Australian Crosswords

A few weeks ago I saw a themed cryptic (of sorts) that was quite unusual: it had the “theme” (a set of related items) hidden in the solution squares, yet the crossword itself had nothing to do with the theme. That is, the clues and the answers had no relationship with the hidden theme words, in fact, instructions were added to allow solvers to “play the game” with the completed grid. I guess you could claim that the puzzle was flexible in that it could be solved like normal and left, or it could be solved and enjoyed for those interested. In a normal theme puzzle, the theme itself (once discovered) should assist a solver by limiting what certain answers could be. Likewise, if a message or words are hidden in the letters in the grid, a solver may deduce what’s needed and this allows them to preload the grid with letters of answers that are not yet solved. I know some love themed crosswords, but in my experience they can be hit-or-miss as the theme may not be a strong area for a solver, or like me, constant cross-referencing (where used) serves as an intolerable distraction. Theme crosswords can also feel a little forced, as words get used that may not be chosen by a setter under normal circumstances due to the difficulty of clueing them. The result may be some ordinary clues all in the name of adding to the theme.

1-across, Convener’s primary problem at talk (8), reminded me of a clue for the same word back in 2005. No my memory isn’t that good, but the clue raised an issue with at least one solver at the time and he posted a question about it on rec.puzzles.crosswords: The clue was Gossip about couple’s cat (8). In order for the solver to arrive at the answer two things have to be understood. First, couple’s has to be interpreted couple is and the possessive nature that it appears to have must be ignored. Second, and more importantly, the reading of the wordplay (that is now about couple is cat) has to be interpreted in a different way to what you would expect. That is, about (around) a word for couple is a word for (or in this case the word itself) cat. It needs to be considered in the same manner you might say “under a table is a cat”, where you can picture a cat under a table. So here cat is about couple. Not difficult once you understand how the clue is to be read, but certainly different from how clues are normally structured. You’ll be pleased to know that I don’t employ this structure very often (it all comes down to what works best in a wordplay/clue), and if I do I’ll let the solver know through the clue hints on this website. The newsgroup posting above explores the validity of this divergence but I think Steve Ball said it best:
“… it doesn’t present a fatal problem for me. After all,
these are crossword clues, and they’re supposed to mislead. I can’t
imagine anyone saying ‘flower’ when they mean ‘river’, but, as long as
there’s a valid, grammatical way to understand what’s written, I think it’s
allowable. It’s when the grammar is *wrong* that I think the stretch is too
far.”