Catnip
@catnipxword.bsky.social
420 followers 570 following 1.8K posts
Learning to set cryptic crosswords at https://mycrossword.co.uk/Catnip. Lover of wordplay, silliness, awful puns, quizzes, etc. Part-time proofreader. Booklover. Bellringer. Accidental runner. I also have a day job.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Pinned
🧵 Some suggestions for anyone who feels like getting into cryptic crosswords this year:

1. Get a good book to cover the basics of cryptics. Times (Tim Mooney) and Telegraph (Chris Lancaster) books are good, and I'd also recommend this by Colin Dexter: www.amazon.co.uk/Cracking-Cry... (1/6)
Cracking Cryptic Crosswords
Cracking Cryptic Crosswords eBook : Dexter, Colin: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
www.amazon.co.uk
😁 I'd really like to get into it, but definitely saving it for collaboration. I can say that it looks better than I could have imagined.

May have a touch more feedback next week.
Give me a chance, I've only just got a minute to myself! (Plus, my solving companion is presently abroad)

Without having glanced at a single clue, I love the look, I love the concept. I definitely want to get my hands on #2.
Well hello there, you lovely thing.
I strongly suspect I'll have written clues that would cause this reaction! 😬

And as I've been slowly learning, synonyms can easily be too clever/obscure/obtuse (delete as appropriate), but this is a general problem, not specific to punning clue types.
Yes, I'd be aiming for solid Dad Joke territory.

Spoonerisms are probably a bit overused but have the big advantage of being telegraphed. Transparent parsing should at least mean all but the most egregious examples are ultimately solvable.
Yes, I'd agree on both counts. The "I don't say it like that" brigade can be annoying, but they also point to a general rule about a clue *feeling* fair.

IMO homophones/puns are ideally universal, and to the extent that they're not, the difficulty should be reduced to compensate.
Hm, okay. I confess I was slightly distracted at the time, so it's possible I missed something.

It did get me wondering, though, exactly how it determines whether you know enough to draw a conclusion. I can't see an obvious universal solution.
Oh dear, this might have to go on my growing list. But I found it frustrating, because I made a deduction which I'm sure was entirely valid and I was told I didn't have enough information to say that!
Wow, you sound just like one of those anamalytical datamagician people!
Yes. A bit loose, but maybe worth it.
Cry out "One bad apple"? (6)
Well! 🤯

Chambers has either pronunciation for the book, and the variant spelling 'primmer' in that sense.

But it insists on 'PRIMM-er' as the pronunciation for the (obs) printing types 'long primer' and 'great primer'. Apparently taking the lead from 'primarius' rather than 'primary'.
Here’s a primer on ‘primer.’

It’s pronounced ‘PRIMM-er’ if you mean “a small book” or “a short informative piece of writing.”

It’s pronounced ‘PRY-mer’ if you mean “an initial coat of paint.”
I had to read this several times before I realised they weren't proposing to relocate unsuccessful benefit claimants to SE England.
This was TRUSTEE.

SETTERS* -S +U
A substitution anagram, hopefully clear enough.

Something that my brain arrived at as a displacement activity.
We have a phrase for that kind of thing. Years ago, a chap was asked a question on Fifteen To One about some form of popular culture, and he responded in a rather supercilious manner "I neither know nor care!"

V useful shorthand for the sort of attitude we want to discourage.
It is. And also to consider what knowledge is fair to expect, either in wordplay or def.
Ah, I know the writer you mean, and there's a story behind it.

I paid insufficient attention to the non-themers and realised late that the crossers at 14a and 3d were inelegantly similar. My fix resulted in this entry as the only alternative without a complete redo. 😔
Yes, I agree with that. It can become much like a knowledge test, but it doesn't have to, and (I'd tentatively venture) shouldn't feel like that.

(How to split any blame between setter and solver where it feels like knowledge is rewarded rather than shared is another matter)
It's both, surely? The barriers to entry are well understood, and knowledge of various sorts is required. But once you can solve in principle, you can also learn. It's a rare puzzle that doesn't have someone marking a clue as a NHO.
Setter's flustered after a son leaves for university, but he's in control (7)

#cryptic #crossword
😥
Semprini? Excuse me! This is a family site.
A very handwavy narrative has the rate of conception starting to climb around the first cold night of autumn, peaking in the Christmas period, then staying fairly high until spring.

Which seems reasonable to me.
On a related topic, I was just reminded of the existence of a racing driver (American, natch) called Dick Trickle.