From time to time, I try to write a few words about this blog and cryptic crosswords, in general. While this is primarily intended for readers who are new to the blog and/or to cryptic crosswords, it may also be of interest to other readers.
Purpose of This Blog
I started this blog with the intention of it serving as a forum for the discussion of cryptic crossword puzzles appearing in The National Post. I also write a companion blog (Ottawa Citizen Cryptic Crossword Forum) which covers the Sunday London Times cryptic crossword which appears in the Ottawa Citizen each Sunday. The level of discussion on the blog has been fairly low, certainly much less than one sees on the British cryptic crossword blogs.
The National Post Cryptic Crossword Puzzles
On Monday through Friday, the National Post publishes a syndicated cryptic crossword puzzle originating from The Daily Telegraph in the United Kingdom (although the Post does not identify the puzzle as such). The puzzle appears in the National Post some time after it was originally published in Britain, with the delay being somewhat variable. The recent practice has been to publish only the puzzles appearing in the U.K. on Monday through Friday and skipping those that appeared in the Daily Telegraph on Saturday. The puzzles (with the odd exception) appear in the same order as in the U.K. - but not necessarily on the same day of the week. Currently, we get a "Thursday" puzzle on Mondays, a "Friday" puzzle on Tuesdays, and so on through the week.
On Saturday, the National Post publishes a cryptic crossword puzzle created by American setters Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon. To the best of my knowledge, this puzzle is produced specifically for the National Post and sometimes has a Canadian theme.
Content of This Blog
This blog is intended to complement an excellent British blog, Big Dave's Crossword Blog, that covers the Daily Telegraph Cryptic Crossword Puzzle (as well as other cryptic crossword puzzles published in The Daily Telegraph). Given that the National Post does not identify the puzzle by sequence number (nor, for that matter, even identify that it is a Daily Telegraph puzzle) and since the publication schedule in the National Post has a variable relationship to that in The Daily Telegraph, one of the key roles for this blog is to provide a link to the proper review on Big Dave's site. In the blog, I include "tombstone data" about the puzzle such as the sequence number of the puzzle in The Daily Telegraph, the date that the puzzle was published in the U.K., the name of the setter (where known), a link to a full review of the puzzle at Big Dave's site, the name of the person who wrote the review at Big Dave's site (Big Dave has a stable of reviewers, recently including yours truly, who write the reviews), and the rating given to the puzzle by Big Dave and his colleagues for both difficulty and enjoyment.
Furthermore, I include a list of terms appearing in both the clues and solutions that I consider especially difficult or obscure - concentrating on British and foreign terms, archaic terms, and terms from specialised fields. I also provide a commentary on a few selected clues. I do not supply a full review of the puzzle on my blog since Big Dave's site already provides that. My intent is to complement the material available on Big Dave's site by - among other things - highlighting differences between British and North America usage, discussing the surface reading of clues that can sometimes be a mystery to North American readers (such as those dealing with cricket), and provide an explanation of comments found on Big Dave's site when I feel they may not be entirely clear to readers on this side of the Atlantic.
On Saturday, the blog takes a different form. As I am not aware of any other blog discussing the Cox and Rathvon puzzle, I provide an explanation of the wordplay for each clue in the puzzle, and sometimes additional commentary on a few selected clues. I also provide a link to a copy of the puzzle, primarily for the benefit of readers outside Canada (of whom there seem to be quite a few). The glossary on Saturday also takes on a bit of a different flavour, as I try to include items that would be familiar to Canadians but might be unknown to readers outside the country.
Cryptic Crossword Primer
Where should a newcomer start in learning the art of solving cryptic crossword puzzles. As a start, I would suggest reading the Wikipedia article on Cryptic Crosswords for a quick overview, as well as Big Dave's Little Guide to Cryptic Crosswords. These provide links to other sources of information. I also provide links to a few other sites from this blog (see library in the sidebar on the right). At his site, Big Dave provides several other resources, including The Mine, which contains a wealth of information useful to solvers.
However, nothing beats practice. So once you have familiarised yourself with the basic terms and concepts try solving puzzles. Don't be discouraged if you can't solve many clues on your first try - or even on your twenty-fifth attempt. Read the reviews of the puzzles and try to understand how the clue works. Big Dave provides, in addition to the solution to each clue, a hint to help solve the clue. The solutions are even hidden so you can look at the hint without inadvertently seeing the solution. Some people suggest that learners begin by filling in the solutions to the across clues from the review and then attempt to solve the down clues. That way you have the 'checking letters' (the letters provided by the intersecting entries) to help you.
I won't attempt to provide a complete tutorial - others have already done it much better than I could ever hope to do. However, I will try to provide a brief explanation of some of the very basic concepts.
As an example, lets use a clue from DT 26317, which appears in today's National Post:
- 12a Paint a picture of harbour fish (7)
A cryptic crossword clue can be read on two levels. One level is the surface reading, which is the way one would interpret the text if it were to be encountered in everyday speech. A clue is said to have a 'smooth surface reading' if it sounds like something one might expect to hear in everyday conversation. A clue with a poor surface reading is one that may have a convoluted structure with a sequence of words that would be unlikely to be encountered in everyday speech. The example clue has a reasonably smooth surface reading.
The second level is the cryptic reading. This refers to an underlying meaning that is ideally concealed beneath the surface meaning. It is often the case that the smoother the surface reading, the more well hidden is the cryptic meaning.
As for the cryptic reading, while there are exceptions (which you will encounter sooner or later), most clues consist of two parts; namely, a straight definition and wordplay. The straight definition will generally be either the first or last element in the clue, although British puzzles do sometimes (but only very rarely) put the definition in the midst of the wordplay. The wordplay can take any of several forms, among which are anagrams, charades (word sums), deletions, reversals, and containments, as well as combinations of these types. In essence, the wordplay gives the solver instructions on how to manipulate words and letters to form new words. It consists of words (called indicators) that identify the type of manipulation required, together with the words and letters that must be manipulated (often referred to as the 'fodder'). It may also include words that define additional details of the manipulation (such as the order in which a series of operations must be performed).
The definition may precede or follow the wordplay (or rarely, as mentioned earlier, be placed in the middle of it). In some cases, there may be a 'link word' between the definition and the wordplay. The link word usually expresses the idea of equivalency (such as 'is') or creation (such as 'makes' or 'produces').
Setters delight in constructing clues in which it is not obvious which part is the definition and which part is the wordplay. In our example, we must determine whether the definition is, for example, 'paint a picture of' or 'fish'. As it turns out, the former is the definition and the wordplay is 'harbour fish'. To 'paint a picture of' something is to 'portray' it. The wordplay is a charade (word sum) of PORT (a synonym for "harbour") plus RAY (a kind of fish) which combine to produce the solution PORTRAY. By the way, the term charade comes from the parlour game of the same name in which one teammate must act out fragments of words in an effort to enable a teammate to piece together the whole word.
In this clue, there is no link word between the definition and wordplay - the wordplay directly follows the definition. There is also no indicator in the clue. Usually when there is no explicit indicator, the clue will be a charade - as this one is.
This is but a brief taste to (hopefully) help you get started on your exploration of this field.
Finally, don't hesitate to ask questions. If you don't understand the solution to a particular clue, leave a comment and I will be more than pleased to provide clarification. And if I can't help you, I'm sure that someone at Big Dave's site would be happy to provide assistance.
Good luck and enjoy your solving experience. Don't be surprised if you become hooked on them and cryptic crosswords become an addiction.
Signing off for today - Falcon
