32 cryptic crosswords - Double meanings

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I've achieved the goal, so here is one last hint for the moment before I take a break from the daily posting.

I hope that you have enjoyed the series.  Maybe I will add to it as I find other examples to share.

You wont find an indicator here for a straight double meaning.  You might be looking for tricky clues, and you shouldn't be.  It might be just as simple as two words that have the same answer.

The best hint that I have of this is when the clue is very short. So watch out for that tell tale.

Here is a longer example for you.

Congratulations on order for a steak (4,4) =well done

Well, that's me all done for the moment.
I will see you again sometime when there is something a bit bloggable to share.  In the meantime I encourage you to grab that cryptic crossword and have a go... and if you can have a go in a couple or a group do that too.  It is great to share your random thoughts and inspire each other.

That is what we will be doing on Saturday morning, when we finish our bacon and eggs and make a cuppa.  The Advertiser will come out, and the important thing to do is complete the cryptic crossword.  Then the rest can be consumed if we have time.

Happy Puzzling.

31 Cryptic Crosswords - Tricky word play

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'very aimed  for one a day, and with today's short post I have completed the quest.

I'm enjoying it so much that I will continue for just a few more days with a couple of remaining thoughts that I haven't managed to fit in already.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Sometimes you can't help but laugh. That's what keeps me coming back to the table and suffering the frustration.
Often the trickier clues come with a question mark. If you see the question mark be prepared for something a bit unusual that might make you laugh.

Like
Drop off iron? (8) -Advertiser Feb 4th 2016
Drop off =decrease
Iron =de-crease (get it???-remove the creases!!)
You would never say de-crease instead of iron, but the answer clearly makes sense.
And it makes you laugh at the wonder contained in the English language.

30 Cryptic Crosswords - Upside down Miss Jane

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.


Sometimes you have to turn a word upside down to get what you need.

"Is up" in the middle of a clue might mean that you need to add "si" into the word.

Indicators might include

• Upside down
• Up
• Backwards
• Turned

We've seen this used with some quite long words.  Be on the lookout.
If you keep your eyes peeled maybe you will see Mr Squiggle! 

29 Cryptic Crosswords - Know your teams

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Learn your teams
Famous football teams come into crossword setting as well.

Team running last in oval (5,5) -Advertiser 8/2/2016

Last on oval is an anagram of Aston Villa
Running is the indicator for the anagram
Team is the straight clue

Race courses also come into the mix
I had one the other day that required me to know that Epsom is a racecourse!
It's lucky that I have been afan of Dick Francis books for many years, so I had somehow retained this information.

Here is another racecourse one:
Caledonian with a first course (5)
There is the course as an indicator.
Every good admirer of bagpipes (like me) knows that a Caledonian is a Scot.
Put A with Scott and you have another racecourse... Ascot!


The possibilities and scary, and endless.  So good luck with that.

28 Cryptic Crosswords - Unusual words

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Another way to become good  at cryptic crosswords  is to remember unusual words like those from Medical terms, Languages (how do you say " the " in french or italian?) Or old terminology.

So I hope that you are someone who soaks up those unusual words and can pull them out of your brain again when you need to (Like my son Thom).

Did you know that a junior chef is a commis?
It's helpful to know when you get a clue like:
Apprentice chef is up, working for royalty (10)
Break it up to solve it
Apprentice chef = commis
Is up =si (up backwards)
Working =on (as in a machine)
Royalty is the straight clue =commission


It is tricky to solve a clue when you don't know the word you are looking for. Sometimes we end up with an idea about what the word must be, and we end up looking in the dictionary to see if such a word exists. It feels great when you guess that a word exists and it does.

Today we guessed that interregnum might mean the gap between kings when we had a clue Run Regiment ragged in the gap between kings (11)

See the info on August the 3rd if you need an extra clue as to the logic here.

