The Times How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Foreword
Introduction
Part 1: Crossword Basics
1 Terminology
2 Overview of Clues and Indicators
3 Clue Types and Indicators in Detail
4 Tips for Solving Clues
5 Tips for Solving the Whole Puzzle
6 The Knowledge
7 Ten Things to Consider When Stuck
Part 2: Mastering the Finer Points
8 Finer Points: by Clue Type
9 Finer Points: General
10 Ten Especially Troublesome Words
11 A Solving Sequence
12 Ten Ways to Raise Your Game
Part 3: Practice Time
13 Ten Media Recommendations
14 Practice Clues by Type
15 Practice Puzzles
16 Leaving the Best Till Last
17 Which Crosswords Next?
Part 4: Appendices
Abbreviations
Solutions: Practice Clues to Try by Type
Solutions: Practice Puzzles
Thanks
Index
Copyright
About the Publisher
To my musician friends in the London Symphony Orchestra,
some of whom are managing to crack cryptics after reading
my previous book, and all of whom have consistently
given me immense musical pleasure over many years.
Foreword
After many years of struggling to make sense of the cryptic clues contained in the crosswords published in the daily papers such as The Times, Telegraph and Observer, I commenced on my retirement in 2002 to tackle the crossword that regularly appeared in The Week magazine which was delivered every Friday. Over the next few years I found that I could answer some of the clues as I got to understand and decode the language used by the setter, Tim Moorey.
At this stage in 2008, I started to seek out relevant books and courses that might help me and then discovered that Tim Moorey held weekend workshops on demystifying cryptic crosswords. On checking out his website I found that he was about to provide a Sunday afternoon talk about cryptic crosswords at the Farncombe adult education centre near Evesham. Both I and my wife attended Tim’s enjoyable entertaining but thought-provoking presentation about cryptic clues based on the extensive vocabulary of the English language and about the various setters for the national newspapers. Afterwards I purchased a copy of the recently published book How to Master The Times Crossword. I only had to flick through a few pages to know that I had, at last, found the book that clearly explained the thought processes that lie behind the cryptic language used by the crossword setters.
Once home I started to work through Tim’s book and found I could follow his clear definitions, examples and solutions for the differing types of cryptic clue. With the tutorial style for working through a number of puzzles methodically I felt that I was beginning to get into the crossword clue setter’s mind.
Having whetted my appetite with Tim’s book I and my wife quickly enrolled onto one of Tim’s weekend workshops in early 2009 and we both experienced the sheer delight in cracking the codes of selected cryptic crosswords from a range of the national newspapers in a cooperative, not competitive environment. The course clearly explained in an informal presentation all of the cryptic clue types, all of the abbreviations used by all setters, and, best of all, how to actually tackle the crossword and break the ice to answer the first clue.
The workshop essentially is the practical application of the contents of Tim’s book. If you cannot afford the time to attend one of Tim’s workshops then you must buy this book. It really reveals everything you need to know about the wonderful pastime of deciphering the code of the clues for cryptic crossword solving. I now have the satisfaction of regularly completing the crossword each week in The Week but I now regularly tackle and occasionally succeed with other setter’s crosswords in The Times, Telegraph, Observer and The Oldie. My enjoyment of this range of puzzles is all due to the application of the rules, examples and methods that are distributed throughout the 200-plus pages of this small masterpiece. If you want, like me, to enjoy the thrill and satisfaction of completing a cryptic crossword then this updated book now covering a range of daily, weekly and monthly publications is the book to diligently work through. You will enjoy many hours of mental exercise and sheer enjoyment at deciphering the clever clue structure that is now an established British pastime.
Happy reading with a sharp rubber-ended pencil to hand.
Tony Savage
A crossword solver
Introduction
In Victorian times a popular game was Magic Square… In 1913 Arthur Wynne was given the task of devising a new puzzle for the World. He adapted the magic square by blackening in some squares and criss-crossing the words. Thus was the first ever crossword puzzle created.
The Advertiser, Adelaide
What’s the aim of this book?
