The Stickler Weekly 156 Solution

I imagine the small number of regular crossword blogs around the world rely on each other to pick up enough stories that we can all have something to write about. This week’s piece was inspired by a clue highlighted in Alan Connor’s Guardian blog, which tends to cover a number of items each week. (Don’t go there until you’ve read what I have to say). A clue by Morph in The Independent was simply 0.9 (3). My first impression was to treat it as a gimmick, but there’s much more to this on different levels. Alan asked if it was the shortest cryptic clue ever, and, of course, I thought that would depend on whether it stands up as a cryptic clue in the first place. My mind went to E? (13), [SENSELESSNESS – SENSE minus NESS] which some no doubt would happily say is a valid cryptic clue. There are lots like this: H? (6,2,7) [MIDDLE OF NOWHERE] V? (6, 2, 7) [CENTRE OF GRAVITY] that most solvers groan about but seem to reluctantly accept.
However, this clue is different. It has both definition and wordplay, but it does take some liberties, or so it seems. I’m not a fan of butting parts of clues together and having to separate and process them, especially when the definition is involved, so when I first saw it I wasn’t impressed. Go back and have another look at the clue, this time say what’s written out loud. ZERO/NOUGHT POINT NINE is the only way to say it, and when it’s expressed this way, the clue works! That is, if I was reading out the clue to someone, they may well solve it from what they hear, but would have a lesser of an idea if they actually saw the clue, even though they would see it and the echo in their head would be the same.
Whether the setter actually went through this mental analysis of how the clue might work, I guess I’ll never know, but you have to say it’s quite unique – a perfectly sound two-part cryptic clue verbally, and maybe something different visually.