Or this one was interesting
Prorogue is to put off.
Put off professional scoundrel (8) was the clue.
Pro is professional
Scoundrel is rogue

27 Cryptic Crosswords - Just plain good fun

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Sometimes I come across a crossword clue that I just really enjoy.
It's not special for any particular reason that I can see, but who can explain why your senose of humour is tickled by a particular clue?

Some special ones lately  have been

Small animal rescue vessel is key in the channel. (4) Advertiser 4/3/16
For a start this is such a short word it should be very easy and have a short clue-but it isn't and doesn't.
We started out looking for a small animal as the straight clue but couldn't think of one that fitted.
Eventually we came at it another way.
S = small (as in the size on clothing)
But this next bit is the bit I particularly loved...
Animal rescue vessel=Ark ( as in Noah's)
It turns out that Sark is an island in the Channel Islands (key =island)
Thus giving us a key in the channel.
We had to look up Sark to find out that it was an island.

Not a long shot to fail in trophy competition (5,2)  The Advertiser March 2016
Straight clue is "not a long shot"
Fail =lose
And you need to put this inside the trophy competition (=cup)
Answer is close up

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.

26 Cryptic crosswords- A letter from a word

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.


Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.
Sometimes a word or two of the clue will give you just a single letter of the answer.

Be on the lookout for indicators such as

• First
• Last
• Final
• Initial
• Beginning
• End

These will often show you that you should take that letter from the word following and use it.

Finally take photograph after a long story (4) -The Advertiser Feb 4th 2016

"Finally take" shows that you should take the last letter from take (the e)

Photograph after = pic ...after the e

The straight clue (on the end, instead of the beginning in this clue) is "a long story"

A long story is an epic.

25 cryptic crosswords - Symbols

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Some symbols can be interpreted into letters
Dollar =s
Pound=£=L
Glasses=00
Ounces=oz
Pound =lb or p
Euros=e
Page=p

Musical terms can also be used
F =loud
P =soft

One example of this is from Thursday July 7 (The Advertiser)
Dollars secured some ice cream and cakes
The dollars are an s at either end of the word (securing the rest of it)
Ice cream is cone
The cakes are scones. (Cone plus the s either end)

24 cryptic crosswords - Tricky turns of phrase

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Crossword compilers love to mislead you with tricky turns of phrase.
I've seen some great ones lately

Nervously pin pad inside ruler when grasping the issue (Advertiser July 8)
Ruler is king
Take the letters from pin pad (nervously) and put them inside of King.
The funny bit is the straight clue... "grasping the issue"
The answer is kidnapping!! Get it???

Here's another that misled us initially..
Mark, a bone head,  is a six footer (6) The Advertiser July 7 2016
Mark is scar
A is a
Bone head is b
We naturally thought a six footer was a man, but no, it is an insect.  We were looking for a type of insect...a scarab beetle.!!

Happy puzzling.

23 Cryptic Crosswords - Take the same bit from a number of words

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Sometimes you are asked to take the same part (for instance the centre, or the front ) from a series of words in a row to make up your final answer.

We recently had two of these rare ones in  the same crossword (Advertiser 12/2/16)

Sharp back and side kick to the middle (6)
Straight clue is sharp
Then you need to take the centres of three different words to make the word you want.
Take the centre of
Back
Side
Kick.... and what do you get??? Acidic!!
Sharp =acidic


Light centre of path and hall for the very young (8) 
This one had an extra bit added for more fun, and was almost the last word solved on the day due to these tricky convolutions.

Straight clue is on the end (the very young)
Start with a light (neon)
Then add the centre of path and hall (atal)
Put them together and you have..... neonatal!!!

You can't help but love it.


cook can have extra fries for starters (4)
I puzzled over this one for ages.
In this case the starters is the indicator showing that you need to take the start from a number of words
"Cook" is the straight clue
Look closely and you see that the start of consecutive words will give you CHEF

Later I came across another one which I couldn't resist adding.
Funny details of fish and rodents (5) Advertiser 8/9/16
Funny is the straight clue
We could see what the answer might be based on this clue alone as it seemed to end in "ic"
Details indicates that we take the tails off of fish and rodents.
If you take the last bits off of cod and mice you end up with Co and mic.
Can you figure out the answer????