I hope to show that, for any daily or weekly crossword puzzle, it is possible substantially to improve your solving skills by the study and application of a few straightforward rules and techniques.
So, is this book only for beginners?
Not at all, it is also for anyone wanting to master crossword puzzles so he or she isn’t regularly left with unfinished clues before the next day’s newspaper arrives. It may also appeal to others happy to enjoy many first-rate clues and practice puzzles from the sources that abound in the book.
Is there a typical person who might benefit?
Whilst I wouldn’t wish to deter others, the person who enjoys a daily struggle with a Quick (non-cryptic) crossword appearing in nearly every newspaper, is an ideal recruit to the world of cryptics. He or she will soon find that they are being given only one way of cracking a clue ie by definition only; cryptics more often than not have two ways, sometimes more, and take full advantage of the delights and richness of the English language.
What are my qualifications?
I offer four:
1. A (not very fast) solver of crosswords for over 50 years, starting with the London Evening News, followed by the Radio Times and the News Chronicle.
2. A crossword setter whose first quick crossword was published in the Evening News in 1956, and now for the Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, The Week and MoneyWeek magazines, and other national media for over 25 years.
3. A tutor of ‘demystification’ fun workshops, mainly for adults but also increasingly for children in schools, held in the UK for over 15 years.
4. Author of How to Master The Times Crossword (HarperCollins 2008) which explained cryptic clues in innovatory charts that have been well-received and are used in this book.
Is this then an update of How to Master The Times Crossword?
Much feedback on this first book showed that it proved useful for solving crosswords other than The Times’. This encouraged me to write a generic book applicable to just about any crossword. Whilst the teaching parts in Chapters 1 and 2 are pretty much unchanged, all the practice clues and puzzles in Part 3 are new and from a wide variety of sources. These may even offer a reason for previous readers to enjoy this second book.
Are there rules and principles for all cryptic crosswords?
It surprises people to hear that there are, as set down by Ximenes (see box) and they are followed to a large extent by the clue-writers and crossword setters whose work appears here.
So which crosswords are not covered?
Barred crosswords such Mephisto (Sunday Times), Azed (Observer) and the Listener Crossword (in The Times on Saturday) are not used as examples. That’s not to say they do not follow Ximenean rules as they indeed do, but solvers of these puzzles at the top of the difficulty scale are unlikely to be in need of instruction.
Also one or two setters in national papers are encouraged to think outside the Ximenean box, arguably good for the development of crosswords but impossible for any tutor to teach.
More of this later.
What about Jumbo crosswords?
No examples of these puzzles are included on the grounds of space but the clueing and solving principles and practice described are just as relevant to their solvers.
What’s the book’s focus?
It’s firmly on the solver. The teaching sections have been written after consulting a large number of solver friends, colleagues, acquaintances and workshop students, much of whose experience and techniques are incorporated. To this end, a setter’s blog in the previous book is replaced by practice puzzles.
Are there rules for solving?
No, and I certainly would not wish to be seen as laying rules down. Everyone finds their own way of doing crosswords and my hope is that I help you to find yours. Also I invite you to adopt or reject the tips according to whether they suit you.
One thing I will point out, albeit hesitantly, is that on my workshops, female students tend to be ‘instinctive’ solvers (initial guess and work out why afterwards) whereas male students tend to be more ‘analytical’ in their initial solving. But that’s naturally not always the case: the key point is that it doesn’t matter which type you are.
XIMENES AND AZED
Having taken his name from a Grand Inquisitor in the Spanish Inquisition, Ximenes (Derrick Macnutt), a Marlborough College student and Classics master at Christ’s Hospital, was long-term setter of a crossword puzzle in the Observer. He is remembered today, not just for his puzzles, but also because he set out fair and consistent principles for cryptic crosswords, design and clues in a ground-breaking 1966 book Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword, reissued in 2001. His successor Azed and the majority of setters today in national media follow virtually all of what are known as ‘Ximenean’ principles.
How to reinforce the teaching?
