I did have a good go at Friday's DA and it was a double effort as that puzzle had an extra twist in it's wordplay where the puzzle began with this message :
NB - As a verbal 9-down, this crossword owns a pure 19-down in the definition element of every clue.
Wow, whatever could that mean?? I guess we had to solve those two clues first to understand what was pure in each of the other clues. Only, for me, it wasn't that easy. I did manage to solve a couple of the other clues even though I didn't know the hints in the beginning statement. Clues like:
6D - Rescue son twice from deranged satanist (6)
In this clue the word deranged is an anagrind and we are to "rescue son twice" or remove the letter S from the word "satanist" twice. The remaining letters ATANIT when scrambled gives ATTAINS. Although rescue and attains aren't quite the same thing.
13A - Elaborate wire tank an item made with hatred? (8)
Here "Elaborate" is an anagrind and when we mix the words "wire tank" we get KNITWEAR, which I don't completely agree is "an item made with hatred" but who knows how many scratchy woollen jumpers DA has had to endure in his lifetime?
I eventually figured out the puzzle's instruction by the clues left on the D.A. Trippers discussion page.
9D - Cardies seen at this social tilt (A tilt? Pray translate) (8,5)
It wasn't until Rupert put up the clue "9D: Cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice? Sounds vile …" that I was able to google that and get my answer. "Cardies seen" where seen is an anagrind, we mix up Cardies to get SIDECAR, a kind of cocktail. Then (A tilt? Pray begin to make sense too where you can make out the word PARTY. COCKTAIL PARTY. is the answer. So the clue definition is A social. How does that work with the puzzle's instruction?
As a verbal cocktail party...
Okay...well so far I've only answered the anagram clues. Maybe 9D is an anagram too?
Clambers arena, forgetting about flyweight? (7)
Well I won't waste time sharing my struggles with that. Needless to say the answer for 9D is ANAGRAM but I don't understand the parsing except to guess a fly weighs A GRAM. But I did notice right off that Clambers = SCRAMBLE. It was a safe bet that the 9-down in the NB was telling us every clue had a "pure anagram in the definition element of every clue"
There is where I got confused. Trying to discern the definitions in the clues, running all words through anagram solver to find one that might fit an answer. It became hard because I never knew if the clue had a definition, or if I had to find the anagram to find the definition. Even when I knew I had the right the answer, I wasn't sure if I'd solved the clue. Looking back at 13A "an item made with hatred" where hatred is the pure anagram yields THREAD which is an item that becomes KNITWEAR. Also for 6D Rescue can become SECURE which makes ATTAINS more plausible.
The next day, with the published solution, I went through and found all the anagrams, and then checked them to the answers. I still struggle to parse the clues, so you can have a look at the pictures and see if it gels for you better. I still feel slightly adrift even when I think I get it, I then forget. (That's what they say quantum mechanics is like, right?)
Picture of the finished puzzle:
Here's the list of pure anagrams, which I did the following day and just as timely as the main puzzle.
I didn't get annoyed, or upset this week. I honestly saw the genius behind this puzzle. This is a super challenge and I didn't feel bad at all for not being up to it but felt challenged and hopeful that one day this will be a second nature kind of thing if I keep practicing. I really felt enthusiastic about having even cracked the NB. I also had to look up NB as I'd not seen that before Note Bene, and for fun I ran that through the anagram solvers and found nothing secret there, just an amusing NEON BEET and BEE TONNE.
Moving onwards...DING DING! Before going further, if you'd like to give Monday's puzzle a go yourself first, it's up and free on the compiler's Twitter page @LRxword Stop here if you do as Spoilers are ahead!
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I had a first yesterday. I was gleeful and giddy: I solved my first complete puzzle. Hooray!! I got all the clues in Monday's cryptic by LR. Even more surprising is it was a soccer themed puzzle and I'm not a soccer fan. I got all but five clues by lunchtime, then I went and did errands, came back around two PM and finished the rest. None of that "Oh I took a full hour to solve your puzzle, it was a challenge" crap talk that annoys everyone - oh come on, it can't be just me! No, many hours and a break in between to let my brain unknot. Sometimes I'm like a terrier with a shoe and I won't let go of an obviously wrong answer because I just want it to be right.
