Big Dave's Crossword Blog

Frequently Asked Questions

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This is a blog is hosted on WordPress.com, so has all the advantages of being part of a domain that has over 6 million blogs, with a further 9 million active installations of the WordPress.org software worldwide.

Answers to a few questions about the site in particular and crosswords in general:

How do I find out about the different types of cryptic clue?

Which books should I read to improve my skill?

What is acceptable when submitting prize puzzles?

Why are there curly brackets beside each clue?

How do I find the answers?

How do I find the answers on an iPhone, iPad or similar?

Why don’t you give answers to prize crosswords?

What are the links included with some hints?

How do I add a comment?

Why are some comments nested?

Why is my comment being ignored?

How do I add formatting to a comment?

How do I add a link to a comment?

Where does the avatar beside my comment come from?

How can I get my own avatar?

How do I use emoticons?

How do I contact any of the contributors?

How do I find a particular puzzle?

What does the search widget in the sidebar do?

What are the links at the bottom of each post?

How do you know the names of the setters?

How do I find out about the different types of cryptic clue?• Back to top of page

The simple answer is that you can spend years solving cryptic crosswords, and still not fully understand.  I have prepared Big Dave’s Little Guide to Cryptic Crosswords to help beginners (and maybe some veterans as well) with the different types of clue and the terminology that, in general, is used on this site to describe them.  The guide also contains a list of other useful sites and some recommended books.

Which books should I read to improve my skill?• Back to top of page

There are many books available to help.  Peter Biddlecombe, former Times Crossword Champion, has picked out some of the best in Which books should I read? All of the books in this guide are linked to the Amazon UK pages where you can read other reviews before you make up your mind.

What is acceptable when submitting prize puzzles?• Back to top of page

Phil McNeill, the Puzzles Editor for the Telegraph Media Group, has issued answers to questions like “Can I use pencil or Tippex?”.  You can read what he has said in Guidelines for the submission of Prize Puzzles.

Why are there curly brackets beside each clue?•••• Back to top of page

The answer to the clue is between the curly brackets – see the next question for how to reveal the answer.

How do I find the answers?•••• Back to top of page

The answers are in white text between the curly brackets.  To reveal this text, simply select it with the mouse.  Single word answers can also be revealed by double clicking the space between the brackets.
Try it out here:  {THIS IS THE ANSWER}.  If you are using an iPhone, iPad or certain other mobile/portable devices this may not work properly – see the next question.

How do I find the answers on an iPhone, iPad or similar?•••• Back to top of page

On some mobile/portable devices, the hidden answers cannot be revealed by selecting with the mouse.  This is because the browsers used on those devices are not fully html compliant.  There are ways to get around this – try each one to see if it works on your device.

1. Select the text between the curly brackets.  To do this, tap and hold within the brackets.  This should highlight the space occupied by the word.  For answers with two or more words you may need to increase the capture area by using the drag bars to select the whole answer.
   • With the word highlighted, you will see an option to Copy the selected text.  For iOS 5, if the highlighted word is in the iPhone / iPad dictionary, there will also be a Define option.  Tapping on Define will open a temporary page with the word and its definition.
   • If Define is not available, you can click on Copy to copy the selected text.  This can then be pasted into Notes or, if you want to quickly to see the word and there is Google search bar at the top of the screen, you can Paste it into the search bar.  This works for the iPhone and iPad and may work with other devices.
2. Use the Reader option by clicking the in the address bar with Reader on it.  This shows the main page (but not the comments) in plain text with all the answers revealed.  This works for the iPhone and iPad, but iOS 5 must be installed for this option to appear.

Why don’t you give answers to prize crosswords?•••• Back to top of page

This is a site for those who love crosswords.  In common with the other major crossword sites, the answers to prize crosswords are not published until after the closing date for the competition.  A few hints are published on the day that the puzzle is published in order to help anyone who is struggling to get started.

What are the links included with some hints?•••• Back to top of page

The links, which show up as underlined text or are accessed by clicking on some, but not all, of the pictures, provide supplementary information.

This will often be a link to a page which provides a more detailed explanation of the subject like this one about the poet Andrew Marvell.   Sometimes it will be a picture clue like this one of an anchovy. Other times it might be a music clue like this link to Chas McDavitt and Nancy Whisky with Freight Train, which was the first one I published.  And then again it might be something entirely frivolous that just takes my fancy like this one of the Britannia Coco-Nutters of Bacup.

If the answer is not immediately obvious, like this one to illustrate Joanne, then try looking at the url at the top of the screen: in this case “http://……………../paul-newman-joanne-woodward.jpg” or hover over a picture, like this one:

If you can’t, or perhaps don’t want to, access the link, then right clicking on it and selecting properties will often give you the answer.

How do I add a comment?•••• Back to top of page

There are two different ways in which you can add a comment:

1. At the bottom of each post that was added in the last 120 days, in the section headed “LEAVE A RESPONSE”, there are several boxes.  Complete these as follows:

Name:  Enter your name as you wish it to appear on the comment.

