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Click on underlined text for explanation of terms.
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The answer is found by butting together parts defined in the wordplay. There may be some positional indicators that change the order of these parts.
The answer is found by using the sound of a word or phrase. Sounds-like indicators point the way.
The entire answer is the result of removing the first or last letter from part of the clue or its synonym. A truncation indicator will be present.
The structure of the answer involves either letters placed outside other letters, or letters placed inside other letters. Which type of container clue is determined by an appropriate container indicator.
The entire answer is the result of removing the first or last letter from part of the clue or its synonym. A truncation indicator will be present.
The structure of the answer involves either letters placed outside other letters, or letters placed inside other letters. Which type of container clue is determined by an appropriate container indicator.
The structure of the answer involves either letters placed outside other letters, or letters placed inside other letters. Which type of container clue is determined by an appropriate container indicator.
The answer is found by butting together parts defined in the wordplay. There may be some positional indicators that change the order of these parts.
Either a mixture of letters is placed inside or outside other letters, or letters are placed inside or outside a mixture of letters. An anagram indicator and containment indicator will be present.
A pointer that signifies the placing of one or more parts of a clue (or their equivalents) on the INSIDE of one or more parts of a clue (or their equivalents).
Examples: held by, kept by, embraced by - anything that creates the image of being contained.
Either a mixture of letters is placed inside or outside other letters, or letters are placed inside or outside a mixture of letters. An anagram indicator and containment indicator will be present.
Either a mixture of letters is placed inside or outside other letters, or letters are placed inside or outside a mixture of letters. An anagram indicator and containment indicator will be present.
A pointer that signifies the placing of one or more parts of a clue (or their equivalents) around the OUTSIDE of one or more parts of a clue (or their equivalents).
Examples: holding, keeping, embracing - anything that creates the image of containment.
Feedback is a really good tool for anyone supplying a service or product to improve what they offer. Good feedback provides encouragement and reinforces what someone does well. Negative feedback can force changes so that more of the public are happy with what’s provided. In our increasingly busy world, we tend to focus on the negative feedback because we have a vested interest, and time is too short to pat anyone on the back for what we consider as “doing their job”. The crossword setting business is a little different, but not much. In the 15 years I wrote The Stickler, I had just a handful of letters and emails, with the majority pointing out mistakes or things that solvers thought weren’t right. In some cases I received malicious feedback from people wanting to undermine my work by providing general criticism with no examples or a foundation for their beef. It’s disappointing not to get more feedback, but I believe no news is good news, so lack of feedback probably means I’m doing OK.
What do you think is the most important factor a setter has to consider before they sit down to construct a cryptic crossword for a new publication/outlet? Grid size? Difficulty? Frequency? References used? Answer choices? They are all part of the cryptic equation, but what is the main driver of all of these? It’s the solving demographic, that is, who, on average reads the publication the crossword appears in and who do you want it to appeal to? It’s wrong, for example, to create a really hard crossword in a daily paper if the answers appear the next day, unless, of course, you acknowledge you are trying to appeal to a very small section of the readership. It’s commonsense to have the difficulty of the crossword match the frequency of the crossword so that solvers can roll on from one day to the other. Likewise, if you know the majority of your solvers are from more mature age-groups, using modern slang or words that only live in the virtual domain and not published references will alienate solvers. It’s also important to remember solvers may be at different solving levels, so there’s a challenge to cater for everyone – newbies to veterans – in every crossword, that is, of course, if you want to write an all-inclusive crossword.
