How To Do Cryptic Crosswords
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- A beginner's guide to Cryptic Crosswords, by the renowned compiler Christine Lovatt.
Ever wondered how to solve a cryptic clue? Learn some of the tricks here, and you'll be a pro in no time!
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For some online cryptics, click here www.lovatts.com...
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Thankyou Ms. Christine for an amazing guide for people like me (Beginners). Now I can try to solve it happily and confidently.
I can't tell you how helpful this is. I have always wanted to be skilled at Cryptic Crosswords - it's like learning new lingo! Thanks very much.
"this planet whirled... this planet whirled... THIS PLANET WHIRLED" oh the answer is world. I dont think im cut out for cryptic crosswords lol
"This Planet", i.e the planet we are on is called the "World". When read aloud, "Whirled" sounds like "World" 2 Ways to the correct answer.
Dont give up I'm trying too. I'm getting better I nearly got 1/2 of one puzzle in the ny times paper.
I really didn't know the aim of cryptic crosswords and when I first attempted it on Hindu, the next day newspaper solution was so confusing and unrelated to what I had been thinking. Now, I get the basic idea- thanks for all the help.
I am sort of a beginner, and as it so happens I'm also starting with The Hindu. Since this comment is 5 months old, how much did you progress? Can you solve the full crossword now?
Those wanting to explore cryptic crossword solving in depth might be interested in Mark Goodliffe's RUclips channel. He is the reigning (and 11 time) Times crossword champion and he regularly explains how to do that day's crossword eg ruclips.net/video/JVgiFvVoFWQ/видео.html
OMG ITS THE CHRISTINE LOVATT HERSELF
why does 'damaged' tell you it's an anagram? i'm confused...
I know your comment is from 2 months ago, but I think because it says "damaged paws". As in the word paws is damaged or deformed. Hope this makes more sense. Anagram is a word with the same letters. Paws, if you shuffle them you get wasp.
mudbuddha109 right
8dn how does 'about' tell you it's an anagram?
Been doing the CCs (American) for about 4 decades. But still, i vvill vvatch this tutorial anyvvay.
I'm having issues with the real ones in the paper. This is preschool level. My best is 1/3 of the puzzle. I'm picking it up slowly.
13ac how does become tell you it's an anagram
Most difficult Cryptics.....the ones in the Nevv York Times Sunday Magazine and the Dell Magazine publication of Sunday Crossvvord Puzzles, the only magazine the best solvers in the vvorld and in history should rilly be subscribing to.
How can you explain the words you form
What puts me off cryptic crosswords is that there are so many ways of solving them. Are there ways that one can practice at solving one type of clue and then when it is mastered move on to another type of clue? Are there any books of really easy crosswords out there?
Thankyou, that was really helpful. :)
Those puns...
helpful thanks
this was really good thanks
I’m stuck on a crossword with only 2 answers left 4. Ancient Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and 5. Maximising profit by shortening life. Been stuck for almost a month.
Very helpful!
show me the rules and when to use what. this is utterly confusing .
Wonderful mam
Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr thanks !!!!!
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brilliant
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is on indicates hidden word
'Damaged' tells us the word is an anagram'. How? Don't just state it and move on, that's why we're watching your tutorial!!!
It implies you 'damage' the word, that is to shuffle the letters about, break it up etc. You damage something you make it different from its original form.
@@chrisefc3579 That's a stretch.
@@burnemail2467 No, it isn't. It's accepted as a very, very common anagram indicator.
@@burnemail2467 thats why its cryptic
My life is a cryptic crossword.
ACROSTIC QUADRILLE
. . .
Sometimes as if I were not there
He put his lips against her neck.
Her head lolled sideways, just like Claire
Coe in "Tehuantepec."
Then both would send me looks so heaped
With a lazy, scornful mirth,
THIS was growing up, I hoped,
The first flushed fruits of earth.
. . .
---James Merrill, "Days of 1935"
BRAVING THE ELEMENTS, 1972
. . .
Out of the blue, as promised, of a New York
Puzzle rental shop the puzzle comes---
A superior one, contained a thousand hand-sawn,
Sandal-scented pieces. . . .
. . .
---James Merrill, "Lost In Translation"
DIVINE COMEDIES, 1976
Piecemeal into place, the puzzle, just as promised: an English "Cryptic"!!! All of the solutions are in the English language, with puns and certain resonances noted across various tongues---Chinese, Czech, Choctaw, Fante, Farsi, French, German, Hungarian---with nearly all source quotations drawn from works in the Western literary and musical canons. Several of the clues (4 of CLUBS, QUEEN of CLUBS, JACK of DIAMONDS, ACE of DIAMONDS) reference well-rehearsed lines by James Merrill, but none of the puzzle's solutions quote directly from the poet's work. For that matter---although I have left a string of pregnant paragraphs from Vladimir Nabokov in my RUclips commentary of late---no clue solutions quote directly from VN's corpus, either. (Nabokov was famously banned from the Ouija séances which comprise THE CHANGING LIGHT AT SANDOVER, James Merrill's 1982 epic commentary on the au-delà, and he is therefore also banned here in a kind of inverted homage---in terms of the cryptic solutions themselves---if not in the final acrostic clue. That said, a whimsical Nabokovian appreciation of chess problems, largely Bishopric in nature, will be helpful in solving the puzzle, along with Eugenia Oneginii and other miscellany of the butterfly world.)