Email:  Enter you email address.  This does not appear on the site, but it enables you to receive notification via email of any follow-up comments and it enables me to get in touch with you.

Website  This is optional.  If you have a website of your own you can insert the address here to enable others to visit.  If you are not using this field then please delete any text that is present.  In particular, please do not enter a fictitious website address as this gets picked up by search engines as an error on the site.

Your response:  Enter your comment in here.  If you wish to use formatting, please see the appropriate FAQ.

Notify:  Select this box if you wish to be notified of follow-up comments via email.

Submit Comment: Select this when you have entered all the details above.

2. If one or more comments have been previously entered on the post then you can reply to one of them by selecting Reply. This opens up a set of boxes.  Complete these as described in paragraph 1 above.  Be careful to select the comment to which you wish to reply rather than one of the replies themselves.  All replies are indented one level.

Why are some comments nested?•••• Back to top of page

Any replies to a comment are indented by one level, replies to a reply are indented two levels, and so on. Up to ten levels are allowed, which should be more than sufficient.

Why is my comment being ignored?•••• Back to top of page

The first time you post a comment, it has to be moderated. Some sites require all comments to be moderated, but here all comments are published immediately as long as you have a previously approved comment. Approval is linked to the email address that you provide, although this address is not displayed on the site.

These restrictions are in place in order to protect the site against malicious comments. You would be surprised how often attempts are made to post spam containing unwanted links. Any comment containing two or more links is automatically designated as spam.

How do I add formatting to a comment?•••• Back to top of page

The process for doing this uses standard html code and combinations are allowed:

preserve   spaces

Don’t worry if you make a mess of it, I will tidy it up for you.

How do I add a link to a comment?•••• Back to top of page

To insert a hyperlink, just use the standard html code:

All parts of this code are important, for example if you omit the text, then there will be no way of selecting the link.

Where does the avatar beside my comment come from?•••• Back to top of page

The avatars are automatically generated from the email address that you provide.  If you would like your own avatar, see the next question.

Can I have my own avatar?•••• Back to top of page

Yes you can. All you need to do is to sign up for a free account with gravatar.com and then add as many email addresses and upload as many avatars as you wish.  The chosen avatar will then appear on all WordPress blogs and several other sites like AnswerBank.

Alternatively you can sign up for your own WordPress account here. During this process you will be offered the chance to start your own blog, and it’s all free.  Once you have an account, you can upload an avatar of your own creation.

How do I use emoticons?•••• Back to top of page

Many standard emoticons, or smilies, are automatically changed into the equivalent graphic.   Note that, in order to be converted into an emoticon, a smiley must be preceded by a space.  The following emoticons are supported on this site:

How do I contact any of the contributors?•••• Back to top of page

You can use the form on the Contact page, and I will forward the message to the appropriate contributor.  Alternatively, any comment made on a particular post will be automatically emailed to the author of that post.

How do I find a particular puzzle?•••• Back to top of page

The WordPress software supports a wide range of search facilities, which are available by using various widgets in the sidebar

1. Recent Posts
The 20 most recent posts, which covers the majority of requests.

2. Calendar
If you know which day the puzzle was published, then select that day from the calendar and then select the required puzzle from the search results that are displayed.  Please note that the full reviews of the weekend prize puzzles are filed under the Thursday following the date of publication.

3. Contributor
The contributors along with their latest post.  Select the name of the contributor to view a list of all their posts.

4. Categories
A drop-down list of categories that vary from type of crossword to name of the setter (Toughies only) or day of the week (regular cryptics).  Select the required entry to view a list of all the posts in that category.

5. Search
See the next question for how to use the search widget.

What does the search widget in the sidebar do?•••• Back to top of page

This works like most search engines, except that it only searches this site.  You can search for a particular answer or clue, or anything else.

As an example, if you search for To Sir With Love you will get several matches, but if you search for “To Sir With Love”, with the argument in quotes, you will find the puzzle that had this as an answer.

What are the links at the bottom of each post?•••• Back to top of page

One or more category and, possibly, a number of tags are assigned to each post.  The categories can be selected from the sidebar, but they also act as tags.  WordPress provides some powerful facilities for searching across sites, and if you select one of these tags you can see all other sites that have posts assigned to that tag.

Some, like “Toughie Crosswords”, will usually only point to this site.  Others, like “Daily Telegraph”, will point to a number of other sites as well.  This facility is closely linked to the various search engines, and makes the site easy to find

How do you know the names of the setters?•••• Back to top of page

The simple answer is that, unlike with the Toughies, we don’t know the names of those who set the regular back-page crossword puzzles.  However, many of the setters have told us which days their puzzles are usually published, and we have learned to recognise the styles of some of the others.

The following table is correct insofar as we know.  The aliases given are those frequently used on the blog.  Some are aliases used for Toughie Crosswords (shown in bold) and others are those used in other publications such as The Guardian and The Independent.  This article includes a photograph (below) of many of the current setters.

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Updated 12th March 2012