Rookie Corner – 098

48 comments on “Rookie Corner – 098”

1. That was great fun. Considering how it was put together we would not even suggest having a favourite. Let’s just say that they are all brilliant clues. Hope that at some stage we will see a list of who’s who.
   Thanks Tilsit for bringing it all together and all who made a contribution. :rose:

2. A nice gentle solve with an appropriate sprinkling of birthday references. Despite the numerous different contributors (myself not included!), had it not been mentioned how the puzzle had been assembled, it could have easily passed as being the work of one setter.

   I’ve ticked several clues I particularly liked, namely 26a, 29a, 17d and 22d (although isn’t the word “old” there superfluous?). 18/28a also deserves a mention of course!

   I’m usually fairly bad at guessing who did what in these Hydra-style puzzles, although 20a did look very much to me like a Snape clue, and 19d was reminiscent of Gazza, but I suspect I’m probably wrong on both counts. I hope they don’t mind my incorrect attributions!

   I’m assuming that several of our regular Rookie solvers at the bash had some input? If so, I hope it might encourage them to try their hand at setting a whole puzzle in the future, go on don’t be shy!

   Congratulations to all concerned, especially to Tilsit.

   1. Re 22d Yes – I couldn’t work that one out.

      For me UNDO for “solve” works. It may be a very slight stretch but “old” doesn’t make it any less so.

      Maybe a certain dictionary has it marked as archaic.

      1. yep, brb has it as archaic

         1. Collins online has that too – marked as obsolete.

            ODO doesn’t but it has “Cause the downfall or ruin of”, which Collins doesn’t have.

            In Shakespeare “undone” usually means “done for”.

3. Nice solve. The top half I found to be fairly easy – the bottom half less so – mainly due to cryptic (ie rather than letter-fiddling) clues intersecting.

   Anyone skipping this for fear that it might be too “in-house” need have no worries on that account. The two that are (7a and 28a, 18a) are easy enough to get knowing that you need a person’s name.

   A great many nice crunchy regulation wordplay clues.

   My favourite was 29a – very effective use of deceptive punctuation and a lovely lift-and-separate in “in any event”, which almost begs to be taken as a complete whole, even when you’re on the qui vive for oldest-trick-in-the-book cluing devices.

   I also liked 20d but wondered whether more could have been made of Endless Love – ie the song – to the strains of which we are told a large proportion of the population was conceived.

   6a I read as triply indicated – is that the indention.
   10a The way I’m reading it the parts of speech don’t quite match.
   17d I didn’t understand the pasta bit.

   I won’t reveal which clues I might have given a single tick to because it’s often a close-run thing and obviously some had a more difficult row to hoe than others – but all round a great job – and a surprisingly well-balanced puzzle, considering its provenance.

4. How wonderful! I only wish I’d been a part of it!
   Top half, starting with 7a, flew in, bottom half took a little longer – last to parse with an audible penny-drop clunk was 17d.
   Remarkably well-balanced, as has been said. I had fully 8 ticks and 5 double ticks by the clues so, if you contributed, then just assume yours was one of those :)
   Unless that is you wrote 29a, which had a rare triple tick because it had everything – great surface, topicality (of course), humour, complexity yet solvabilty – marvellous!

5. What splendid fun! Thank you Tilsit for making this happen. It has all come together rather brilliantly, with a sense of humour that captures the day. The solving is all the more amusing as the brain (vaguely) starts to recollect all the fun we had discussing some of the clues.

   And some top notch clues I hadn’t seen yet, I loved “animal lover” and “in any event we’ll celebrate” to name just two – plenty to enjoy.

   I’m pleased this appeared after I returned from holiday – I really did not want to miss it.

   I hope everyone else enjoys this as much as I did.

   1. Hi Dutch,
      I’m sure I remember you working hard on a clue for ‘avocados’ – no sign of it in the puzzle!

      1. did I?

         1. Yep, you did. Anything else from the day that you want to be reminded of………? :wink:

6. I’d also like to award an extra :good: to 29a – I wish I could have been there.
   I have to ask about 20a because I’m completely bewildered: are “Skiing maracas” a thing? It’s just begging to be “Playing maracas”.

