A Puzzle by Dabrite
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The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.
As usual, the setter will be delighted to receive feedback from you, the solvers. I do ask that you remember that for most setters this is a new experience, so please only offer constructive criticism.
I usually hope for an improvement with a Rookie setter’s second crossword. I regret to say, in terms of the comments on the clues, this one is slightly worse. Whilst I did not have too much problem with the general knowledge required (and it certainly was not as obscure as your first crossword) there were too many errors in the clues for my liking. The commentometer reads 7.5/28 or 26.9%.
Regarding the grid construction, the grid itself was an unfriendly one with four quadrants linked in the middle. However, it is a grid you often see and it is legitimate to use it.
Too many cross-referenced clues makes solving more difficult, particularly where you have not indicated where a single word is split across to grid entries and, instead, given the enumerations for each part of the solution. Particularly if you solving on-line, it is very difficult to jump between the required parts of the solution.
The use of ellipses needs to be watched. You can use them to link successive clues where one leads naturally to the other or where the wordplay / solution in one clue is continued in the second. However, I think that there was an overuse of them here where they were not required.
Across
1a I take name from Big Apple green space for Old Firm battleground (5,4)
IBROX PARK: The I from the clue followed by the name of a district of New York (Big Apple) from which the abbreviation for name is removed (take) all followed by a four-letter word for a green space. You need to indicate that it is a borough of New York that is required. Big Apple is not specific enough. Also the solution refers to a stadium where Rangers last played in 1899!
9a See 17A (5)
10a Heavy metal‘s thin on the ground here (4,5)
RARE EARTH: A four-letter word meaning thin followed by a five-letter word for the ground on which we live.
11a See 17D (6)
12a Hide key left in Tesla for last of the big spenders (9)
SKINFLINT: A four-letter word for the hide of an animal followed by a musical key or note, the IN from the clue and the abbreviation for Tesla.
13a See 18 (5)
17a & 9A. Fix peacocks’ protection for the legs (3)
JAMBEAUX: A three-letter word for a fix or scrape followed by a five-letter for a person who may be described as a peacock. Although the solution is split across the grid, you should give the enumeration for the complete word.
19a Let go on loan (7)
RELEASE: A two-letter word meaning on or about followed by a five-letter word for a loan or permission to use.
20a Reveal storyteller to the audience as an exception (7)
OUTLIER: A three-letter word meaning to reveal followed by a homophone (to the audience) of a four-letter word for a storyteller or fibber.
21a Heart of East Ender is perfect specimen … (3)
TEN: The answer is hidden (heart of) in the third and fourth words of the clue.
23a … Croupier says what he does is perfect (5)
IDEAL: Split 1,4 this would be a statement that could be made by a croupier to describe his job. To maintain the cryptic reading of the clue, saying would be better than says.
25a Poke the bear and lead spies astray … (9)
DISPLEASE: An anagram (astray) of LEAD SPIES.
28a … “Graeme, perhaps say where to find the bear!” (6)
GARDEN: Double definition with the surname of the Goodies star Graham and a place where bears used to be found.
29a Rue Prince revealing unhealthy interest in sexual matters (9)
PRURIENCE: An anagram (revealing) of RUE PRINCE. I am not convinced that revealing is an acceptable anagram indicator.
30a Draw breath after a kicking (5)
ALIVE: A four-letter word meaning draw breath after the A from the clue. You should try to have a good degree of separation between the wordplay and the solution. Here the first part of the wordplay is too closely related to the solution.
31a Call army at odds about height of waterworks (9)
LACHRYMAL: An anagram (at odds) of CALL ARMY around the abbreviation for height. Some editors will not accept clues with the structure wordplay of definition.
Down
2d & 4D. Fictional East Indiaman‘s rare gem (5)
BLACK PEARL: Double definition.
3d Indian and German say romance’s complicated without Mike and Romeo … (6)
OCEANS: An anagram (complicated) of ROMANCE without the letters represented by Mike and Romeo in the NATO phonetic alphabet.
4d See 2D (5)
5d … and German dogging cobblers midway round building … (7)
ROTUNDA: The German word for and after (dogging or following) a three-letter words meaning cobblers or rubbish followed by the middle letter (mid) of way. Some editors will not permit an unindicted requirement to split a word into two to give the wordplay. Be careful with the use of ellipses. The should be used sparingly. Here as the preceding clue (4D) does not have any wording, the ellipses look out of place here.
6d … Steals 23 and 8 résumés (9)
ABSTRACTS: Triple definition.
7d Chastise crazy guy making raspberries and such like (4,5)
CANE FRUIT: A four-letter word meaning chastise by means of a beating followed a five-letter word for a crazy guy.
