Cryptic crossword No 1,918
Thu 15 Aug 2024, set byShane
7
Special Instructions: I have listened to everyone's kind feedback, and hopefully this puzzle is up to the quality that people should expect on a high quality website like this. I am still learning, and learning takes time! I also do apologise if there isn't a lot of variety, that I'm still trying to learn as well. Also please tell me if it's considered spam of my volume of posting crosswords that need a good spit and polish.
Sign in to leave a comment
Sign in to leave a comment
Much more approachable this time. Keep up the good work!
I agree with Hex. This is your best effort yet, not least because your clues are becoming much more concise and focused. Many setters would be pleased to come up with 1a, 9a and especially 8d. A number of others have good and sound wordplay – 10a, 11a, 20a, 23a, 5d, 16d, 22d – but the surfaces (something even professional setters often struggle with) don’t make much sense.
Welcome back Shane. I’ll agree with Hextrovert that your puzzle is more approachable this time. I’ll single out 24a, 25a, 2d, 8d for honourable mention in this regard. Some work to do though. One of the challenges of cryptic cluing I find most difficult is constructing a clue that has the right ‘cryptic grammar’, i.e. accurate wordplay and definition, along with a plausible ‘surface’ reading which may rather misdirect the solver until they think laterally and get past that surface. Spoilers…
Yes a significant improvement. You do still need to tighten up a lot further on the cryptic grammar but you've made huge steps in that direction. Well done. You've had some good advice from OzP, Gollum and Henri. Here's a little more (also hopefully good). Clues like 5A are unsatisfying for the solver. It's a valid anagram of course but only involves moving the C. It might be better to perhaps look at a movement clue rather than an anagram.
Thanks Shane, you're clearly improving. You have received some great advice in the previous comments. Many of my early mistakes involved directionality, DBE omissions, and inappropriate juxtaposition & linking words. What helps me now is writing out clues on scrap paper, putting them aside for a few days, and then re-copying them into my 'clue binder'. More than once I've made wholesale edits or even scrapped clues that didn't 'age well'.
20 comments