The Stickler Weekly 155 Solution

It’s much easier for me to predict that a clue is going to prove difficult for solver than it is to say that it’s going to be easy to solve. I know as I write a clue whether an element of it could prove tricky, usually because I hesitate, considering if I’m happy to proceed with my clueing choice. Tricky elements include uncommon words, or uncommon meanings of words in both/either definition or wordplay; using a different word form in the clue than is needed in the answer (for example, looks like an adjective in the clue, but a noun is needed in the answer etc); tricky device, or one I don’t use very often, and complicated wordplay. If any of these are present, I know some solvers are going to need extra time to work the clue out, or maybe a number of revisits. It’s this type of clue that I will definitely have clue help for on my blog. However, as the nature of all well-written cryptic clues is disguise, no matter what device is at play, I believe EVERY clue has the potential to be difficult for someone.
Not everyone has the same solving ability and most people have their own way of solving. Everything from the order of solving clues, to how you feel, can effect how well you solve, which is why I’m reluctant these days to pronounce any clue as easy. A long time ago I had a crossword in the ACC‘s magazine, CrOzworld. One of the clues was: Observe him on it, or in it? (7). The answer’s position in the grid left ?O?I?O? from all crossing words, and I thought the answer was as easy as could be: Observe hiM ON IT OR in it? MONITOR, and said as much at an ACC do after I’d adjudicated this puzzle and had a number of submissions with HORIZON as the answer. (Note the missing initial and only three crossing letters causing problems). One person who got it wrong piped up at the time, reminding me that things are never as they seem in cryptics. I don’t tend to include clue help for those clues I consider easy enough, but plenty of people still ask for help for those clues, again reminding me that, as the setter, I don’t view clues through the same eyes as solvers.
When Arthur Maynard pronounced recently on the blog that for the first time he’d gone through The Stickler Weekly and finished it in one sitting, in some ways I wasn’t surprised. When putting the crossword together, there were a number of clues where I consciously took the easy path.

Male shifting about is faced with a sickness (7)
Final point MIT raised in mutual arrangement (9)
Compete, not taking preferred approach (4)

In each case I’ve chosen to go with elements “in the clear”, that is, I haven’t disguised the elements by selecting synonyms. MALE, MIT and COMPETE all could have been clued differently and validly, but doing so would have made each clue that much harder. Some setters would never use elements in the clear, but for me it comes down to overall difficulty in the crossword and whether the clues involved have a surface reading that can absorb such a construction and still present some kind of challenge.