8d Model replaced my ex, 4 (9)
EXEMPLARY: An anagram (replaced) of MY EX PEARL (pearl being the solution to 4D).
14d Grip Fanny by mistake – a bad situation that could get worse? … (6,3)
FRYING PAN: An anagram (by mistake) of GRIP FANNY.
15d … Clear a big problem relating to a unifying thread across almost all of mathematics (9)
ALGEBRAIC: An anagram (problem) CLEAR A BIG. As a noun, problem does not work as an anagram indicator. Although some nouns are used as anagram indicators (though some editors will not allow them), they are words that suggest a movement of letters, for example “organization”.
16d Feral jive turned out to be typhus (4,5)
JAIL FEVER: An anagram (turned out) of FERAL JIVE. Four anagram clues in a row is overkill. Also watch your surface readings. Whilst I am more lenient for Rookie setter not have polished surface readings, this one make no sense whatsoever.
17d & 11A. 2 water’s fast-flowing current (3)
JET STREAM: A three-letter word meaning black (the answer to 2d) followed by a six-letter word for water.
18d & 13A. Mural about working year like Van Gogh? (3)
MONAURAL: The Mural from the clue around a two-letter word meaning working and a single-letter abbreviation for year (from the Latin annus). Try to avoid repeating wordplay indicators. About was used in 31a.
22d African country wanting head of department plus indefinite number to be retrained (7)
ERITREA: An anagram (unindicated) of RETRAINED after removing (wanting) the first letter (head) of department and (plus) the letter representing an indefinite number. There is no anagram indicator her and the cryptic grammar in the clue does not work at all.
24d Hunt for one book by Walpole (6)
JEREMY: Double definition, the first being the current Chancellor of the Exchequer.
26d Veranda where stoics hang out, perhaps (5)
PORCH: Single definition with part cryptic reference.
27d A bit sarcastic about triangular bones (5)
SACRA: The answer is hidden (A bit) and reversed (about) in the second word of the clue. To indicate a hidden word, you would need a bit of.
Thanks Dabrite. For me, a distinct improvement on your first Rookie although I expect Prolixic will identify some areas where ‘polishing’ would be beneficial. Some e-help was required to get across the finishing line such as identifying Walpole in 24a – the only one of that ilk I knew about was the 18th century politician.
A couple of minor points:
A surfeit of anagrams! I think I counted 9.
1a – The half of the Auld Firm in question play in a stadium not a park. I also consider that an indication that a borough of the Big Apple was required but that would probably have spoiled the surface.
3d – Unless I am missing something, I have no idea where the German 3d (singular) is.
Smiles for 10a, 20a, 23a, 5d, and 7d.
Thanks again and thanks in advance to Prolixic.
3d is the old name for the North Sea
That’s a new one for me.
Took me quite a while to get on the ‘wavelength’ and I battled away corner by corner SW, SE, NW and then NE where I did reveal a couple of letters just to make sure my thoughts on the possible solutions in a couple of places were correct.
I wasn’t keen on 17/9 and 18/13 where the definitions refer to the eight-letter combination of the two words. I knew the first one as a French word but had to check the protection bit in the BRB. I had read 24a a very long time ago so knew which Walpole was required. Although as Senf says, there are quite a lot of anagrams, in a puzzle as tricky as this one, they were much appreciated by me!
Thanks Dabrite – take note of the wise words of Prolixic (thanks in advance to him) and the comments made by other solvers and come back with another puzzle in due course
Welcome back to Rookie Corner, Dabrite. I am sorry to say that this puzzle didn’t seem to me to have shown any sign of progress since your debut, and Prolixic’s opening remarks last time are equally applicable now.
There were many good clues, several “nearly but not quite”, and a few poor ones. A lot of the GK needed was very obscure to me. There were too many cross-references for my taste; too many anagrams (although I doubt I would have finished without them); and too many ellipses. Some of your definitions were decidedly dodgy, and I believe that you should enumerate split words by referring to the answer, i.e.: both 17/9 and 18/13 should (8). However, it was good to see that you had followed the convention that all the split words were real.
I’m puzzled by 6d. “Steals résumés” (with no ellipses!) would have been an excellent clue in my opinion.
17/11 was my favourite.
Please come back with a more solver friendly puzzle next time. Thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Welcome back Dabrite.
I did manage to fill in the grid with electronic help and a couple of reveals but I can only echo the comments of RD above. I thought there were several “good ideas, poor execution”.
Without going through each clue or being specific here’s my advice to you (and all Rookies in general)
Don’t include several cross-referenced clues
Don’t include several ellipses between clues, particularly when not necessary.