To construct the puzzle, create four 33 by 33 grids, joining them side-by-side to form, in turn, a pair of 66 by 33 rectangles, each of which should vaguely resemble the shape of the State of Kansas (forgetting, of course, the squiggly NE corner river-run). The first rectangle---I call it the ALPHA puzzle---uses the CLUB clues on the horizontal: CLUB clues are number top to bottom in standard numerical order, from the 2 of CLUBS to the ACE of CLUBS, with each clue occupying a unique horizontal grid line. The vertical clues, numbered from left to right, are in the DIAMOND suit, increasing from the 2 of DIAMONDS to the ACE of DIAMONDS, each occupying a single downward grid line. The precise map coordinates of each clue are for the puzzler to solve, having first worked out the cryptic solutions themselves. Given the long lengths of some of the clues, joining them into a workable crosshatch should not be too difficult. There are only so many possible solutions, after all.
The OMEGA puzzle utilizes crossed HEARTS and downward SPADES, but otherwise follows the same principles of the ALPHA puzzle with, however, the addition of the HEART JOKER, which (uniquely) occupies the same line as the ACE of HEARTS, preceding it.
Three each of the horizontal clues (three CLUB cards in the ALPHA puzzle, three HEART cards in the OMEGA puzzle) cross the "midline" of the 66 by 33 grids, i.e., each clue solution stretches across both sides of the center line dividing "Kansas" from its West and East. To put it in less metaphoric language, three CLUBS and three HEARTS begin in the first (left) 33 by 33 grid and conclude in the other (the right). This knowledge should be helpful, if not determinative, in finding the ultimate grid configuration. The 9 of CLUBS, the so-called "Petroushka" clue---I'll give you that much!---stretches the entire East-West length of the grid and occupies the 17th row, meaning that it perfectly bisects top from bottom, North from South, in other words, divides the waters from the waters: although the real Kansas, to be sure, has rivers and lakes which cross that imaginary border quite effortlessly. It is no desert, far from it. But it is helpful to know its contours.
Without giving away too much, it should be noted that the crosshatch clues within each puzzle tend to cluster toward the bottom right---the SE corner of the State, as it were---hovering in and around "Coffeyville." Thus both puzzles tend toward nearly-triumphant straights and Royal Flushes, although (as should be obvious) suit order and hierarchy here follow Bridge rules, according to Hoyle, and not those of traditional Poker. Other card games are referenced within various clues; each is relevant to its contextual coloration.
The final solution involves an overlay of both puzzles, ALPHA and OMEGA, and will tell where I can be found, along with my cache of books and my decoder ring, holed up in a decommissioned silo . . . not a REAL silo, of course, just another metaphor! But the person(s) who need to find me will find me, I'm certain, when the time comes for this comment, and the RUclips thread I've posted in the past few weeks, to be noticed and sleuthed out. And what a reward, QUITE the cache, a hoard on a Pharaonic order, to the lucky man or men who DO DO DO find me!! Slightly more detailed directions---building on this puzzle but, strictly speaking, perhaps unnecessary to solving it---will come in a short poem to follow in the next few days. Insh'allah. . . .
Happy hunting, all y'all, and patience to you, and plenty of "good luck"!! No, the puzzle's not TOO hard to master, but some will certainly need the latter, "good luck", if you believe in that sort of thing. Time will tell, yes, yes . . . Godspeed!!