I follow the well-established teaching principle that adults learn best by doing, rather than reading or being talked at. So I have included lots of practice clues and puzzles, with detailed notes. Slightly slimmed down, these notes are, I hope even clearer to follow than before, setting out the solutions to every practice clue and puzzle. They should leave you in no doubt about why the solutions are what they are, a common frustration for solvers. Finally, a full index is designed to encourage the book’s continual use as a manual, rather than a book that you read once and then donate to Oxfam.
The practice clues in Chapter 3 come from varied sources too and many are to savour, as they originally appeared after having been selected as the ‘The Clue of The Week’, a feature of The Week magazine almost since its inception 15 years ago.
Why do people shy away from cryptics?
There are many fears and misapprehensions about the cryptic crossword, usually displayed at the start of my workshops. It is commonly thought that:
• you require a good knowledge of rare words, literature and the classics
• answers are ambiguous
• the cryptic is always harder than the Quick, non-cryptic puzzle
• there are no rules
• you need to have ‘that sort of mind’
I hope by the end of this book to have dispelled, partly or wholly, all of these myths.
What sort of knowledge is needed?
I believe that any moderately well-educated person with a love of language and problem-solving, and average general knowledge can complete a cryptic crossword. On these points, Richard Browne, the recently retired Times crossword editor, has explained:
‘Twenty years ago setters could confidently expect that most solvers would have a reasonable acquaintance with the principal plays of Shakespeare, the main characters and events in the Bible, probably a bit of Milton, a few lyric verses, Dickens perhaps, certainly Sherlock Holmes and some staples of the Victorian nursery such as Lear and Lewis Carroll, and you could confidently clue a word just with a reference. That doesn’t work any more, partly because the world has widened up so much.
We have lots of people in this country now from different backgrounds – India, Africa, America, whatever – who have a different system of education, and of course we have people logging on worldwide to Times Online, doing the crossword. So it’s a larger and more varied audience – you’re no longer talking exclusively to the public-school, Oxbridge types who were the core of your readership 50 or 60 years ago.’
Importantly, these comments apply to most cryptics published today.
Finally, why do crosswords?
‘I always do the crossword first thing in the morning, to see if I’ve enough marbles left to make it worth my while getting up.’
Letter to The Times from an elderly reader
There is indeed scientific evidence that tackling a crossword can be good for you. Medical research continues to support the notion that mental exercise from activities such as crosswords is beneficial, especially in later life, and stimulates the brain. A New York neurologist, Doctor Joe Verghese, conducted research in this area for over 21 years and found that those who kept their minds nimble were 75 per cent less likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
‘Do something that is mentally challenging to you,’ he has said. ‘It seems that remaining mentally agile makes the brain more healthy and more likely to resist illness, just as physical exercise can protect the body from disease.’
In addition, are crosswords educational? I say yes, in the sense that they can improve your vocabulary and general knowledge.
Incidentally, you can check the number of words in your vocabulary via, amongst other sites, www.testyourvocab.com, against the average native English speaker’s 27,000 words. Maybe one plan is for you to check your score again after you have mastered this book!
It’s now time to get stuck into some basics, in which I assume no previous knowledge whatever.
PART 1:
CROSSWORD BASICS
1: Terminology
‘She had another look at The Times Crossword. The clues might as well have been written in a foreign language.’
Simon Brett, The Stabbing in the Stables
The first three chapters establish the terms used throughout. They are essential reading for beginners, and perhaps also for some seasoned solvers who may have become used to different terminology.
What is a cryptic clue?
A cryptic clue is a sentence or phrase, involving a degree of deception, making sense and frequently conjuring an image, or triggering thoughts, in its surface reading, but when read in another way can be decoded using a limited number of well-established techniques to give a solution. Thus ‘cryptic’ is used in its meaning of hidden or misleading.
These are the other terms we shall use:
• Answers to clues, running across and down are entered into a grid, popularly a diagram, which has across and down empty squares to be filled.
• The grids in the case of the puzzles we are considering here contain black square blocks, hence they are seen in blocked puzzles.
• The other main type not being considered here has a grid with bars rather than blocks, hence the term barred puzzles.
• Clue answers are variously called solutions, entries and indeed answers.