Here's the picture, printed out because I signed up for the digital newspaper instead of buying a fresh one every day. On promotion 50% off for six months so I figured, why not save money for a change. My printer is being funny, don't mind the pink...
Also "homesaver" is not part of the clue but the name of an annoying company that keeps cold calling my house and I'm trying to get blocked.
1A - World Cup organiser fails to enclose one area (4)
I had an alternate NW corner where the clues sort of worked, but ultimately not. You can see that in the top right of the picture. I just couldn't believe "World cup organiser" was the definition, it didn't seem cryptic enough. To be honest, I'm sure how to work "fails to enclose one area" gets FIFA. I just knew Fifa organised the World Cup. Fails = F one = I but area = FA eludes me.
3A - Goes underwater and cheats in soccer (5,1,4)
Double definition, TAKES A DIVE
10A - Italian man lauding with regularity (5)
I may have gotten this one subconsciously because I was making Mario Kart jokes about how that was more entertaining than the World Cup and that throwing banana peels and red shells at players would be far more entertaining. As it goes, I solved this late in the puzzle. Definition is "Italian man" and we want to hone in on the word "regularly" as it's hinting there's a hidden answer where letters are regularly placed "LaUdInG wIth" for LUIGI.
11A - Snowballs bombard sea castle (9)
Definition is "Snowballs" and bombard is an anagrind, mix up "sea castle" for ESCALATES.
12A - Lads from European sides chuck fruit (11)
I got this with many cross letters and since there aren't many fruits with 11 letters. Lads = BOYS "European sides" means take first and last letters from European EN and a famous chuck is Chuck BERRY for BOYSENBERRY. "It's your cousin, Marvin! Marvin Berry!"
15A - Trying to solve goal scoring problems (15)
I got this one last, with all cross letters and I admit I needed One Across to help me out. I think I was thrown by the 15 letters and didn't realise, as per usual, this was a compound word. I don't quite get the parsing as a cryptic clue, it seems like a straightforward clue to me. TROUBLESHOOTING.
19A - Reveal plan to throw a match (4,3,4,4)
Double definition or an &lit clue, I'm not expert enough to tell. I'm thinking yes. &Lit clues mean the wordplay and literal definition are the same so the answer of GIVE THE GAME AWAY works, doesn't it? I might have to learn how to write these clues so I understand what they are better, myself.
20A - Soccer frees, like 24-down and 28-across (6,5)
This one took me ages and I never quite knew if the answer worked. I wrote/erased the bottom left corner a few times, too. I'm wasn't sure how "frees" fit in there but I had enough cross letters to see the 5 letter word was likely KICKS, so I googled soccer terms and chose the one that fit: CORNER KICKS.
25A - Those cut from team quest in 17-down (9)
I didn't see how 17-down fit in this clue. I figured "Those cut from team" was the definition and searched synonyms for cut, benched etc and with cross letters I got OMISSIONS.
26A - French send off gilt-edged pass (5)
I liked this clue! Our definition is "French sendoff" "gilt-edged" is tricky, we're to think gilt=gold and gold=AU on the periodic table. We then take AU and pout them on the edges A_ _ _ U and a synonym for pass (There are many, here we want "pass away") is DIE for ADIEU.
27A - Bachelordom depressing Len essentially kept inside (10)
I put in and erased this a few times because I found the answer a wishy-washy word. Not until I was typing this up did I notice this was actually a hidden word clue and I should've been more comfortable with SINGLENESS as it's plain to see there in "depreSING LEN ESSentially" and now kicking myself for not paying attention to the obvious "kept inside" clue.
28A - Shoe in back of car (4)
We want a double definition for shoe and the back of a car. I kept thinking what I keep in the back of my car: spare tire, crowbar, jack. Jack is aka LIFT and lifts are a kind of shoe! No. Much simpler, and if British English was my first language I may have snapped to BOOT quicker.
1D - Do laundry chore or quit (4)
First answer I put in was WASH, thinking of the phrase "it's a wash" to mean something has failed, or ruined. "It's a wash, everyone. Go on home." But no, we wanted the word FOLD.
2D - Sporting carnival? (4)
Sporting as to be a good sport and a word for carnival? FAIR.
