15 – that’s almost 40 years. I compiled my first published crossword in my 20s in a staff magazine and considered myself a professional setter in my early 30s. Those early compiling … Continue reading →

Recently I was chuffed to find a reference to The Stickler Weekly in an article featured in The Atlantic, an American monthly publication. For many years The Atlantic published cryptics by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon, two of my cryptic … Continue reading →

In the early days I had no luck plugging my cryptic crosswords, so I turned to writing themed crosswords to try and sell to magazines, believing I was on a sure winner. Trouble is, writing theme crosswords is hard and … Continue reading →