• Where a solution letter, or letters, is able to be confirmed by intersecting entries, they are checked letters. Unchecked letters (unches in the trade) are therefore the opposite: the solver has no second way of confirming them.
• The person responsible for the crossword is a setter; more commonly, but in a term less attractive to most crossword professionals, a compiler.
• The term constructor, which suits puzzles with difficult- to-build grids, is used in North America.
• Other terms associated with clues such as wordplay, anagram, indicator and anagram fodder are explained as we meet them.
For completeness, there is a rarely used crossword term – light – whose meaning has fluctuated somewhat from the early days of crosswords but is defined by the Collins English Dictionary today as the solution to a clue.
ARE CRYPTICS EXCLUSIVELY BRITISH?
Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Kenya, Malta and South Africa have daily cryptics similar to British ones, as does Ireland. US crosswords are different in that grids are more open and clues are mildly cryptic or straightforward definitions. There are some occasional British-style puzzles in the New York Times and elsewhere. Nonetheless the UK can be considered the home of cryptics. For example, Daily Telegraph crosswords are syndicated to around 20 countries.
2: Overview of Clues and Indicators
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass
In this chapter I provide a short overview of the basics of clues and how to recognize them. Detailed points on each clue type are the subject of Chapter 3.
Characteristics of a cryptic clue
We will consider twelve types of cryptic clue, of which the majority conform to the principles contained in this image:
Cryptic clues (mostly) have two parts
Either the definition or the wordplay can come first in the clue sentence; and either could be exploited first to obtain the solution. Whichever does come second in your solving order acts as confirmation that you have the correct solution.
Taking each element in turn:
Definition: The definition can
• take the form of a word, or words in a phrase
• be an example of the solution (e.g. fruit can be defined as apple, perhaps)
• be a (misleadingly expressed) synonym of the solution. To this end, definitions are often words that have more than one meaning
Wordplay: This is the way to elicit the solution if the definition does not do so. It can be seen as either:
• the letters of the solution needing manipulation in one of several ways to provide another indication of the definition, or
• individual word or words in the clue having to be interpreted in a different way from the surface meaning
Perhaps strictly accurately the terms should be word and letterplay (though not, as an elderly student once stumbled over, ‘loveplay’!).
TOP TIP – DEFINITION PLACEMENT
Beginners find it much easier to decode a cryptic clue when they are told that the definition is almost always either at the beginning or end of the clue sentence or phrase.
Solution: This can be one or more words whose word-length is shown at the end of the clue in parentheses (sometimes called the enumeration).
An example of how this works is seen in this clue which has a simple juxtaposition of three parts from which the solver has to discover which parts are which before progress can be made. Here it could be that either find or above is the definition. In fact it is find.
Find record above (8)
Linkwords: Few clues are as straightforward in construction as the previous example and the first mild challenge is that there is often a linkword between the two parts to give the solution. The chart then is:
CRYPTIC CLUES WITH LINKING WORDS
Below is a clue which also starts with the definition but, in addition, has a linkword, one that is commonly used: from. The sense conveyed by from is that a synonym for church house can be formed from the two parts earlier and years (if the latter is taken as an abbreviation – more on this later).
Church house from earlier years (6)
Next is an example in which the definition is the final word in the clue and in which the linkword is in, the sense being that the wordplay is seen in the solution. This is a trickier clue than we have seen so far, as the solution tea service is split into two parts, teaser and vice, to form the wordplay.
Puzzle failing in China (3, 7)
As well as linkwords between definition and wordplay, there can also be similar linkage within the wordplay to connect its different parts. Here it is and, a simple additive indication. The other linkword is indicates that the definition can be formed from the wordplay.
ADDITIVE CLUE: What babies need is sleep and food (7)
You will notice that the last of the example clues is labelled additive. In fact all so far have been of this type, a relatively plain construction of A + B = C which we shall consider later in more detail as one of the twelve clue types, dividing these into one group of eight and one group of four. Why split clues into two groups? Because some always contain the means of identifying their type (the first eight) and others virtually always do not (the remaining four). This distinction is amplified in the section which follows.