Rookie Corner 515

35 comments on “Rookie Corner 515”

1. A real pleasure to solve. We needed to check the language in 23d but it is listed in Mrs B so quite legitimate. Lots of ticks on our sheets and noted that it is also a pangram.
   Many thanks Rahmat Ali. Well done.

   1. Thank you so much once again, 2Kiwis, for finding my puzzle a real pleasure to solve.

2. Note to MrK – the pdf is ok but the online puzzle is the same as mine from last week

   1. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll fix it when I get back to my computer, likely in about hour.

3. An enjoyable end to my weekend of cruciverbalism. But, I was defeated by the jumping arachnids and some e-research was needed for the 25a’s language. I will be interested to read what Prolixic and Silvanus may or may not have to say about the use of ‘in essence’ in 23d.

   Thanks Rahmat Ali and thanks in advance to Prolixic.

   1. The latter named believes that the “essence” of India is “D”, not “IND”.

      1. Or even “NDI” :wink:

         1. Yes, that’s what I meant! Thank you :-)

   2. Thank you so much once again, Senf, for finding my puzzle as an enjoyable end to your weekend of cruciverbalism.

4. Many thanks Rahmat, an enjoyable puzzle with lots of GK, as expected from your earlier puzzles. Nice to learn some Indian GK too so very happy with that. Less happy to be Googling scary spiders before bedtime though 🤣🤣

   Some nice clueing in here too. 25a reminded me of the great batsman Rahul 🏏 Much preferred this over today’s backpager (30546) which is a stinker for a Monday! Favourite clues were 11a, 13a, 7d, 10d. Thanks again 😁👍

   1. Thank you so much once again, AgentB, for finding my puzzle to be enjoyable. It also gives me immense happiness to learn that you are aware of Rahul Dravid.

5. Welcome back to Rookie Corner, Rahmat, with another accomplished puzzle, a pangram too, which was a real pleasure to solve.

   I have only two minor comments:
   7d – I think that the wordplay and derivation of the definition could be considered a little “same-sidey”
   23d – “in essence” (or “essential”) should preferably only be used to clue one or two central letters not three. In addition, I think it is slightly unfair on the solver to clue a piece of Indian GK using an obscure actor in an American soap as well as one of the crossing letters coming from another piece of Indian GK.

   Although it is very clever, I am also unsure whether or not 16a quite works. I’ll be interested to learn Prolixic’s opinion of this one.

   Many thanks, Rahmat, and please do keep them coming. Thanks too in advance to Prolixic.

   1. Thank you so much once again, Rabbit Dave, for liking my puzzle and finding it as another accomplished one that was a real pleasure for you to solve. I will wait to see what Prolixic has to say on 7d and 16a, though I find 7d okay and in 16a, I had wanted to cryptically convert ‘titre’ meaning ‘heading’ in French to ‘title’ meaning ‘heading’ in English by replacing R with L. I will certainly keep in mind in future of taking a letter or two but not three (as I took in 23d) from the centre when applying ‘essential’ or ‘in essence’ in any clue.

6. Welcome back, Rahmat Ali.

   I really enjoyed solving the puzzle, but I thought eight anagrams in twenty-eight clues a little excessive. Your knowledge of French (and German) does you credit, but to include four French words and one German word in the clues/solutions for a single puzzle was also too much, unfortunately. Having said that, I have to admit that, with slightly gritted teeth, the clue for 11a was my favourite!

   “Convert” as the anagram indicator in 4d does not work from a cryptic grammar perspective. In answer to Senf above, I’ve already expressed my feelings about 23d, in addition the solution does not appear in Chambers, neither does 22a, from what I can see. The soap mentioned in 25a isn’t aired in the UK, as far as I’m aware, but it wasn’t difficult to guess Buchanan’s first name.

   Good fun to solve, so thank you very much, Rahmat Ali. I look forward to your next one.

   1. Thank you so much once again, silvanus, for liking my puzzle and felt very happy to learn that you really enjoyed solving it. Although I must admit that eights anagrams were on the higher side, but not all them were full anagrams. Three out of those eight were partial anagrams. However, I agree with you that I should not have used four French words and one German word in the puzzle. I also reiterate that I should not have used more than two letters in 23d from the centre when applying ‘essential’ or ‘in essence’ in any clue.