Indicators:

• .... and... in the middle
• Centre of ..... and.....
• Details

I hope you enjoy these as much as I do. 

22 Cryptic Crosswords - Pretty flowers

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Flowers have messed us around more times than is fair over our crossword solving years

Always remember that flowers might be floral or watery (rivers)
Rivers flow, therefore they are flowers.
As soon as you see that word, stop and think.

It can be the same with ranges
(These can be the distance between,or the mountains)

If it is the river or mountain range you are looking for, then I hope that your geography is better than mine.

These are just one more trap that the setter will try to trip you up with.
Keep

21 Cryptic Crosswords - Heraldry

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Believe it or not, heraldry offers some assistance to the cryptic crossword setter too.

Heraldry have their own terminology
And it includes the following:

Gold=Or (this is by far the most common use of heraldry terms-so learn this one well).
Silver or white= Argent

Azure=blue
Gules=red
Purpure=purple
Sable=black
And
Vert=green

I've tried to learn these, and some have stuck in my head, but others haven't.
I hope you have more success.

20 Cryptic Crosswords - Question marks

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

Sometimes the setter will put a question mark at the end of a clue.
This indicates that it is a little out of the ordinary and you might need to think about it a little more laterally than usual.

The word "perhaps" seems to be used in a similar way at times.

I always worry that I won't be able to solve a clue when I see this , but usually we manage it somehow, and often it makes me laugh.

Perhaps stroke play , as a norm (7) Advertiser 26/2/16
"Stroke" is the straight clue
"Play" is the indicator for an anagram
"As a norm" is what needs to be turned around
The answer is OARSMAN
(Not always the stroke, but it might be, and hence the perhaps)

Set aside to be served up again? (8) Advertiser 26/2/16

The question mark is here because the setter has had some fun with one of the words.
The answer is "reserved"
Get it???
Re-served (served up again) . Not something you would usually say or read. Worth a question mark  but also worth a laugh when you discover the answer.

19 Cryptic Crosswords -Unknowns

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Every now and then you might get an unknown clue

Unknown is the indicator word
This is referring to unknown in algebra such as x and y

Unknown firm swallowed up by heavyweight mogul (6) Advertiser 12/2/16
Firm is often company (CO for short) =CO
Swallowed up indicates that this is inside of something else
Heavyweight=ton
Unknown =y
So you get "ton" surrounding the unknown "y" plus "co"
Which gives you tycoon (a mogul)

18 Cryptic Crosswords- Roman numerals

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Knowing your Roman numbers will put you in a good position for solving crosswords too.

I =1
V=5
X=10
L=50
C=100
D=500
M=1000

Given the subject of this post you have a clue as to this answer
Story at last included in the thousandth tall story (4) The Advertiser July 7th 2016

Story at last is y  (the last letter of story)
It's the other bit that gave us a laugh though.  Thousand is M, so thousandth is Mth!
Put a "y" in "mth" and you get a myth (a story)

17 - Cryptic Crosswords -Tricky Repeats

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Every now and then you get a repeat of the same thing .
This can be to form an answer like so-so or chop chop, or can take two answers to the same clue and put them together.

One example of this is
"Boost as one century follows another" (Advertiser Friday July 8)
So you are looking for two types of one century
Once century can be 1C (ic) (1=I and C =century in Roman numbers)
A century can also be a ton in slang
Put "ton" in front of "ic" and you have "tonic" (a type of boost)

16 Cryptic Crosswords - It helps to know a bit about cricket

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

Sometimes a crossword compiler will use cricket scoring abbreviations.

