The official bored-at-work cryptic crossword pass it on thread.

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HA KEN-EL WE CAN SEE YOU IN THERE!

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I think you lot are all staggering genuises! I've never done cryptic crosswords, just never encountered them really but I'd like to try and give them a go. Can any of you recommend any of those "cracking cryptic crosswords" books? There's a whole load on Amazon if you follow the link below:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0550100539/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_cart_f/026-2542814-1547635

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never read a book about it ever, it's just something I've picked up over the years. This thread's probably not a bad way to start, since a lot of the answers are explained by the solver.

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Might have a punt on this one

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, most people learn by doing - but I got a few puzzles from a book and spent two weeks staring at them in utter confusion so I think I need some help... because I am SINGLE you see and thus have NO-ONE to PORE over CROSSWORDS with in the MORNING haha :) The book above says it comes with lots of examples and explained answers.

i got a grant total of TWO CLUES throughout that fortnight! Admittedly when I got them it was the best feeling ever!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I am MARRIED to a chump that can't (or rather, can't be bothered to) do crosswords! This is WHY I HAVE ILE! AND FRIENDS! A WINNER IS ME!

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:51 (seventeen years ago) link

OK! I'm definitely going to get the book. Now I need stuff to qualify for super saver delivery! Of course I do. Suggest something for me! I have crosswords and "new york tendaberry" so far!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Ha, the way I started was I bought earlier versions of the how-to Chambers and Telegraph books at Heathrow on the way back to States and started doing the Telegraph puzzles while we were delayed on the tarmac.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link

which means that book and its puzzles must have been pretty easy if a Septic like me could get it right away

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Because, as I may have said before, I''ve really gotta struggle to do the puzzles in the FT or the Times of London, and pretty much stick to the slim pickings of puzzles in American English.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyway, somebody give us a clue, please!

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

and not a crummy one

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Witty banter becomes stale in time (8)

― ledge, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:42 (seventeen years ago) link

badinage!

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link

HOW did you get that! Explain for a thicko please :(

I was thinking ok, so you put the word "stale" inside the word "time" and get something like "witty banter"?!

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 15:49 (seventeen years ago) link

"stale in time" = "bad in age".

There's a great book by Henry Ravthon and Emily Cox that explains the idea to American types and has a bunch of their puzzles, easier ones and harder ones. They make some of the best puzzles in the US (regular style as well -- actually they made my favorite regular crossword evah!).

― Casuistry, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Sarah, that's why it's a good clue, because there's a couple of ways to approach it and it's not immediately obvious - your approach is also a good one, and one that's used a lot.

― ailsa, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I got that Cox and Rathvon book and the Games Magazine cryptic book (I wonder if this still exist?) too.

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

What a nerd, scraping away at them books, when I should have been out parading!

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I was going to get one from Amazon but have decided I will just go to WH Smiths tomorrow instead and get something to try and tackle the Gruan. HOWEVER, there's another book on Amazon which says that the Gruan is especially distinctive so perhaps I'll start getting the Telegraph instead...

― Sarah, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I had seen cryptic crosswords a couple of times, but they seemed so baffling that I never bothered until this thread made me curious.

― jaymc, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link

jaymc, you are exactly the person the Cox/Rathvon book is for

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 February 2007 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link

They mention you on pages 7-9 and in a footnote on page 68.

― Casuistry, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Awesome!

― jaymc, Thursday, 1 March 2007 15:50 (seventeen years ago) link

page 68- it reminded me of you!

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link

People who spend a lot of time in pubs vomit untruths (8)

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:06 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't know - but yesterday i bought "how to solve cryptic crosswords" by Kevin Skinner so WISH ME LUCK.

Drunkzzz?

― Sarah, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Barflies

― jaymc, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Oooooohhhh so easy when you know the answer!

― ledge, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:31 (seventeen years ago) link

(not sure this works but)

Sounds like Dad's scared of Spanish rice (6)

― onimo, Friday, 2 March 2007 14:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Melmac grows twice the sprouts, and then some (7)

― jaymc, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

paella?

