I’ve been writing cryptics for about 25 years. I’ve written for a staff magazine, CrOzworld, websites, puzzle magazines and, of course, newspapers. Along the way I’ve done crosswords for magazines that feature gardening, fishing, 4WDs and medicine. While all of these publications have editors, very few have editors or personnel with a sufficient knowledge of cryptics to challenge what I write or make suggestions about changing clues. You might think this is good for me, and in most cases, you’d be right, but I don’t think it’s a good thing for cryptics in general. A crossword editor provides a mechanism to identify faulty clues and brings consistency of style and difficulty across setters. Surely anything goes if there’s no crossword editor between a setter and the published work? Ultimately, some may say, the solvers act as de facto crossword editors through their feedback, but in my experience most solvers are reluctant to take a stand fearing that they have “missed something”. Thus, a setter may get unofficial approval when in fact a crossword editor would have intervened. That’s a dangerous trend going forward.
As you know, The Stickler Weekly, just like the newspaper version, The Stickler, doesn’t have an editor – it’s just me. I do a couple of things to self-check, like go through clues after not seeing them for a while, but I always have the solution available, so it’s just not like solving as a normal solver would. So I feel the crossword isn’t as consistent as it would be with the checks and balances that a proper cryptic crossword editor would provide. To some extent, we setters wear blinkers when we check our own work.
A few weeks ago a NZ setter, David Tossman, wrote a short piece on one of his clues that contained one definition and two anagrams. It wasn’t the clue that struck me, but his explanation of the different construction and his justification for using it:
“I think looser rules can apply with easier puzzles such as this. Anyway, restraint and parsimony being against my nature, I simply couldn’t resist the way the two anagrams work here.”
Setters can easily deceive themselves because the answer is in front of them. When they read a clue and look at the answer, of course it all works perfectly. An extra anagram works because it also provides the answer – in effect giving the solver more ways to get there. But is that how the solver sees it? I suspect not, as the setter hasn’t indicated what’s going on. The solver would have every right to assume the entire wordplay leads to a single answer, as it does in 99.9% of cases, so the extra bits just add confusion, IMO. While the setter was aiming to provide extra wordplay to make a clue easier, they may in fact have just complicated the issue. The same applies to triple definitions – not good setting, just extra content that could cause confusion. All well-intentioned but executed with a bias eye.
Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
1 | PAMPER | |
Chart sent back for each baby (6) | MAP reversed + PER | |
4 | STAGNATE | |
Do nothing natural in the theatre (8) | NAT inside STAGE | |
9 | ORDERS | |
Employees of this Red Rooster recalled customer’s requests? (6) | thiS RED ROoster reversed | |
10 | DERANGED | |
Crackpot made a phone call as part of legal agreement (8) | RANG inside DEED | |
12 | COLD-HEARTEDNESS | |
Old judge, abducted by weird sect, ends inhumanity (4-11) | (OLD + HEAR) inside anagram of SECT ENDS | |
13 | EMIT | |
Discharge prison sentence in recession (4) | TIME reversed | |
14 | RED SNAPPER | |
Tin contaminating stew of prepared fish? (3,7) | SN inside anagram of PREPARED | |
18 | SANGUINARY | |
Bloody butt of stolen air-gun, roughly described in report? (10) | [STOLE(N) + anagram of AIR GUN] inside SAY | |
19 | FOLD | |
Shut down stall (4) | Double Definition | |
22 | OVERCOMPENSATED | |
Complicated dance step or move is adjusted excessively (15) | Anagram of DANCE STEP OR MOVE | |
25 | ARGUMENT | |
A letter’s due about adhesive’s claim (8) | (A + RENT) outside GUM | |
26 | OUTAGE | |
Downtime, right, not recorded in an atrocious event (6) | OUTRAGE minus R | |
27 | SURPRISE | |
Promotional department is in true shock (8) | (PR + IS) inside SURE | |
28 | DEMEAN. | |
Put down midpoint of academic value used by mathematicians (6) | ACA(DE)MIC + MEAN. | |
Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
1 | POOL CUE | |
White striker fouled couple hogging ball (4,3) | Anagram of COUPLE outside O | |
2 | MEDALLION | |
Piece of meat found, ultimately, in food eaten by wild animal (9) | FOUN(D) inside MEAL + LION | |
3 | EARTHY | |
They are mostly refined and unrefined (6) | Anagram of (THEY AR)E | |
5 | TWEET | |
Heart of setter broken by little online message? (5) | WEE inside SE(TT)ER | |
6 | GUARDIAN | |
Defender’s weapon providing cover for a bungled raid (8) | GUN outside (A + anagram of RAID) | |
7 | ANGLE | |
Approach snarl-up with time short (5) | TANGLE minus T | |
8 | END-USER | |
Consumer lenders with reduced margins outside America? (3-4) | L(ENDER)S outside US | |
11 | GAVE IN | |
Unfinished gas line of vital importance collapsed (4,2) | (GA)S + VEIN | |
15 | SERVER | |
Computer unit part with resistance installed (6) | R inside SEVER | |
16 | PROSTRATE | |
Former F1 racing champion with class is exhausted (9) | PROST + RATE | |
17 | DULCIMER | |
A great deal of uninteresting crime involved music maker (8) | (DUL)L + anagram of CRIME | |
18 | SLOGANS | |
Works hard securing an advertiser’s work (7) | SLOGS outside AN | |
20 | DUDGEON | |
$1000 pocketed by worthless one renewed resentment (7) | G inside (DUD + anagram of ONE) | |
21 | ASSURE | |
Guarantee, for instance, user messed up (6) | AS + anagram of USER | |
23 | EAGER | |
Keen items from Stone Age resurfaced (5) | stonE AGE Resurfaced | |
24 | MENDS. | |
Head of maintenance finishes repairs (5) | (M)AINTENANCE + ENDS. |
Missed you yesterday, David.
Raises a question & maybe all your devoted followers would be interested to know.
On average, how much time each week do you invest in bringing us our cryptic high-light?
Maybe I’ll do a piece on it (I need fodder to use each week). OK?
All good with me David
glad to contribute.
‘I Solve’ is absolute best
but I’m sure we would all like to know something of what is required for you to bring it to us.
Had HOLD for 19 ac. Acceptable?
The “stall” part is OK but the “Shut down” is harder to justify – what do you think?
I also had HOLD for 19a. If you put something on hold is it ‘shut down’ at least temporarily?
Yep! followed the exact same path.
Hey David,
I can offer an editorial service for your excellent work (generally 🙂 ). It is one way of getting an early fix. Editorial Staff includes 1 of 50+ years experience solving cryptics and 1 of a mere 15 years experience.
Worthwhile further discussion?
Regards
Grant
Of course there’s no money available (I couldn’t even afford to pay someone when I was doing 6 Sticklers a week due to the poor pay). If that’s OK, then I’ll think about it as I’m finding it hard to get ahead with the puzzle which I’d have to do in order to leave enough time for checking and revision.
Thanks for the offer – I’ll let you know.
David
Yes I understood there was no money it. It is a matter of interest and as I said, get an early copy.