Australian Crosswords

Everyone makes mistakes. We know this and put mechanisms, procedures and safeguards in place to minimise them, but sometimes circumstances thwart our best preventative measures. Crossword setters suffer the same lapses as everyone else and rely on various means to end up with clues with integrity. I’m not talking about contestable “errors” like whether A is really a synonym of B or whether a word can be used as an anagram indicator, but the spelling mistakes in clues and answers, anagrams that don’t work with the letters given, the tenses of definitions that don’t match the results of wordplays and countless other mishaps that can occur during construction. The ideal situation for a setter would be for each puzzle to be checked by a test solver, and the revised result checked by a crossword editor before publication. For most of my Stickler career it’s been just me as test-solving needs the right person with time available and it costs money. The Stickler’s publisher, The Daily Telegraph, didn’t employ a cryptic crossword editor during my time and so there was no last line of defence. To compensate I had a process that at least made sure answers and the spelling of the clues were correct. Let’s face it, with electronic references available and Google, there’s no excuse for mispelling an answer or using a wrong answer, and the spellcheck inside Crossword Compiler ensured my clues were spelt Ok. In the absence of further checkers, I reviewed my clues three times before emailing them in: twice at the time of writing, and once (usually 6 weeks later) just prior to sending. I found the break useful in highlighting mistakes as the clues would no longer be fresh in my mind and I’d have to think through them without the possibility of being contaminated by misconceptions introduced at clue-writing time.
Cryptic crossword setters in some ways can get away with wordplay mistakes as the solver can never be entirely sure they haven’t missed something. I imagine a solver, satisfied with a definition/answer match, if pressed for time, could simply move on to the next clue without fully sorting out the wordplay, thus bypassing a setter’s mistake.

What kind of solver are you? A few of us from the Australian Crossword Club meet occasionally for lunch at the Harold Park Hotel to fill in the time between the official ACC functions every November. We don’t talk about crosswords all the time, but there is often a variety of puzzles available on the table for people to fill in leisurely. Sometimes we make a game of it and pass around a puzzle where a clue must be solved under time pressure. We are a small merry band, yet there are different solving abilities, and we are all different kinds of solvers, and I think this reflects the solving community at large.
Let’s look at a solver that I would call a completer: this solver is only interested in finishing the crossword – the journey doesn’t really matter. They are only satisfied when all the answers are in and may not be certain everything is right. Wordplays are checked casually, and so a few wrong answers may have to be fixed before the job is done. As the end is all the matters, quality of the clues and the crossword in general aren’t that important and difficulty is directly related to the time taken to finish the crossword. Crossword status is important and they are keen to announce that they have already completed today’s crossword. I know there are solvers out there like this as crossword blog postings reflect it. Personally, I like the fact that a cryptic crossword doesn’t have to be finished to be enjoyed as every clue, if properly constructed, can provide satisfaction in its own right. It’s nice to finish but also nice to enjoy the solving journey.

A few weeks ago a regular contributor and friend, Steve, pointed out a flaw in one of my clues: Author’s claim must be heard (5).  Take a look a the discussion here. It took me a while to understand exactly what the problem was, probably explaining how the flaw wasn’t spotted during clueing or checking. It was simple really, I’d combined two incompatible techniques but failed to notice. As I thought more about what Steve had highlighted, I realised this was a technical issue, not an error that would stop a solver, like a missing letter in an anagram or a misspelt answer. I believe 99% of solvers aren’t concerned about technical errors largely because they don’t hinder solving and the goal of most solvers is simply to complete each clue. This doesn’t change my approach, as I aim to entertain 100% of my solvers and make my crosswords accessible to all. This whole event has got me thinking more about the different types of solvers out there, and I’ll aim to profile these types over the coming weeks. Different crossword styles have evolved largely due to variations in solvers’ expectations and skill, not the other way around. A supportable claim? We shall see.