First, let me confess that I'm still a newbie solver of cryptic clues. Five years ago my New Year's resolution was to learn how to solve a cryptic puzzle. I had been living in the UK for several years and saw them regularly in the papers but had no idea what they were about. They seem so weird! How do half of the clues even make sense? Harder still was trying to find someone who could explain why the cryptic was so...cryptic.
The few people I did find who could solve them didn't want to undertake the massive chore of explaining how it was done. "You'll just figure it out."
I didn't. I bought books from Amazon and struggled. I bought tutorials on how to solve The Guardian cryptic and failed repeatedly. After about a year of feeling extremely inept and no further forward, I got distracted with emigrating to Australia and forgot about cryptics.
Five years later and this year I renewed that old resolution to learn how to solve cryptic crosswords. I'm finally having success. What I have now that I did not have then, is a support group. They may be online people only, but they have a love of puzzling and an eagerness to support a newbie. I'm going to return the favour and offer to help, too. This could be the blind leading the blind...if that happens I'll defer to something crochet. Or politics. Or cake. Click pic to embiggen.
32 clues. I managed to solve about 80% myself and the rest I had to wait for Tuesday's solution. This was one of my better days. I even sent the compiler a tweet to thank him. I was encouraged! Let's try and break down what we can - what I cannot, perhaps someone will volunteer a solution. Hardest part is always trying to discern which part of the clue is the definition. The best part of a cryptic is, when solving the rest of the clue, the answer should work with what the definition is. These clues are almost algebraic! No - don't run away because there's a math analogy!
1D - The definition is "Strange". A synonym for family is "KIN" and the state abbreviation for Kentucky is KY. KINKY is a synonym for Strange. Easy! Great start!! I believe this is a Charades style clue.
4A - An average mark, or grade is a C and another word for screenplay is SCRIPT and that leaves "Draft" as our definition. If use the word "on" in the clue to fill the blank between C and SCRIPT we get CONSCRIPT, a synonym for "Draft"
9A - I first thought about names of different dances which was a lengthy sidetrack. I had to get a few cross letters to see the word DEER was there for stag. Then I realised "Dance" wasn't asking for a specific dance, just another generic term for dance: BALL. BALLADEER is a Songwriter.
10A - This one I had to google around for solution ideas. Church? Church box? Something to do with donations? Tithes? No, that's me on another rabbit hole. A common abbreviation in UK and Australia (don't know about other places) for Church is CE which stands for Church of England. The clue says "Dishonest person gets into CE" a three letter word for dishonest person is RAT. C + RAT + E = CRATE, a synonym for Box, our definition.
11A - I admit this one stumped me until Tuesday where I then had to slap myself for missing what then seemed obvious. Parasite - tick? flea? mozzie? leech? Blood types are A, B or O. A Tick? Is this a homophone clue? Attic? What does that have to do with "Women's clothing"? Absolutely nothing!! Round and round I went. Answer breakdown: Blood group is B + parasite (LOUSE) = BLOUSE. Charades, again.
13A - Definition is "More Stout" Synonym for "wine" PORT, 50 = L in roman numerals, "That's" is That is or IE and "right" usually means take the R. PORT + L+ IE+ R = PORTLIER - more stout. I admit to looking around for more words for beer than for wine. I got the "LIER" bit long before PORT. Charades.
15A - Award? Honor? Huh?? Which end is the definition? is it a Double Definition clue? What role does "vocal" play? Oh - it's a homophone clue! I hate these! Ok, what another word for "champs" CHEWS which is a homophone of CHOOSE which means to "elect". The clue is 5 letters so it's CHEWS.
17A - I was sidetracked instantly by the phrase "Idle US people" and really hoped this wasn't a clue taking a dig at Yanks. "A bloke's" could be "A MAN'S" and adopting looks like a signpost instruction - A MANS is going to adopt something or have a word inserted. Which one? "Idle" there's a long list of synonyms but none are very small, in fact idle was the smallest. Do we know a person named Idle? YES! Eric Idle of Monty Python! Ok, so we have A + MANS + ERIC. But Eric needs to be inserted into AMANS (saucy!) and we get AMERICANS, for US people. No upset found. Well maybe Eric Idle could be upset but not likely.
18A - This one confused me. I know "queens" is likely ERS because the current queen is Elizabeth Regina (ER) and plural gives S. The wordplay of "about to take coin face with" eludes me. I was able to solve this just by guessing "Merchants" was the definition and getting the ERS ending. RETAILERS was the answer. Coin face could be "heads or tails" but how the clue makes RE eludes me.