Get yourself a good test solver as one would surely have helped to iron out a lot of the niggles in this one
Keep things concise and simple until you improve
Most importantly, nothing screams “Rookie” more than barely credible surface reads and I’m afraid there are several that fall into that category in your puzzle.
I think you have a really good puzzle in you Dabrite, this shows a lot of promise so thanks for sharing it with us and thanks in advance to Prolixic
I’m afraid the multitude of cross-references made this something of a slog for me and having virtually four separate puzzles in the grid didn’t help.
Having said that I thought there were some promising touches here – thanks for the challenge Debrite.
The clues I liked best were 20a and 5d.
Welcome back, Dabrite,
I would wholeheartedly concur with the previous comments, especially those of StephenL. Wise words indeed.
Ii is never a good idea to have four successive clues that are all anagrams (8d to 16d) and overall the puzzle was somewhat anagram-heavy for me. I did tick 20d, but I have numerous “nearly but not quite” annotations on my printed page.
Well done on producing another puzzle, but I didn’t really detect the signs of improvement I was seeking. Maybe next time?
Many thanks, Dabrite.
Welcome back, Dabrite. It doesn’t appear as though you have really taken on board the comments and suggestions made after your debut puzzle which is disappointing. To have so many cross-references is far from enjoyable for the solver and I personally dislike your habit of not giving us a fighting chance by at least telling us whether a reference is to an ‘across’ or ‘down’ clue. A case in point is references to ’17’ where in several instances the solver has to guess which ’17’ to use.
I do hope that you read the previous review from Prolixic and that you put his sound advice to good use before submitting your next puzzle.
Thanks Dabrite – as with your previous puzzle, a bit of a mixed bag, but I think a distinct improvement – I found many clues were well executed and clever, including 12a (not overly keen on “key” for any of seven letters, but fair enough), 19a, 20a, 31a, 2/4d, 3d, 5d (here not so keen on “midway”, but it’s certainly used and gettable), 14d and 18d/13a (though surface not so strong in that one) … so plenty to enjoy :-)
There are some obscurities and tough general knowledge, but I think that’s fine and makes for a good challenge – I *like* needing Chambers/Google … it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s not ‘wrong’ either. Similarly, whilst I’m not a huge fan of (over) using cross-references and ellipses (and also occasional smuttiness!), e.g. Paul in the Grauniad often does similar and has a devoted following, so that’s again more a case of style rather than necessarily being ‘wrong’. However, where you do use ellipses they should make for a clear surface (unlike, say, 21a…23a or 14d…15d which just seem like two distinct clues?) and cross-referencing shouldn’t be gratuitious (e.g., why are 23a and 8d required in 6d?) Such “interconnectedness” is also, I think, far more satisfying (or “forgivable” perhaps!) where there’s a unifying theme that makes it natural to tie clues together (as in your last, with the musical theme … I can’t spot anything in this one, apologies if ‘ve missed something!)
One of the main issues, for me, was incorrect enumerations in several clues – but this can be easily fixed with just a little more attention to detail! There were also some errors (e.g. 1a using the whole of NY to refer to just one borough, or the otherwise excellent 29a lacking a proper anagram indicator) as well as more subtle issues (e.g. 23a’s “says” would work better as “saying”, so that the grammar doesn’t then jar with the following link word “is”, 27d’s “a bit” is really “a bit of” … “a little” might be a more natural way to express part of something?), and, yes, some pretty clunky surfaces too (though nothing *too* outrageous and I’m sure that’ll improve with practice)
So I expect there’ll be plenty to think about following Prolixic’s review (thanks in advance!) but it feels like things are moving in the right direction. Thanks again!
While I have to thank you for the puzzle, Dabrite, I can’t say I particularly enjoyed it, I’m afraid. Too many clues just didn’t work for me, the lift and separate 5d, some quite odd enumeration, splitting of whole words, far too many cross-referenced clues (& without including the a or d), too many anagrams, including in a sequence, unfair obscurities etc. Wise words from RD, Stephen et al., and doubtless from Prolixic too, all well worth heeding.
Thank you – and in advance to Prolixic too – and I look forward to attempting your next challenge!
We started off well and then ground to a halt! We hadn’t heard off the German Sea so we were baffled as we were sure we had the correct answer. We appreciated all the anagrams as they helped us along the way but we did in the end resort to the reveal button. More solver friendly next time, please, Dabrite.
Thanks Dabrite. I share a lot of what’s said so far. I’m afraid I found some of the vocabulary a little obscure but that may be a reflection on my own.
I found the SW corner to be easiest. My favourites were 21a, 23a and 28a (any reference to The Goodies gets my vote!)
I loof forward to your next puzzle :)
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, I do hope that Dabrite uses it to his advantage and also that he pops in to thank you himself this time!