   1. Not only is it begging to be “playing maracas” – it was intended to be “playing maracas”. Tilsit should have gone to Specsavers! I’ll change it now.

      1. I thought maybe it was “shaking” maracas and someone’s handwriting got a bit dodgy after a few pints.

         1. Tilsit will check when he gets back home – he has confirmed that it wasn’t “skiing”, or the version he originally sent which had “skaing”. If anyone remembers writing the clue, perhaps they can confirm the original intention.

            1. Perhaps the setter had been drinking?

               1. From recent observations, I’d say skiing is a pretty good anagram indicator

                  but shaking would seem the likely intended one.. (no idea who’s clue it was)

7. A very enjoyable solve – unlike many multi-setter puzzles, this “flowed” very nicely. Thank you to all involved.

   It was interesting on the day to see the reactions of setters, both professional and amateur, when Tilsit presented them with a word to clue – ranging from the ‘you want me to do it now?’ to the ones who just got on with it. I’d particularly like to mention Weekend Wanda who worked hard at her clue, enlisting advice as she went along from some lovely helpful people

   1. Thank you! It was fun but I had no idea how hard it would be.

8. That was fun, but I wouldn’t presume to try and guess who clued what. Actually, it was far less risqué than I thought it might be – given some of the suggestions I overheard! Maybe Tilsit did an editing job in the sober light of day?
   Top three for me are 23&26a plus 17d.

   Many thanks, Partygoers – it was a great day.

9. Oh dear. Just me then. After all the build up, I was disappointed. I found it a bit clunky overall. I did not get 17D and having now revealed a letter I know the answer but have no idea what pasta has to do with it. I have what I believe is the correct answer for 6D but again have no idea why it’s correct. Maybe it isn’t. And I have no clue who the Neville brothers are. Perhaps I’m grumpy because of my own failings. I did like 1A a lot, though. And if 16D is intended as a triple whatsit, then I like that too.

   1. 17d You need to split ‘pasta’ into its two syllables.

      1. D’oh! Thanks very much Gazza!

      2. Oh! Clever, that.

10. Let’s get the pedantry out of the way first! I was fooled initially by 26a because I assumed the spelling of Teeside was intended in order to make it anagram fodder when coupled with resort. It wasn’t! It was simply misspelt.
    Or do I mean “mispelt”? :wink:

    That apart, this was a wonderful compilation, and everyone involved deserves unreserved congratulations.

    A couple of queries. Why “hogs” in 6d? What is the relevance of pasta in 17d?

    It’s a good job Kath’s away because I want to select all the clues as my favourites. But my favourite favourite has to be 29a.

    1. Hi RD,
       17d -try splitting the last word of the clue 3-1-1 and add a few bits of punctuation.

       1. Sorry, Gazza – you beat me to it!

    2. Some hogs are not pigs.

       1. Thanks Gazza. I did wonder about that but decided it was easier just to Google “hog” rather than getting my BRB down from the shelf. I even checked several online dictionaries, including Collins to no avail. Googling “hog sheep” however delivers the goods, as does (eventually) looking in my BRB.

          My new catch phrase, plagiarised from Specsavers, will be “he should have gone to his BRB”.

       2. Nicely put, Gazza!

11. Many thanks to Tilsit and BD for organising the puzzle.

    I was very definitely in Sue’s ‘you want me to do it now?’ camp and even managed to swap my answer word for an easier one (naughty me!). Well done to all the clue-writers who got the tough-to-clue words and didn’t shirk from the task at hand. As ever, was a good do and great to meet everyone in meatspace.

    Here’s to another great year for BDCB and all who sail in her!

