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Getting Americans excited about cryptic crosswords is like pushing a boulder uphill. I should know, as it took me nearly forever to finally love those dastardly puzzles. My years of resistance were finally worn down by two BEQ.com fans: Ross Beresford and David Astle. No suprises there, Ross is from England and David’s from Australia, two countries where the cryptic reigns supreme.
Here in the states though, it remains a challenge to convert people to cryptics. My best guess is that I think casual solvers are turned off by all the explaining that goes into each and every clue. When it comes to puzzles, us Yankees need only be told how to do things once, thank you very much, and now please STFU so I can start putting letters in boxes. We have no time to pause to reflect why {“Move along, white man”} rather elegantly clues ANGLO. We’ve got 77 other entries to fill in, dammit.
I got a copy of Denise Sutherland’s book “Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies” recently, and if there’s anybody who might make a shot of breaking cryptics in the states, she could do it. The book is aimed squarely at complete tyros, and although cryptic puzzles tend to be more complicated to begin with it, Denise never makes them feel convoluted and scary. She runs the whole gamut of cluing types in chapter-length lessons, each with tons of simple-to-understand examples and sample puzzles along the way. On the whole, I could have used a bit more on the nuances between the different schools of cluing as well as a section about varieties (my favorites). But asking for that might be a bit too much for a primer like this. There’s a handful of block cryptics in the back pitched at a couple different solving levels. It should be mentioned that anyone with a grasp of cryptics will have no problem demolishing the so-called Treacherous ones.
Denise calls Australia home, and in her book she mentions that’s where some of the easiest cryptics come from. So if that’s the case, then I’d be hard-pressed to think of another veteran setter to write a book like this. Recommended if you are hesitant to dive into the cryptic market, but harbor a sinking suspicion they’re as great as people say they are. Makes a good stocking stuffer too.
Share the puzzle. New one on Thursday.
Interesting comment about Australian cryptics vs. others. I used to recommend the Sydney Morning Herald as a good online cryptic to do, but they made it a pay service a few years ago. Might try the FT one instead at the more straightforward side of the scale.
I do the FT, the Guardian, and the Independent daily. I still have a lot of trouble with the Independent, but it’s in the Crossword app, so I keep plugging away. I usually like to do cryptics on paper so I can scratch out the anagram letters. Might be part of my problem there.
I was disappointed to see that the song referenced in the 3D clue was not a cover of the Simple Minds hit from the 80s.
The book that helped me a great deal was Fred Piscop’s “Cryptic Crosswords & How to Solve Them”, published by Sterling in 1998 (ISBN: 0806977515). Each chapter deals with one type of cryptic clue, and after awhile it became much easier for me to recognize which cryptic clue-type was probably at work, and where its division from the straight clue part probably was. At any rate, I transmographied from someone who found cryptics interesting but kind of arbitrary — and way too frustrating for what I got out of them — to someone who enjoyed them very much (though I still prefer American-style crosswords).
I’m intimidated by the cryptics, so Denise’s book would be a sound investment for me.
Thanks for the kind review, Brendan 🙂 Another good source for non-intimidating and free online cryptics is the Australian website run by puzzle giants Lovatts. You can find them here:
http://www.lovatts.com.au/news/puzzles-comps/daily-cryptic-crossword/
thanks for the link, denise. it’s been a while since i solved a cryptic so being able to finish today’s puzzle was a huge relief. i was a bit surprised to get a rank at the end and even more pleasantly so not to finish dead last.
brendan, you omitted one important difference. in non-cryptic crosswords, if a clue has more than one answer that fits, you have to wait until you get one of the crossing answers to narrow it down. in other words, you use clues to two different entries to narrow the possibilities. in cryptics, EVERY clue is two-clues-in-one. together, the two clues help you triangulate. that’s why when you get it you know it can’t be wrong. for example, “move along, white man” gives me anglo or golan (as in the heights) or logan (as in crazy starlet or airport). similarly, white man has a list of possible 5-letter answers but i can’t think of any 5-letter possibilities other than “anglo” if i have to keep it clean. but the only one on both lists is “anglo”.
Yes, the ‘self-checking’ nature of cryptics is one of my favourite things about them!
Fred’s book is one of my favourites too, Andrew. I have it on my shelf 🙂 Mind you, I own nearly every book on how to solve cryptic crosswords in existence, as a full literature review was a requirement for my book proposal, LOL!
My husband and I are developing an app of my cryptic crosswords, Abigail, hope to have it out early in 2013. So keep an eye on the App Store!