Denise Sutherland's Blog, page 4

Cryptic Clue Competition

It's clue writing competition time again! 
Griff is eagerly awaiting your entries!

Write a cryptic clue of your very own, using an anagram, for the answer word INTERCHANGE. Write your clue, and then post it in a comment below this post.

Don't be scared, you can do it. It's even fun (honest)! Your clue can be silly, weird, funny, serious, whatever you like. It needs to read well, like a mini phrase or sentence (not just a random assortment of words stuck together). Creativity and clue accuracy are what I will be looking for.

Here are some tips to help you get started. 

Remember that the basic anatomy of a cryptic clue is:

Wordplay + Definition = Answer

or

Definition + Wordplay = Answer

So — (a bit of wordplay) (definition) (rest of wordplay) is not allowed. The definition has to sit at the start or end of the clue, and not be interrupted by the wordplay.

In an anagram clue, the Wordplay = the fodder + the anagram indicator  (or indicator + fodder, or some fodder + indicator + rest of the fodder).

Your cryptic clue will need:

1) A definition for INTERCHANGE — this can be as simple, as oblique, or as silly as you like. The definition needs to be at the start or end of the clue (not stuck in the middle). There are several definitions for 'interchange', you can choose whichever one you like. 

2) An anagram (fodder) — this needs to be an exact anagram of the word INTERCHANGE — for example, 'hearing cent' or 'rang teen hi C'. There are heaps of possibilities, and it can run over 2 or 3 or even 4 words. YOu can use up to one abbreviation for one or two letters (so 'Charlie' or 'cold' could = C, in the 'rang teen hi C' example). This is called the anagram fodder.

3) An anagram indicator — this is a word that tells the reader to mix up the letters of the fodder. This can be a word like annoying, bust up, funny, or naughty. There are thousands of possibilities! Look for a word (or two or three) that matches well, and makes sense, with your fodder.

NB: The anagram indicator isn't allowed to do 'double duty' - so you must not use the definition for interchange as the anagram indicator. 

More help:

You can use this anagram engine or this one to help find some good ways of breaking up the word "Christmas".There is a short list of anagram indicators on my website.There is a short list of cryptic abbreviations here, too.This post from this blog explains the mechanics of anagram clues.And this post goes into the details of how cryptic clues work in general.
That's it! You've got a fortnight, so entries close at midnight Monday 4 November 2013, Australian Eastern Summer Time (+11 hours GMT).

I will choose my three favourite clues, and the three winners will be announced on Thursday 7 November 2013.
Prizes will be a copy for each winner of one of my Dummies books, your choice of which book you'd like. 

Griff and I are looking forward to seeing your entries!

Unexpected problems

Certain perils lurk when constructing puzzles, especially word searches.

Woolworth's 'find a word debacle' last week was rather spectacular, with the f-word appearing in a children's activity book. And let's face it, the offensive word in question is so glaringly obvious in the grid that I doubt the puzzle was proofread at all — and I found four other rude words in the grid, when I entered the grid into my software and scanned it (and no, I'm not going to tell you what they are! You rude thing). This has happened to others too, and no doubt will happen to others in the future.

Due to the nature of grids of letters, a great deal of words are accidentally created in the grid, after the chosen words have been placed. These cause a problem if they are duplicates of words from the puzzle's word list, or if they are offensive or inappropriate terms.


In even a small word search puzzle, there will typically be well over 100 3-letter words accidentally created (one of the reasons I try to avoid having 3-letter words in the word list, as they are often accidentally duplicated). In a 'standard' word search this isn't too much of a problem, but if it's a puzzle with a hidden message that is revealed in the left-over letters, such duplication errors can break the puzzle. The left-over letters don't spell a hidden message at all, just gobbledygook.

The other problem is accidentally created rude or offensive words ... in the sample above I designed the grid to force the two 4-letter words to appear, but the other term was accidentally created! So, it really does happen, and often.

A professional puzzle writer knows about such pitfalls, and has ways of checking their work to ensure such unacceptable words are not in their grids. I have a rather hair-raising 'rude word list', which all my word search grids are scanned against. When offensive words are found, I edit them out.

