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So that's how you get from clue to solution...
Given the popularity of Dan Brown's theological thriller The Da Vinci Code,
it's clear that Britain is a nation that loves brain-teasers. In the book,
the characters work their way through a succession of brain-tormenting
conundrums, from anagrams (Oh, lame saint?) to ingenious riddles (What is
the orb of “a knight a pope interred” in Westminster Abbey? ), creating as
they do so a vicarious pleasure for the reader. That sense of wonder and
intense frustration mutating into a feeling of satisfaction - or even
jubilation - is what keeps cryptic crossword fans addicted.
So why don't more people attempt the one published in The Times each
day?
There are a good many misapprehensions about our crossword, the most common of
which is that “I don't have that sort of mind”. With a little appreciation
of the cryptic clue and its component parts, anyone of reasonable
intelligence with a love of the English language can learn the basics for
tackling a cryptic crossword.
Contrary to what many people think, you need neither a great knowledge of the
classics nor a mind stocked with literary quotations to enjoy the puzzle's
subtlety.
My love affair with crosswords began at school, where I learnt my skills as a
solver by trying my hand at each daily paper's puzzle in the school library
- until reaching the pinnacle of the Times crossword and growing to
appreciate the elegance and wit that, even then, set it apart from the
others. In those days there was only one puzzle in The Times; now we
have the times2 one as well. It's a great starter, but those who never
indulge in the paper's “main course” never discover that what appears to be
a more complex beast is sometimes easier to decipher.
This may seem counterintuitive - but if you happen not to know a solution to a
quick crossword clue, you are stuck, whereas with a cryptic puzzle there are
nearly always two parts to each clue, giving you two opportunities to crack
it.
The definition of the word that you seek will nearly always appear at the
beginning or end of a clue. After noting the bracketed word-length of a
clue, many solvers try to spot what may be a definition and guess at a
solution. Then they check their guess against the supporting wordplay to see
whether that leads to the same solution.
For instance, take this clue: Food and drink is down in price, dropping a
penny (5). One way to solve the problem is to deduce that what the setter is
after is a word for “food and drink” - and that a definition that fits is
CHEER (words with double meanings, unusual meanings and the like are the
bread and butter of cryptic crosswords). The solver can then look at the
second half of the clue and work out if the wordplay supports the
definition.
As you become more practised at crosswords, you will find that it becomes
easier to spot indicators that provide implied or direct instructions for
what the solver must do. For example, the word DROPPING in the clue above
tells you that something must be taken away from a synonym of “down in
price”. As the synonym CHEAPER includes an A and a P (for “a penny”), it's
likely that those two letters are the ones to be dropped.
It is not explicit that “penny” is to be abbreviated, so how do you know that
you must do so? Answer: by seeing that the solution has five letters and
CHEAPER has seven. This sounds trickier than it is - it soon becomes second
nature to think of words in their commonly abbreviated forms and complete
the wordplay needed.
Before you tackle the puzzle on the right, here are some suggestions and tips:
Whether by accident or design, there is nearly always one clue to get you
started and provide intersecting letters to work off. Ignore the surface
reading of each clue; look at each word carefully to consider its role in
the clue and whether it has a double meaning. For example, 21D is not about
a Lancashire town at all.
Consider alternative parts of speech to the one used in the clue sentence. For
example, ADEPT in 19A is an adjective - but for the solution, it's a noun.
To avoid tearing your hair out, beware of entering a wrong solution. Before
you enter a solution, check that the wordplay matches a definition, or vice
versa.
Study published solutions, especially as detailed in the blog posted on every
Times puzzle at http://community.livejournal.com/times_xwd_times/
Try doing the crosswords with your friends and family. You'll find that some
types of clues that you find difficult, they will find easy, and vice versa.
So let's try the puzzle. Under the heading “How to get started”, I'll show you
how to solve one clue of each type, annotate a few more and leave you to
solve the rest.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Usually, I do a quick scan of all the clues, seeking an easy solution and/or
an indicator showing clue type, or an abbreviation. Here my eye was caught
early at 6 Across (6A, see clues, right) by the indicator INITIALLY, which
by crossword convention identifies the first letter of a word - BUNKER in
this clue. So, B might be the first letter of the four-letter solution, made
by adding a three-letter word meaning WOOD. In this event the definition
would be ATTEMPT, so I keep that in mind when dismissing ELM, OAK and LOG in
favour of ASH - and confidently enter BASH.
