Last week I mentioned that the medically-themed weekly cryptic I did for a medical publication was the hardest regular cryptic I’ve had to write due to the specific nature of medical words. The hardest non-cryptic I’ve written on a regular basis was for a Macquarie Dictionary website that offered various resources to school children. The brief was to cater for 11-15 year-olds, which sounds easy, but I can assure you this was no easy task. The difference in vocabulary on average in this age group is enormous, and if you allow for late developers and advanced students, you end up with a massive spectrum that’s hard to please across the board. There is, though, an approach that mostly works especially in an online environment that the crossword was running. I used nouns. As language develops, our knowledge of things increases gradually, but our ability to describe them increases at an alarming rate. That is, we know about a house from an early age, but the way we describe its shape, size, setting, colour, value etc comes over time as we learn more descriptive words. Therefore, an 11-year-old and 15-year-old will know HOUSE, but the 11-year-old is unlikely to know what a SEMI-DETACHED HOUSE is, where a 15-year-old might. To cover this gap in language, the key is to stick with more factual clues – objects, places, people, etc – things hopefully all the crossword’s audience know, and if they don’t know, the clue should supply enough information for them to find out. The crossword becomes essentially a specific general knowledge one. In an online environment, and using the software that I do, Crossword Compiler, that allows for online publication, it’s possible to link a clue directly to somewhere on the Net that gives the solver the answer.
I no longer write this puzzle (it went when its instigator left the company) but it was as difficult to put together as any Stickler, believe it or not.
Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
1 | BRIEF | |
Advice about leaving bonfire out of control (5) | Anagram of BONFIRE minus ON | |
4 | GLOSSITIS | |
Polish – it is a potential problem for speaker (9) | GLOSS + IT IS | |
9 | CYCLIST | |
Rider copies catalogue containing last lot of saddlery (7) | (CC + LIST) outside SADDLER(Y) | |
10 | SARCOMA | |
Tumour’s sulphur smell filtered with carbon (7) | (S + AROMA) outside C | |
11 | THAI RESTAURANT | |
Hot air established atmosphere in explosive Asian food centre (4,10) | (H + AIR + EST + AURA) inside TNT | |
14 | EURO | |
What a Spaniard may use to purchase an Aussie jumper (4) | Double Definition | |
15 | MINISERIES | |
They are not happy about popular TV program (10) | MISERIES outside IN | |
18 | CONGREGATE | |
Cheat, for example, brought in to annoy rally (10) | CON + (EG inside GRATE) | |
19 | OAHU | |
Part of Borneo, a huge island in the Pacific (4) | borneO A HUge | |
21 | OPERATING TABLE | |
Broken parietal bone receiving great support during surgery (9,5) | Anagram of PARIETAL BONE outside GT | |
24 | HOTHEAD | |
Great Aussie tennis player broken by the tearaway (7) | HOAD outside THE | |
26 | AQUIVER | |
A container of missiles is shaking (7) | A + QUIVER | |
27 | SUBSTRATE | |
Sort of buttress reinforced by a base (9) | Anagram of BUTTRESS outside A | |
28 | EARLY | |
Advanced at great cost east of front (5) | D(EARLY) | |
Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
1 | BUCK | |
American car reduced by one dollar! (4) | BUICK minus I | |
2 | INCOHERENCE | |
Lack of organisation in clubs once seen around here (11) | IN + C + (ONCE outside HERE) | |
3 | FRIGID | |
Cold, fine and not likely to change (6) | F + RIGID | |
4 | GATHERING | |
Gang concentrated on the extreme elements of their troubled group (9) | GANG outside anagram of THEIR | |
5 | ONSET | |
Attack components included in response time (5) | respONSE Time | |
6 | SHROUDED | |
Piece cut by reformed duo is covered (8) | SHRED outside anagram of DUO | |
7 | TWO | |
Number in addition so to speak (3) | Sounds like TOO | |
8 | SCAR TISSUE | |
Institute legal proceedings after racists falsified evidence of injury (4,6) | SUE after anagram of RACISTS | |
12 | ANIMAL LOVER | |
Perhaps one who visits a petshop in a new shopping centre too much (6,5) | Anagram of IN A + MALL + OVER | |
13 | BEDCLOTHES | |
Survive the cold changing small mattress covers (10) | BE + anagram of THE COLD + S | |
16 | INTEGRATE | |
Mesh in bag lifted standard (9) | IN + (GET reversed) + RATE | |
17 | ARMAMENT | |
Weapons are in short supply with troops hiding in cover (8) | (AR)E + (MEN inside MAT) | |
20 | MATURE | |
Experienced amateur, missing start, messed up (6) | Anagram of A(MATEUR) | |
22 | INDIA | |
Ones leaving Asian republic, a heavily-populated country (5) | INDONESIA minus ONES | |
23 | FRAY | |
Cook staging a fight (4) | FRY outside A | |
25 | TUB | |
Clumsy slow boat is still heading north (3) | BUT reversed |
Thjis one really tested me. I went back day after day. Really got stuck on Parietal bone – googled it and came up with fractured skull. That fit the spaces but not the other letters. Wake up Australia – broken is an anagram
what a pleasure to get a weekly dose.of good medicine. Great hoes for alzheimers.
Arthur
I’m catching up at last! I particularly liked 14ac.