Unfortunately too many word search puzzles, especially those created by people who want a 'quick puzzle page' for kids, are created by free online word search generators. The user puts in a list of words they want to appear in the grid, and the computer creates the puzzle. The quality of such puzzles is poor : word placement is generally uninteresting (eg all words that start with M starting from the same area of the grid, or dull word placement without many diagonals or much overlapping), and they are prone to such 'accidental offensive word' creation, but they don't scan for them.

Proofreading such a grid is hard to do by hand, too, as a human has to have a long list of suspect words in front of them, and scan through the grid line by line looking for them, over and over. Beyond tedious. You really have to have professional software that can do proper scans of the grids, and pinpoint any problems. Just one example is Wordsearch Creator, which allows you to enter a 'banned words' list - and it's Donation Nag Ware, so not expensive! I go through the steps in 'How to Write a Word Search' Cheat Sheet, if you're creating one by hand.

In other words — if your puzzle is going to a huge public audience, don't rely on free online puzzle generators! And maybe even — gasp — get in a professional to do it properly.

Nixie Answers, Set 1

Here are the answers to the first set of Nixie cryptic clues:

1) Gulps down birds (8) = SWALLOWS. Double definition (gulps down + birds).

2) Worker has loud grievance (4) = BEEF. Charade of BEE (worker) + F (loud). A 'beef' is an informal word for 'complaint'.

3) Endless blaze leaves a tree (3) = FIR. A deletion clue; take FIRE (blaze) and remove its end (last letter) to get FIR, a type of tree.

4) Relation at the ABC? (6) = AUNTIE. Cryptic definition; Aunty ABC (and Aunty BBC) is the informal nickname for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

5) Mourn appropriately if making livery (7) = UNIFORM. Anagram of mourn if. The anagram indicator here here appropriately. Livery is a type of uniform.

6) Cable tram stuffed with unrestrained glee (8) = TELEGRAM (a cable). Container ... TRAM with an anagram (unrestrained) of GLEE.

7) Émigré Patrick went after former wife (5) = EXPAT. PAT (Patrick) goes after EX (former wife).

Congrats to Peter and Cliff, who nutted them out!

Nixie cryptic clues to solve, Set 1

I have decided to close my 'Twitface' accounts (Twitter and author's page on Facebook) in the interests of less stress, and more simplicity in my life. I will still be posting cryptic clues that you can solve here, and will be updating this blog more frequently too. I look forward to continuing conversations with my friends from those other social networks – welcome!

Here's the first batch. Let me know how you get on in the Comments, and I'm happy to provide hints if anyone needs them.

I will post answers in a few days  :)
______________________________________________________________________

1) Gulps down birds (8)

2) Worker has loud grievance (4)

3) Endless blaze leaves a tree (3)

4) Relation at the ABC? (6)

5) Mourn appropriately if making livery (7)

6) Cable tram stuffed with unrestrained glee (8)

7) Émigré Patrick went after former wife (5)


________________________________________________________________________

Nixie cryptic clues to solve

I have decided to close my 'Twitface' accounts (Twitter and author's page on Facebook) in the interests of less stress, and more simplicity in my life. I will still be posting cryptic clues that you can solve here, and will be updating this blog more frequently too. I look forward to continuing conversations with my friends from those other social networks – welcome!

Here's the first batch. Let me know how you get on in the Comments, and I'm happy to provide hints if anyone needs them.

I will post answers in a few days  :)
______________________________________________________________________

1) Gulps down birds (8)

2) Worker has loud grievance (4)

3) Endless blaze leaves a tree (3)

4) Relation at the ABC? (6)

5) Mourn appropriately if making livery (7)

6) Cable tram stuffed with unrestrained glee (8)

7) Émigré Patrick went after former wife (5)


________________________________________________________________________

Tips for Cryptic Solvers

All too often it just seems impossible to find a way into a cryptic crossword. To help you make a start, and maybe even solve it all, here are my ...