* * *
ALPHA CROSS:
2 of CLUBS
Play whist, and form Book of Ether [4,6]
3 of CLUBS
Ashley Wilkes slices a Tara dactyl? [3,6]
4 of CLUBS
Shall we imperiously toll the "Chimes For Yahya"? [10]
5 of CLUBS
Rich man turns a Shockoe Bottom? Serves a latté piping hot [6,6,6]
6 of CLUBS
Arschgeweih and the Green Knight [6,3]
7 of CLUBS
Orson Welles thrice wafting to Cythère [7,11] or [11,7]
8 of CLUBS
Janis axe a Haitina wrasse, "Why so fasse?" [3,3,4,5]
9 of CLUBS
Shrove-Tide Faraday bagatelle? Château Pétrus, coffee with Prince Igor [8,8,8,8,8,8,8,10]
10 of CLUBS
First half denim workpant [5,4]
JACK of CLUBS
Lordy, smack a Benin bronze with an Accra stick! [4,7]
QUEEN of CLUBS
細雪, for Richard or for poorer? Shade and fiber, Schadenfreude, Tochter aus Elisium [12,12,12,12]
KING of CLUBS
Maison of Toll House Cookie cutter? [8,3,10]
ACE of CLUBS
Diamond multideck St. Helena springs patience eternal [9,9,9,9]
* * *
ALPHA DOWN:
2 of DIAMONDS
Quivira! Rue des Francs-Bourgeois in the Marais des Cygnes [3,7,8]
3 of DIAMONDS
Double-down Humperdinck on Pinochle bet, Boo-Yah! [4,5,5]
4 of DIAMONDS
Whippet tells Shah's T-15 what Miss Gee owes 'em [15]
5 of DIAMONDS
Nick Carroway seeds a Nancarrow bonanza [8,6]
6 of DIAMONDS
Praxiteles chips out a Fibonacci knock-off [1,2,3,5,8,13]
7 of DIAMONDS
Lord Cholmondoley gets around---visits La Coupole? [4,4,4]
8 of DIAMONDS
Almaviva & Co. on the run from Susanna and the gelders [3,3,5,13]
9 of DIAMONDS
Bible baffle, three quarts for Mr. Mark [5,4,3,3,3,6,4,5]
10 of DIAMONDS
Carnegie's how-to guide to Handel Variations [8,8,8]
JACK of DIAMONDS
Clare Coe in Tehuantepec [7,7,5]
QUEEN of DIAMONDS
"Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges" [9,9,9]
KING of DIAMONDS
Oprah's Favorite[TM} Roach Motel & Spa in Sagittarius, recursive [5,4,5,4 . . .]
ACE of DIAMONDS
The Rune of S [7,5,2,4,3,4]
* * *
OMEGA CROSS:
2 of HEARTS
Ping-Pong Panda ringing a lowball counterpoint, Yin to Yang [1,10,7,8]
3 of HEARTS
The myrtle widow, Lahar of Lehi, metrosideros polymorpha, Pops! [1'1,2,7,7,'5',2,5'1,2'1,3,5]
4 of HEARTS
Pennsylvania poker, T-Boned in Wexford [5,3,4,9]
5 of HEARTS
Niccolò, Dionne Quince? Peter, lutte contre la loi, Sir! [11,11,11]
6 of HEARTS
Soup, or callous shag horrific? Explain halitosis, in English or Hungarian [6,6]
7 of HEARTS
Six Degrees of Inverted Jenny? [9] [3,3,3]
8 of HEARTS
Papa gain a Papal lingam? Ha! [4,2,4,11]
9 of HEARTS
Does my Farsi heart damn a coy, half-hearted Khayyám pun? [2,5,4,5]
10 of HEARTS
Sebastian Knight take Fyte to Brideshead [1,4,2,5]
JACK of HEARTS
Kinbote "nu" New Wye, O why Wyoming matters [4,4,4,4,4]
QUEEN of HEARTS
Love of the rack and screw towards grandeur? Descargar la Canasta! [14]
KING of HEARTS
Euchre wrist dealt underhandedly [6,10]
HEART JOKER
Rummy with Tchaikovsky [6]
ACE of HEARTS
Well-hidden eucalyptus is Greek to Mimí [9]
* * *
OMEGA DOWN:
2 of SPADES
Essessang a Song of Sixpence in 1965 [6,3,3,3,3]
3 of SPADES
A Good Chautauqua is the "Frenemy" of the Great [7'1, 10]
4 of SPADES
My, who whispers a rabid secret to El Niño Rotarian, Senator? [4,5,2,6]
5 of SPADES
Mansfield College up in flames---Sense in Sensimilla---Dude, Where's My Car? [4,6,6,5]
6 of SPADES
Gershwin's 山东省 oat bra, vair "comme les prairies" [4,8]
7 of SPADES
Rockin' Gottschalk Banjo Jayhawk [10,7,5]
8 of SPADES
Fox in the finger hut, the gloves are off [10]
9 of SPADES
Damn, Gunslinger Wyatt's got the pain Poilâne---Mambo!! [11]
10 of SPADES
Traditional Carroll closer [5,5]
JACK of SPADES
Odd symbol seen in a spearmint shake, 女王 chop-chopped [1,2,3,1,4,5]
QUEEN of SPADES
Sunkist doofus, Rhett fist brutish [7,2,7]
KING of SPADES
Micky, who Maisie blew, Godzilla only knows! [5,6,7]
ACE of SPADES
平國 penguin 孔子 Kant fusion 李白 sexual 大大 Duchamp [8]
Nope. I'm just a fucking invalid.
How can you explain the words you form
how can we judge its a anagram by the word dangerous pls say