I consider it part of my job as a professional crossword setter to be across all aspects of crosswords in all English-speaking countries. There are crossword forums, blogs and websites galore, but still regular peeks are necessary to keep up with what’s going on in the crossword world. I even search online newspapers for mentions of crosswords to see what readers are saying.
Recently I read some posts where a solver tended to rate the crosswords they solved based on the number of anagrams they contained. Lots of anagrams instantly met with a “boring” tag and accusations of lazy clueing. Presumably the overabundance of anagrams tempered the challenge and reduced solving satisfaction. There’s nothing wrong with anagrams, even lots of them in a crossword as long as the setter follows the fundamental concept of writing clues that seamlessly link definition and wordplay with good surface reading. That is, a crossword shouldn’t be full of obvious anagrams, but well-disguised anagrams should always be welcome. Sometimes a setter will include obvious anagrams intentionally to help solvers get a kickstart or to make a clue with an obscure answer easier to solve. This is fine too. All balanced cryptic crosswords will contain a significant number of anagrams, whole or partial: it’s the setter’s job to make sure they work within the whole crossword.
The Times in the UK has a formula that its crossword setters must abide by: a total of five “points” are allowed where a whole anagram is one point and a partial anagram is half a point. So you could have five whole anagrams or ten partial anagrams and anything in-between. On average I tend to be just over this amount which I feel is OK as I don’t rely on synonym substitution which reduces the number of clueing options I have.
It happens that this crossword has a very low anagram count, just 1.5 on the Times scale – how hard did you find it?
| Across | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | RAINFOREST | |
| Take it easy outside a home because of tropical environment (10) | REST outside (A + IN + FOR) | |
| 6 | SLOP | |
| Inclined surface reduced overflow (4) | (SLOP)E | |
| 9 | SEPIA | |
| First part of picture, one painted in water colour (5) | [(P)ICTURE + I] inside SEA | |
| 10 | CHILDCARE | |
| Youth work provided ultimately by coach in Chile (9) | [PROVIDE(D) + CAR] inside CHILE | |
| 12 | GATHERINGS | |
| The jewellery on display in excellent conventions (10) | (THE + RING) inside GAS | |
| 13 | ALE | |
| Alcohol is not found in supermarket section (3) | AISLE minus IS | |
| 15 | NOTING | |
| Seeing out the head of Government? (6) | (NOT IN) + (G)OVERNMENT | |
| 16 | SNORTERS | |
| Drug takers – they order around middlemen ultimately (8) | SORTERS outside MIDDLEME(N) | |
| 18 | MASTHEAD | |
| Millions like the commercial name of a newspaper (8) | M + AS + THE + AD | |
| 20 | AMORAL | |
| A mark not written down without guiding principles (6) | A + M + ORAL | |
| 23 | TIN | |
| Large amount of colour roofing material (3) | (TIN)T | |
| 24 | PASSIONATE | |
| Strong forward tackling one at end of game (10) | (PASS ON) outside I + AT + GAM(E) | |
| 26 | BOTANICAL | |
| Research centre, with backing, limiting unusual action of plants (9) | (LAB reversed) outside anagram of ACTION | |
| 27 | TRADE | |
| Do business with one leaving lecture (5) | TIRADE minus I | |
| 28 | EASY | |
| Replace a system’s components in plentiful supply (4) | replacE A SYstem | |
| 29 | IMPRUDENCE | |
| Mischief-maker, rude once, not admitting love’s indiscretion (10) | IMP + RUDE + (ONCE minus O) | |
| Down | Answers and Clues | Explanations |
| 1 | ROSE | |
| Perforated nozzle is mounted (4) | Double Definition | |
| 2 | IMPLANT | |
| Insert elements of interim plan tentatively (7) | interIM PLAN Tentatively | |
| 3 | FLASH IN THE PAN | |
| Dish keeping thin shape, oddly, is a briefly successful thing (5,2,3,3) | FLAN outside (anagram of THIN SHAPE) | |
| 4 | RECORD | |
| Write down customer’s starter in wrong order (6) | (C)USTOMER inside anagram of ORDER | |
| 5 | SPINNING | |
| Sing, going around secure pole that’s turning (8) | SING outside (PIN + N) | |
| 7 | LEAFAGE | |
| A cigarette found in shelter is marijuana, possibly (7) | (A + FAG) inside LEE | |
| 8 | PREHENSILE | |
| Capable of grasping tailless red birds nesting in mountain? (10) | [(RE)D + HENS] inside PILE | |
| 11 | DISCRIMINATED | |
| Record considered broken by one minute was biased (13) | DISC + [(RATED outside (I + MIN)] | |
| 14 | INIMITABLE | |
| Exceptionally good car reversed over one piece of furniture (10) | MINI reversed + I + TABLE | |
| 17 | CAPSICUM | |
| Vegetable’s crown – one rooted in dirt (8) | CAP + (I inside SCUM) | |
| 19 | SONATAS | |
| One of the boys at, for instance, musical items (7) | SON + AT + AS | |
| 21 | RETRAIN | |
| Check outside of tram mostly ready for a new assignment (7) | REIN outside (TRA)M | |
| 22 | TILLER | |
| One who works the land steering contraption (6) | Double Definition | |
| 25 | HERE | |
| Associates of attache respectfully should be present (4) | attacHE REspectfully |
Stickler 41
Very enjoyable. Took some time to get PREHENSILE, 8D.
Norman
I can’t say I noticed the low anagram count — but then again I’m not an anagram counter. David’s anagrams are always clever and well-hidden, so their presence or absence doesn’t worry me.
I’d rate #41 as medium-hard on the Stickler Scale. Favourite clues were 15ac, 24ac, 26ac, 7dn & 8dn.
Does 15a count as a synonym substitution?
No, 15-across asks you to redefine “out” as “not in”, but “not in” doesn’t have any etymological relationship with “note” or “noting”. For an explanation it may be best to look at my Crossword Unclued interview, Q9.
Best
David
Sorry. A bit of a frivolous comment. I did like the clue.
I started solving about 7 years ago after reading an article in The Australian Magazine. I spent a year doing the combination clues from The Advertiser (two speed), gradually solving more cryptic clues and ignoring the regular clues. It took a year of lunch breaks but I finally would fly through the easy cryptic clues and needed to move on to The Age cryptic crosswords. I might be a little unusual but I think that is the way to learn how to solve then if you you like a challenge.
Thanks for your comments Robert. I believe your journey may be a familiar one. It requires time, persistence and dedication – qualities that not everyone has. The biggest problem I see in learning from working backwards from answers to clues, is that some basic cryptic concepts can be overlooked. This may be ok as long as there isn’t a desire to solve more difficult puzzles where such knowledge is crucial to moving on. Many learn on easy puzzles and never break the shackles. I’m glad you stuck at it and have been able to reach a high level of solving.
I can see why many don’t break the shackles. That first Age puzzle (DS, I think) made me feel like I had never solved one in my life. Luckily, like a red flag to a bull for me.