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 days were interesting, not just because of the lack of technology, but because my setting skill relied almost totally on what I’d gleaned from solving. This had a profound impact on the crosswords I designed and the clues I wrote. It’s amazing how little I had really picked up as a solver, something I see repeated regularly when experienced solvers have a go at setting. Even UK Times solvers-turned-setters who have been fed the most rigid clues for decades can start using questionable devices they have never seen used before. How can/does this happen? A solver will break down clues, apply indicators, substitute abbreviations, extract letter fragments, all without really understanding what’s happening – they don’t need to understand to solve, they just need be able to piece together a wordplay and find an answer. Thus, as a setter, an anagram indicator becomes just a mechanism to change letters and its tense or position grammatically gets totally overlooked; or an indirect anagram is used even though as a solver they had never seen one used in a major publication. The use of obscure abbreviations is a common trap, where the novice setter has taken the use of some abbreviations in their favourite crossword as an endorsement of all abbreviations, no matter the source or usage. The lesson? If you want to have a go at setting, don’t totally rely on your solving experience to guide you – read books by professional setters, expand you solving horizon, read crossword blogs where solvers write about their concerns with clues, and get at least one person with lots of solving experience to test your work. This last piece of advice only works if you are prepared to act on any constructive feedback given, which is possibly the biggest stumbling block in becoming a respected setter.
Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
1 | STORAGE BATTERY | |
Reserve of energy mature sportsman revealed in story (7,7) | (AGE + BATTER) inside STORY | |
10 | RABID | |
Fanatical leader of barbarians involved in attack surprisingly (5) | (B)ARBARIANS inside RAID | |
11 | EDUCATION | |
Culture valued coin, one saved in time (9) | (DUCAT + I) inside EON | |
12 | DRAGOON | |
Harass doctor operating following a turn (7) | DR + ON after (A + GO) | |
13 | THEATRE | |
Take food right inside the hospital room (7) | (EAT + R) inside THE | |
14 | SQUAD | |
She pulled out of pulverised team (5) | SQUASHED minus SHE | |
15 | ALLUSIONS | |
Everyone with us is checking on indirect references (9) | ALL + US + (IS outside ON) | |
18 | IDENTIKIT | |
Study tribal symbol in IT’s image maker (9) | (DEN + TIKI) inside IT | |
20 | CAFES | |
Fine levied in case ruined food suppliers (5) | F inside anagram of CASE | |
22 | POLARIS | |
Star with nothing left in European capital (7) | (O + L) inside PARIS | |
25 | ENOUNCE | |
One retired uncle, just short of 50, is articulate (7) | ONE reversed + (UNCLE minus L) | |
26 | SIMPATICO | |
Impact is oddly described by head of organisation as pleasing (9) | Anagram of IMPACT IS + (O)RGANISATION | |
27 | PIECE | |
Scrap announcement of break in hostilities (5) | Sounds like PEACE | |
28 | SLAP ON THE WRIST | |
Friends backed their town’s terribly light punishment (4,2,3,5) | PALS reversed + anagram of THIER TOWNS | |
Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
2 | TABLATURE | |
Alter tuba out of sync with musical notation (9) | Anagram of ALTER TUBA | |
3 | RADIOED | |
Broadcast short farewell filmed in colour (7) | (ADIO)S inside RED | |
4 | GREENBACK | |
NBA caught dividing up European money (9) | (NBA + C) inside GREEK | |
Bonus | Cash primarily handled by foreign banker, for example? (9) | &lit (C)ASH inside anagram of (BANKER + EG) |
5 | BLUNT | |
Straightforward drop-shot catching edge of line (5) | BUNT outside (L)INE | |
6 | TRAVELS | |
Time becomes complicated in journeyman’s accounts (7) | T + RAVELS | |
7 | EXIST | |
Be first to sing in farewell (5) | (S)ING inside EXIT | |
8 | YANKEES | |
Ball-players pull notice up (7) | YANK + (SEE reversed) | |
9 | TRADES | |
Buys and sells shares in Telstra desperately (6) | telsTRA DESperately | |
16 | LITHESOME | |
Willowy, fruit-bearing tree growing around the well (9) | LIME outside (THE + SO) | |
17 | OFFENDERS | |
They break the law of guards (9) | OF + FENDERS | |
18 | IMPOSTS | |
Passenger, initially entering, is most upset with customs duties (7) | (P)ASSENGER inside (anagram of IS MOST) | |
19 | TORNADO | |
Cooked tandoori mostly produced a great deal of wind (7) | Anagram of (TANDOOR)I | |
20 | CHOPPER | |
Motorbike handlebars originally metal-plated? (7) | (H)ANDLEBARS inside COPPER | |
21 | SPEWED | |
Woman at the front in expedition was sick (6) | (W)OMAN inside SPEED | |
23 | LEMMA | |
Stuff included in problem matched heading (5) | probLEM MAtched | |
24 | SHIRT | |
King should be dressed in this tailored garment (5) | R inside anagram of THIS |