― Archel, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

― Archel, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link

paella is right

(was going for "pa yella" sound)

― onimo, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Ooh! I got paella, but only because I knew it was a Spanish dish involving rice and then I got the "pa" bit - but it didn't involve me doing any cryptic thinking, that was fairly "straight",right? Oh, a DOUBLE STRAIGHT! I have read the first page of the book, you see. getting to grips with terminology.

I have cut out the Gruan cryptic for today. I can't get a single clue. Looking at the answers to the previous puzzle no wonder - "stolon", "GELSENKIRCHEN"? Argh! I think I will be taking up Archel's Telegraph recommendation.

― Sarah, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Disgusting cheese pies (hold the mayo) set back clever schemes (10)

― lurker #2421, Friday, 2 March 2007 16:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Sarah, in terms of newspaper crosswords, I think the Telegraph is 'easiest' - though still satisfying. It's the one I started on anyway. Some of the Guardian setters are really tricky, whereas the Times and the Independent are fairly consistent.

I bought a book of Independent crosswords and breezed through #1 so I felt like super genius until I looked at #2 and it took me an hour to scrape together two answers.

I think the Telegraph is a bit odd (lately? it seemed OK when my granny did it every day). Pubs round here get the Telegraph so I look at it occasionally and either it's full of stuff where I keep thinking "that would be a really awful clue so I hope this isn't the answer, but it fits, so..." and they keep fitting, or it's full of clues I can't work out at all but the ones I can get don't seem like any other paper.

Maybe I should get a book too! I picked it up probably from doing some with my mother and just piecing the rest together myself, so there might well be patterns I don't know. I'm not very good at them. Except the ones in puzzle magazines and the Radio Times, which are easier (and about half anagrams) except for expecting you to remember the cast of terrible never-repeated 70s sitcoms. So, er, let us know what the book's like.

Anyway, be prepared to stare at it not getting any for a while, then get one or two, then more might fall into place if you've got some letters, but I spent ages only being able to get maybe 2-3 answers on any crossword. Still do for most newspapers, to be honest.

(Though I did win a PRIZE from - woo! - a student paper for my crossword skills! And they never gave me it. Bastards.)

― a passing spacecadet, Friday, 2 March 2007 18:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I am relieved to see that as yet that hasn't posted 3 times; it went kind of weird when I couldn't remember which email address I signed up with, by the time I actually logged in it had forgotten I wanted to post something, then messing around with the back button resulted in some error messages. Apologies if more copies turn up.

― a passing spacecadet, Friday, 2 March 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Upon further inspection, I don't like my clue.

― jaymc, Friday, 2 March 2007 18:41 (seventeen years ago) link

(was going for "pa yella" sound)

Totally screwing over those of us who pronounce it "pah-ey-a".

― Casuistry, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:50 (seventeen years ago) link

I think it still sort of works, because I pronounce it like you do and I was imagining someone screaming "AY-YAH!"

― jaymc, Friday, 2 March 2007 22:52 (seventeen years ago) link

Totally screwing over those of us who pronounce it "pah-ey-a".

yeah the differences in pronunciation were what made me think it was rub but I decided to go for it anyway.

― onimo, Saturday, 3 March 2007 01:17 (seventeen years ago) link

Jaymc's is "alfalfa", I fear.

― Casuistry, Saturday, 3 March 2007 08:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I have WAY too many books of crosswords (though none about solving them). But getting books full of the things is one of the best ways to practise really because if you get stuck you can a) try another one straight away and b) look at the answers. Reverse engineering from the solution is very educational.

― Archel, Saturday, 3 March 2007 13:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Right, I am going to think until I come up with a good clue. Let's see how long it takes me.

― Mark C, Saturday, 3 March 2007 14:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Cord used to be taut (9)

― Mark C, Saturday, 3 March 2007 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Jaymc's is "alfalfa", I fear.

Yeah. I should get that book, though, because I think there are some rules for how clues are given that I haven't quite internalized yet.

― jaymc, Saturday, 3 March 2007 17:17 (seventeen years ago) link

The previous guy starts just a century after my return. (5)

― Casuistry, Sunday, 4 March 2007 07:51 (seventeen years ago) link

heh.

Poster's church religion is Ned's number and Ethan's ex (5,5)

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 4 March 2007 16:42 (seventeen years ago) link

saxophone makes something curiously strong (7)

― James Redd and the Blecchs, Sunday, 4 March 2007 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link

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