If you watch the cricket you will see basic ones on a scoreboard
Runs =r
Wickets =w
Overs =o

But there may also be

Batting =in
Duck =0=o
I'm sure there are others that I can't think of right now.

It's worth developing a love for (or at least learning some basics) of this wonderful sport.

15 Cryptic Crosswords -One part of the word tells you what to do with the other part

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day. Unfortunately for some of the time I will be camping, so I hope to manage this, but it might get a bit tricky if I have no internet access.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

I love these.
You don't see them often, so you forget to watch out for them. Then they come along and surprise you with a visit and make you laugh.

Encircle a US private outright (4) Advertiser 12/2/16-two speed
Encircle is the straight clue
A US private is a GI
But this last bit is the tricky bit
Outright indicates that you should use the letters on either end of right (r and t) to make up the answer
Encircle =girt (GI plus rt)

Stable worker sent offshore twice (10) Advertiser 29/2/16
Here offshore indicates that you need to take the letters shore and make an anagram (in this case you need to do it twice)
The answer is horseshoer.

Not a lover of earthquakes(5) Advertiser 26/8/16
Not a lover is the straight clue
Earthquakes is the tricky bit.
Make "earth" quake and you get hater!

Indicators could be any word starting with in or out. There are others too I'm sure.
Another would be off as in the clue above (Offside, offshore)
Obviously words that have an action in them such as earthquake are also good for this.

14 Cryptic Crosswords-General Knowledge

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

One of the best ways to improve your ability to solve cryptic crosswords is to improve your general knowledge.
Who was the wife of...
mythology
World capital cities
Mountain ranges
Rivers
Plants
Animals -especially the male, female and young of a species
Famous people (what first name goes with Lincoln?)
Currency of other lands
Musical terms

Dance for fear of being carried by ancient ferryman (10) Advertiser 29/2/16
First you need to know who the ancient ferryman was (across the river Styx in the mythology)-the answer is "Charon"

"Dance" is the straight clue
Put a word meaning "fear of " (lest)
Inside the name of the ancient ferryman (the indicator is "carried by")
And you get to dance the Charleston

12 Cryptic Crosswords - Imperial measures

For Blaugust this year I decided to publish a series of cryptic crossword posts.
I'm aiming for one a day.

Many of our friends over the years have said that cryptic crosswords don't make sense. They certainly do play with your mind, and that is why I take delight in them.  I love the surprising discovery inside a puzzle and the challenge of twisting the usual thought patterns and making them do something different.

So here is today's offering...

I'm afraid that I was born just a little too late to enjoy the conversion in Australia to metric on 14th February 1966.  I still struggle with imperial measurements.

Rood =1/4 acre or 24 feet
Strictly speaking it seems to be an area of one furlong (10
Chains )  in length and and one rod wide

My dictionary explains a furlong as follows: Furlong (The furlong (220 yards or 660 feet) was the standard length of a furrow in a ploughed field ("furrow long" = furlong).  It was supposedly the distance that a horse could pull a plough before needing to rest.  )

An acre is a square furlong
A Chain is 66 feet or 1/10 of a furlong
A Perch is 1 square rod
Rod are also measures of length  
A link =1/100th of a chain
A Pole =1/4 of a chain

There are also old measurements of mass 
A Grain (gr) =1/7000 of a pound
Drachma  (dr) =1/256 of a pound
Ounce (oz) =1/16th of a pound
Pound (lb) =1/14th of a stone
Stone (st)=14 pounds
Quarter (qr or qtr) =28 pounds
Hundred weight (cwt) =112 pounds
Ton (t) = 2240 pounds

And volume
Gill (gi) = 1/4 of a pint(pt)
Quart (qt) =2 pints
Gallon (gal) = 8 pints

As you can see all of these might easily be abbreviated .

A puzzle might have the term "14 pounds"in the clue.  The answer might be st (for stone) 

If you like to memorize information this is information which can be useful to have just sitting in your memory banks for the moment when a tricky compiler comes along and drops one of these on you.