12. Following on from others’ comments, I agree that it does read very well as a combined effort. [Perhaps Tilsit has done some very serious editing behind the scenes to make it so?] It was definitely a very enjoyable day!
    I was a little unsure on reading about the verb tense in 10a – what am I missing? I was also initially thrown by the hogs(!)
    -Encota-

13. I woke up on the Sunday after, and thought ‘That doesn’t work at all for one I’d put in’, hurriedly put together an anagram, and sent it with an apology, then realised I’d misremembered the word I’d clued anyway! (plus, it was one with some other poor soul’s name on it!) Apologies for having to cope with me – although if that’s the worst thing I ever do because of drink, it won’t be too bad.
    I guess this might have required quite a bit of editing, as no-one had dictionaries, etc, so many thanks to Tilsit for his efforts in getting a very enjoyable crossword out of it, especially as it managed to somehow be very well balanced. Even some of the clues I’d seen being written took a while to get – of the ones I hadn’t seen before, my favourites were 29a, 3d and 22d.
    Thanks again to Tilsit, BD, and the setters.

14. What a great get together.
    Very coherent finished product.
    It was good fun to participate and my name might appear on some clues which were a concerted effort with those present at the time. Fabulous team spirit that Tilsit had to decipher despite all the scribbles and red wine or beer stains.
    Thanks to everybody involved.

15. Thanks everyone for the nice comments. Compilation puzzles are quite difficult to put together as you are dealing with 30 different styles.

    Seriously, there was very little editing. I deliberately published the clues exactly as they were written. That shows the quality of everything that was written, despite the quantities of alcohol around! Not all the clues had names on, and so I couldn’t remember who wrote which clue. One or two submitted numerous clues and I chose the one that best worked.

    I have a feeling the ‘skiing’ typo must have been an auto-correct thing on my computer as I was typing. Will try to find the slip with the clue on.

    Apologies for the delay as well, I have been relocating fully from the Calder Valley to Warrington and am surrounded by a great many boxes of books and papers. I also managed to throw myself down a flight of stairs and have been nursing some pretty nasty bruises!

    1. Ow, I hope you’re recovering well. I read (in Bill Bryson’s book about the home, I think, among other places) that stairs are the biggest killer in the land other than disease, so dangerous things.

    2. Poor you, get well soon. When I had a fall in September it seemed to take forever for the bruises to fade and I was ashamed go go out because I felt as though everyone was staring. Not helped by people saying What on earth have you done when I thought it was patently obvious what I had done – fallen flat on my face.

16. Cracked it, I think. Went to bed with one corner unfinished and if I had not misspelled the SA country I would have got there much quicker. Can now go off go shops with clear conscience. :yahoo:

17. I really enjoyed solving (most of) this. It was very interesting to see how it turned out, and in the event it was pretty well-balanced and great fun.

    Many thanks to Tilsit for organising it all. A lovely idea and well-executed.

    Thanks to crypticsue for the review. No need for any apologies – I completely understand about the real life bit, and pictures (as well as everything else) take much longer to do than many people appreciate.

    And thanks to my fellow partygoers – not least for writing “my” clue for me. I have to admit I was struggling and offered my word to the table. They made short work of it – I don’t think I even wrote it on the paper myself. I promise to do better in future.

    1. Miffypops would approve of not writing it down especially if it was an anagram.

       1. Haha. (It was not an anagram. It was an unsupported cryptic definition!)

18. Many thanks for the review, CS and particularly for the parsing of 20d. Think I’d fallen into the same trap as Hilary and not checked my spelling!
    Shame that we don’t know who set what, although doubtless there were several combined efforts. I shall assume that the ones I struggled with the most were set by Radler and Encota :yes:

19. Thanks for the review Cryptic 7a – I find I’m itching to know who set 29a… would anyone happen to remember?

    1. Gazza?

       1. Not me. I’d like to know who set that clue too – it’s excellent.

          1. Sorry, Gazza – just thought that you, out of all of us, would have been sober enough to observe that the rest of us were getting ‘a bit wobbly’ – be happy to celebrate anyway and be absolutely certain that ‘n’ is an acceptable abbreviation of ‘noon’!

    2. A man who wasn’t there, but his wife was, she said cryptically :wink:

       1. Umm………in that case, either Mr. CS or Mr. Henderson.

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