This kind of clue is a simple sum of its parts (hence the type is referred to
as additive). Another clue with an indicator is 24A. Regular cryptic
crossword solvers may initially be waylaid by the fact that AT SEA is often
used as an anagram indicator, but a quick count does not reveal any suitable
“anagram fodder” of five letters. The actual indicator is LOSING and POWER =
P, which tells me to deduct P from a word meaning MARAUDER AT SEA. (PIRATE -
P = IRATE); This is known as a takeaway clue, and there are two elsewhere in
the puzzle.
Moving on to 25A, the indicator for this clue is GULPING, implying something
put inside something else - maybe letter(s) or word (s). Given that O is
OXYGEN, I put O inside DRY (OUT OF WATER) to get DORY, a type of fish. This
kind of clue is a sandwich type.
We haven't had an anagram yet, and there are usually between two and six part
or complete anagrams per puzzle. The indicator would be a word or words
showing change, movement, rearrangement, wrongness and the like. 12A has the
word DRUNK, which, with its many synonyms, conventionally also indicates an
anagram. A 14-letter solution (4,2,8) requires 14-letter “fodder” provided
by CONTENT SOT VERY. There are limited possibilities for the middle
two-letter word, ON and TO being the most likely in a phrase of this
denomination. So, returning to the definition leads me to come up with SENT
TO COVENTRY.
The remaining types of clue used in this puzzle do not have indicators. The
first features two definitions of a solution side by side, termed double
definitions. These are usually shortish and may or may not have a link-word.
9D is one that does, with AND showing where the split between the
definitions lies, both defining COME TO THE POINT. You may identify two
similar clues elsewhere.
Finally, there is the cryptic definition (CD), a clue type that uniquely has
only one way of getting the solution. It's a misleading way to describe the
solution and can have an amusing or whimsical air. For example, a recent
Times clue was Historic subject for art (4). The solution is THOU (ie, “Thou
art” being an archaic form). Inspired guesswork is what is needed for both
these types.
Now try to crack the remaining clues. The colour-coded words will explain the
function of most clue components. Keep the solutions at the end covered
until you can do no more. If you happen not to know the plant in 14A or the
equine in 18D, don't despair: you can still get to the answer from wordplay
and by checking reference books.
Tim Moorey, the author of How
to Master the Times Crossword (HarperCollins, £12.99) is a setter for The
Sunday Times, The Week and MoneyWeek magazine. He runs cryptic
crosswords for beginners workshops around the country: www.timmoorey.info
Tricks of the setter's trade
Once you have been doing cryptic crosswords for a while, certain words will
jump out at you that frequently provide keys to unlocking clues.
Anagram indicators
Arrangement; sorted; somehow; anyhow; rearrangement; revised; reassembled;
resort; change; bursting; out of place; shift; development; improved;
worked; treat; wrongness; amiss; in error; incorrectly; strangeness; odd;
peculiar; eccentric; drunkenness; smashed; hammered; lit up; madness; crazy;
outraged; up the wall; movement; mobile; runs; hit; disturbance of; order;
into pieces; muddled; upset; involvement; complicate; tangled; implicated;
uncertainty; possibly; at sea; maybe
Sandwich indicators
Outside
Where letters or words are the bread in the sandwich (eg, the word “they”
could be put around the word “or” to give you “theory”): Contains; clothing;
boxing; houses; gulping; carries; grasping; enclosing; including; restrains;
protecting; secures
Inside
Where letters or a word is the filling in the sandwich (eg, the word “read”
could be put in the word “bed” to give you “breaded”): Breaks; cuts; boring;
piercing; penetrating; fills; enters; interrupting; amidst; held by;
occupies; splits
Takeaway indicators
An instruction to remove letter(s), including abbreviations: Without; less;
extract; losing; lacking; cast
Removal of a first letter: Unopened; failing to start; heading off
Removal of a middle letter: Disheartened; heartlessly; losing heart
Removal of a last letter: Briefly; bottom; pinched; reduced
Reversal indicators
Instructions to run answers back-to-front can vary according to whether the
clues are for words running across the grid or down it:
Across clues: Returns; backed; in retreat; recalled; going west;
reversed
Down clues: Up; erected; rising; brought up; shown up; uplifted
Across and Down clues: Flipping; turned over; around; over; overturned;
brought over
Abbreviations
Cryptic crossword setters often employ what appears to be an arcane shorthand,
utilising abbreviations from science, sport, the military, etc. Some common
examples are: Power = P; Oxygen = O; English = E; Runs = R; Spies = CIA;
Artist = RA; Sailor = AB; Graduate = MA; Operation = OP; Doctor = DR, MO,
MD.