 Top Ten Eleven Tips for Solvers
Use a pencil and eraser, rather than pen.Read through all the clues before trying to solve any. You don't have to start with 1 Across!Mark in any multiple words or hyphenated words on the grid, with a dividing line drawn onto the grid (see the photo below). These are the clues where the letter number is something like (3-4) or (2,4,3).
See if you can spot some anagram clues. Most cryptics will have at least a couple, and possibly many more. Read my blog post on anagrams to learn how to spot them.The longest words in the grid are often clued with anagrams, so check these clues carefully.Look for possible 'hidden word' clues, while some cryptics have none, there's usually 1 or 2 of these in an average grid. Here's my blog post on how to find and solve hidden word clues.Look for clues that seem to be plural — it may be worth penciling in an 'S' at the end of these words in the grid. Not all plurals end with S, it's true, but enough do that it's a reasonable guess.Search for common abbreviations in clues. If you see the word south, for example, it probably is clueing the letter S. Saint almost always is clueing ST. And so on. You can find out more about abbreviations here.Once you have a few words entered into the grid, that will make it easier to get the words that intersect with them, especially if you can get their initial letters.If all else fails, look at the starting parts, and ending parts of clues in isolation — this is where the straight definition part of each clue resides, and you can just look for a synonym for that part of the clue, and work out the wordplay part later (after you'd got the answer just from the definition).If you're really stuck on a clue, leave it overnight. Your brain will often figure it out for you while you're asleep. Nice brain!

Two Girls, One on Each Knee

I've just finished a once-in-a-lifetime index, for a book on the history of the crossword! I doubt such a perfect job will ever come along for me again (indexers usually index books on subjects they're familiar with). And I was asked to put cryptic clues and jokes into the index! This is very rare, and was a huge amount of fun! I am mentioned in the text as a cryptic setter, so had the unusual situation (again, very rare) of indexing my own name.

The book, Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling Past of the Cryptic Crossword is by Alan Connor (who writes frequently for The Guardian crossword blog), and is being published by Penguin. It will be out in a few months' time, so keep an eye out for it.

The book is very interesting and well-written, and actually covers the history of the crossword in general (not just cryptics), including American crosswords. Anyone who is interested in crosswords will enjoy this book — put it onto your Christmas wish list! And make sure you read the index  ;)

It was meant to be ...

My mother recently sent me the index I wrote to my extensive Cricket magazine collection, which I created for my kids when they were little. I had completely forgotten I'd created it. I was in my 20s when I did this! All hand-written into an index book (with alphabet tags on the sides of the pages).


I used symbols to indicate whether an entry was an article, recipe, activity etc. The numbers are (volume, issue) - no page number included.


In 1982 I wrote an index for a microwave cookbook that didn't have one, for my future mother-in-law, when I was 18.

And I didn't know indexing was a 'real profession' until a couple of years ago, just before I did my training! LOL

Nixie cryptics

I'm very happy to announce that I am now the regular cryptic setter for the Australian Clue Detective Puzzle Agency. They will be publishing one of my Nixie cryptic crosswords every fortnight, and I will be writing for their blog now and then. This is currently the only way to get my very latest cryptic crosswords on a regular basis.

Membership to The Clue Detective Puzzle Agency is by annual subscription. There is a special deal on at the moment, until the end of August, if you're interested in signing up. They have a range of other sorts of puzzles, including clueless crosswords.

Under The Sea II by Sir Joseph Noel Patton
Why am I writing under the cryptic setter name Nixie? Firstly, a nixie is a bit of a bad and naughty fairy, liable to trick humans (What?!) ... and is female (women cryptic setters are rare) ... and Nixie is also close to my family nickname. So it seems apt to me!

Hope to see you over there  :)

How I solve a cryptic clue

One of the things I like about cryptics is how — although I write them — I still find cryptics by other setters challenging and enjoyable to solve. I don't do 'quick' crosswords any more, solving one is too much like the work I do in writing them ... another bloody definition? No thanks ...