19A - This is a Double Definition clue, we need to find a word that means both "ignores" and "dumpster" I found using Thesaurus.com useful and found SKIPS. A UK word for dumpster
20A - Did not get this on the day. Definition is "Pay" and "Petrol Company" is SHELL and to empty is OUT.
21A - Did not get a bit of it. Answer came from Tuesday's answer key. I can see how OFFEND means "Outrage" but that's it.
24A - Did not like this clue. I understood "River head" meant to use the R from river, but "sweet liquid" I was thinking honey, nectar, sap, syrup but not wine. "Never ending" wasn't literal then as neither never nor ending end in E. The answer is RHONE. I don't see why...oh now I do. HONEY never ending means -Y to get HONE. Still don't like it.
25A - Definition is "Obeys rules" and requires that kind of lateral thinking that would make someone think "Theatre where they have PLAYS and festivals are called FAIR." It was hard to know where the plural belonged.
28A- Definition is "Ocean activity" another word for "wraps" is WINDS and exotic is a signpost that says "furs" is to be mixed up to form SURF.
29A- Ultimate is a signpost meaning something from the end and the next word is "giveaway" the ultimate letter of giveaway is Y and your "listeners" are your EARS. Ages is the definition as YEARS.
1D - One of my favourite clues in this puzzle. I scribbled the solve as I worked the puzzle. "Key baby" looked like an odd phrase and I thought it may be an anagram but it has too many letters. Rejects is a signpost that something is being removed. Chromosomes come in X or Y and that suspicious "Key Baby" has two Ys we can scratch off. Leaving KEBAB, a dish.
2D - Is easy, "Nothing" is the definition and heads tells us to look at the letters at the head of each word. "Nice In Lawyers" gives NIL.
3D - Looking out for the signposts that tell us what actions we need to take, finally jumps out. PoetrY and another for consumes is EATS to give us the poet YEATS.
4D - 17th letter is Q dictated tells us to say this aloud and that gives us another word for our definition "Hint" CUE.
5D - This one starts weird "Person C lay..." and I'm immediately suspicious of an anagram. How many letters? 10 for the solution and 10 for the weird phrase. Anagram is NARCOLEPSY and I don't mind admitting I use an online anagram solver. Cheater cheats but I get my answer efficiently.
6D - "Fancy Drinks" with "bird" COCK on "seats" TAILS. But really "fancy drinks" was enough to get this.
7D - This one drove me crazy! I had to wait for the solution. I had the I, A and I from 4A, 17A and19A. I kept trying to come up with synonyms for gangster to fit "Wise guys" but it ended up as I + MAGI + NATIVE. native for "local". I failed.
8D - Loved this clue, so clever. "Oxygen increases" whenever we see an element we should first assume its symbol is the clue letter so O + RISES. "Article" refers to grammar and an article is usually THE, A or AN. In this case THEORISES for definition of "Speculates". When the clues work this well it's a delight to solve them.
12D - Bombed out! See clues with a question mark? I don't like them. I rarely get the phrase. It's where I have a mental block. It's something that can be broken down in the clue. There has to be a mental leap of some sort. the answer here is OVER THE MOON. They always seem obvious when answered. Compilers would hate me for not getting their cleverness.
14D - I think this a double definition clue. The answer is BASE JUMPER. Again, not one I solved.
15D - ...I had no idea. CORKSCREW.
16D - Back to the familiar! "Whiskey maker" is a STILL and "Scottish lake" is NESS. Whew, definition of "Calm" STILLNESS.
22D - I do not know who "Loud" is F, "one" is usually the letter I as it looks like a 1, and "Bashful is SHY. Definition of "suspicious" is FISHY. Oh! I wonder if it's a musical prompt - F for fortissimo? Ah, Wiki to the rescue - Forte = loud. Also Piano = soft and gives us P in other clues.
23D - Double definition again DARTS and I did not get it because der, my brain doesn't work that way. Even with thesaurus.com.
26D - Thee letter word for "Donkey"? ASS
27D - I like these clues. "Also called" is the definition. "Alcoholics Anonymous" is AA to be placed about last "drink" K for AKA.
That was it! I felt great having gotten as much as I did. Everyday I get a bit better...then Friday hits. The Friday one is a killer. David Astle writes that one, known as DA or "Don't Attempt". I'm going to have a party the first friday I solve an entire DA. As it goes I manage one maybe two. It's brutal for a newbie!
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