4D - Teeny lace alteration with hydrocarbon (9)
I may be getting better at spotting anagrinds as I snatched onto "alteration" and quickly scrambled "teeny lace" to get ACETYLENE for "hydrocarbon"
5D - Host has three points, keeping momentum with club (5)
I'm learning that "points" often means compass points, and here we want three of them. What I had not anticipated was we wanted the same one repeated three times. Oh I had fun trying to swing NSEW in various combos while "keeping momentum with club" where we only want the first letters MC. If there was a homophone hint there that MC would give us EMCEE for "host" I may have gotten this earlier. Probably not.
6D - Unorganised line of Aussie defenders lament Italy's brilliant headers? (2,3)
This one was mentioned by @LRxword on Twitter
From today's @smh crossword.
Unorganised line of Aussie defenders lament Italy's brilliant headers (2,3)
I did get the clue, but not sure I get the joke. Is there a joke? Hopelessly not a footie person (although I do prefer AFL to soccer any day). Let's grab onto that word "headers" and think maybe this is a hidden word clue and let's look at the first letters of the sentence "Aussie Defenders Lament Italy's Brilliant" to give AD LIB. Is that an "unorganised line" well I'd go with spontaneous or improvised. Maybe I'm just not getting this after all? Who cares - AD LIB fits and works!
7D - Discussions with Milan soccer team with crazy wives (10)
I got this with cross letters and knowing "crazy" was likely an anagrind for WIVES. I did not know Milan's soccer team were known as INTER but scramble those up to get INTERVIEWS for "discussions"
8D - Tess May drops trademark article? (5)
I liked this, straight forward, do as you're told. "Tess May drops trademark" where a trademark is abbreviated to TM, remove those letters and we're left with ESSAY a synonym for article.
9D - Nipped twice when holding heartless boy gently (3,2,3)
I got this one and then doubted myself. To and fro is it right? Can't be. "Nipped twice" where a synonym for nipped is BIT and we want that twice BIT BIT "holding heartless boy" or remove the O from boy to leave the BY. BIT BY BIT.
13D - Extreme sport silver for party boy? (4)
Another charades clue, so do as we're told: Take the "extreme" letters from "sport" ST and add the periodic symbol for "silver" AG to get a "party boy" STAG.
14D - Non-pro rendition of successful penalty shot (10)
I had to google for this one, but the parsing works well, too. A "non-pro" is a CON and a rendition is a VERSION for a successful penalty shot CONVERSION.
16D - Captain trials nuts (4,5)
This one drove me nuts. I needed all the cross letters. Just couldn't come up with the correct synonyms but the answer is HEAD CASES, which once in makes perfect sense.
17D - Supervises speech abroad (8)
Double definition but "speech" hints to a homophone so which one to see want? OVERSEAS/OVERSEES? Luckily we have 26A with an A in place so it's OVERSEAS.
18D - Blokes watching Peru play arduous finals (4)
Like "headers" and "regularly" we see "finals" and must look first to see if our answer is hidden at the end of words here. "watchinG perU plaY arduouS" GUYS = Blokes
20D - Angry soccer pass (5)
Double definition, CROSS.
21D - Topless scoundrel to stand for painting? (5)
I first thought the answer had something to do with posing but the cross letters were not working. Then I though "stand for painting" as a noun and got EASEL, where the "topless scoundrel" is a WEASEL-W.
22D - Recognised withdrawing ones from Kino win (5)
Definition is "Recognised" and a charades clue, do as we're told. "Withdrawing ones" or remove the letters I from "Kino win" to get KNOWN.
23D - Alcoholic victory over Melbourne heart (4)
I liked this clue. I got this clue and felt quite chuffed. Definition is "Alcoholic" and a "victory" = WIN over "Melbourne heart" is the letter O for WINO.
24D - Bet on boat (4)
Double definition for bet on and a boat is PUNT. I've seen this kind of clue often enough now to recognise it, which is a good thing. That's the sort of thing that comes with practice. It's like when years ago I'd do the Boston Herald crossword and a few times a week the word Oast would be in there with an oven clue. Either they wanted oven, kiln or oast, and I learned quick to pen those in.
That's tons for now. I'm done. I'll have a go later with today's puzzle. If you've read this far, I thank you for your time and compliment your endurance. Have a great day!
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