But cryptics are still a fascinating challenge to me, and are still fun for me to solve. I don't classify myself as an expert solver, I can't solve The Times cryptic in record time or anything like that. I don't solve enough cryptics often enough to get the necessary daily practice in. But being a setter does give me a certain advantage!
So, I thought you might find it interesting to see the mental process I go through when solving clues by other setters.
Here are a few clues by a variety of setters, and my thoughts as I solve them ...
Wife given a kiss then getting yen for pasty (4)
Hmmm, what are possible abbreviations in this clue? Wife = W, kiss = X, yen = Y. I think pasty might be the definition, which leaves wife given a kiss then getting yen. The 'a' is probably just A, in the clear. W (wife) + A + X (kiss) + Y (yen) = WAXY! That works! Huzzah! 
Cold tart (6)
Only two words in this clue, so it's likely to be a double definition. What is a word that means both cold and tart? Hmmm. It might also be a cryptic definition of some sort. Cold can also = C. Tart = pie, pastry, flan, or acidic, sharp, sour etc, or a prostitute, or to dress up ... Maybe BITING? You can have biting cold, and a sharp tart taste is also said to be biting. So I'll pencil it in, and look for confirmation from crossing over letters from other answers in the grid. It might be BITTER, too, I'm not 100% sure yet.
She loved Narcissus it's recalled (4)
I'm looking up Narcissus in my dictionary, to check my Greek mythology. Ah, he was loved by ECHO ... and that makes sense, with it's recalled as the definition. This is a double definition clue.
Offensive characters recalled from Tess of the d'Urbervilles (4)
Well, I know I most likely don't need to know anything about this novel to solve the clue (as this level of specialised knowledge isn't usually required). So that means that the definition is probably offensive, or offensive characters, and that (characters?) recalled from Tess of the d'Urbervilles is probably the wordplay.
Recalled from makes me think this might be a hidden word clue, with the letters appearing in reverse in the letters of Tess of the d'Urvervilles.  So let's trawl backwards through the letters of the novel title, looking for 4 in a row that spell a word ... ah ha, there it is! Tess of thE D'URbervilles = EDUR, or RUDE when put around the right way. That works, with offensive as the definition. So this solution = RUDE.
With solving that one above, I now have a crossing over letter for the 1 Down clue:
Area below tar's not concrete (8)
The solution runs _ _ _ _ R _ _ _. Possible abbreviations in this clue? Area = A is the main one. The apostrophe S in tar's makes me think that this marks the split between definition and wordplay. Mind you, the S might be part of the answer, too. 
So area below tar is the same as not concrete. Hmmm. Area below tar  does sound like a cryptic wordplay, with below as a position indicator. A word for area (or an A) going below a synonym for tar? Tar has a couple of meanings, it might be the thick black stuff, or a sailor. How about synonyms for area? Region, zone, spot, domain, yard, part, realm ...
Hang on, concrete has 8 letters (the number indicated for the answer), and not might be an anagram indicator, and R is in both my crossword grid (from RUDE), and in concrete. Let's try that out ... hmm ... ergh, no, I'm not finding any nice easy anagrams from the letters of concrete. OK, well, at least that means I know not concrete is probably the definition. Liquid, maybe? Or something more esoteric?
If tar = sailor, it might mean jack, rating, sailor, salt, or the abbreviations AB (able-bodied seaman), OS (ordinary seaman), or RN (Royal Navy). RN isn't the start of any word, and I don't think the synonyms will really work either, so I'll play around with AB and OS for the moment, with AB being the most likely pair of letters to start a word (rather than OS). 
So that would give me AB_ _ R _ _ _.  Let's add in that S from tar's, just in case it's part of the answer. ABS _ R _ _ _ . That's looking like a feasible English word, from those letter patterns. I think I might be on the right track. The alternative would be OSS _ R _ _ _,  which is less likely to be a word, I think.
So now I need a 5 letter word, with R as the second letter, that means area. I have a quick look at my thesaurus for some ideas ... 5 letter synonym include realm, patch, tract, sweep ... hang on, tract, that has R as the second letter! Let's try that out: ABS+TRACT! Woo hoo! ABSTRACT is definitely another way of saying not concrete.
I hope that seeing the process I go through helps you improve your solving skills too. As you can see, I still use reference works like a thesaurus and dictionary now and then, and have false starts.


 Now to finish this crossword ...