   2. I had been deliberating on the placing of anagram indicators from a cryptic grammar perspective over the weekend, so was interested to see your comment about the use of “convert” in 4d. I notice that the DT Sunday Prize Puzzle used the clue “In disagreement, a certain VAR almost entirely inaccurate (2,8)” on 01/10/2023, for example. The word ‘inaccurate’ rather than, say, ‘inaccurately’ indicates the anagram and is at the end of the sentence – none on the blog that day took issue with this. I am not sure how to rationalise why ‘convert’ doesn’t work in 4d, but ‘inaccurate’ was permissible? Is it something to do with ‘convert’ being a direction?

      1. In the Prize Puzzle you quote, “inaccurate” is an adjective — effectively being used as “ is inaccurate”. There isn’t a verb form of (in)accurate.

         Whereas “convert” is only a verb; the adjectival form would be “converted”. “ is convert” doesn’t make sense. It could be used as a command, but as Senf and Silvanus point out, that needs to precede the thing that it’s operating on, as in “Convert ”. (It would sill be possible to have “Inaccurate ”, but that’s because adjectives can precede nouns in English, as in “blue car”; “Inaccurate” isn’t a command in that case.)

         1. Thanks Smylers. So, essentially, if it is possible to make sense of the grammar by putting the word ‘is’ between the anagram and an adjective acting as an anagram indicator, all is well. There is no need to turn, say, ‘inaccurate’ into an adverb when it comes after the anagram, i.e. xyz “inaccurately” (although that would work too).

7. Found this to be rather more educational than entertaining which makes me wonder whether our setter’s skills are actually better suited to GK puzzles than cryptics? I’m not really persuaded that either 16a or 23d work particularly well and will be interested to read Prolixic’s take on those.

   Thanks for bringing us this one, Rahmat, perhaps you could ‘lighten up’ a bit next time?

   1. Thank you so much, Jane, for your noteworthy comment. I look forward to making less use of GK from the next to my next puzzle.

8. I really enjoyed this puzzle, thank you Rahmat Ali – your dedicated service blogging puzzles for this site has clearly been of benefit! 25a/23d have both been referred to above, not sure about 16a, and as Silvanus has noted, a little rich in anagrams for relatively few clues. Having said that, pretty much everything else was, to this layman, pretty adept, and while some of the phrasing could do with a polish, it was a super crossword for this Corner.

   Many thanks once again, and in advance also to Prolixic.

   1. Thank you so much once again, Mustafa G, for really enjoying this puzzle and for your very kind and praiseworthy comments which will serve as a great encouragement for me.

9. What MG said except I used letter reveals for 23d & 25a.
   Many thanks.

   1. Thank you so much, Huntsman, for your kind comment.

10. I’m 24 and can’t express my happiness after reading 13a. :)

    1. Thank you so much, Sudipta Ghorai. I am also happy to see that you are so very happy.

11. I always find it a shame when a budding setter has invested considerable effort and then only a handful of people acknowledge his/er efforts. So here’s a shout for Rahmat Ali! Thank you.

    I’m no expert – my tests are:
    Could I understand it?
    Did I finish it?
    Did I enjoy it?

    All of which I did. A bit GK heavy and so some obscurities but largely fairly clued.

    Thanks, and to Prolixic, in advance.

    1. A loud thank you so much, Serendipity, for your liking the puzzle and kind comment. However, I believe that there are always people who sincerely but silently acknowledge someone with all their heart and my loud thanks to them, too.

12. A little late in completing but we thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. Thank you Rahmat Ali. Loved the inclusion of the French and German in some clues. Lots of favourites but will mention 9a, 11a, 16a and 18a. Definitely more like this, please – and we noticed the pangram. Now to read Prolixic’s review and the comments.

    1. Thank you so much once again, Hilton, for thoroughly enjoying my puzzle as also for loving the inclusion of French and German in some clues. I will be sending another puzzle very soon.

13. Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, I’m sure that our setter will be pleased with his score.

14. My sincere thanks to Prolixic for his splendid review. This time, I did check thoroughly to minimise the repetitions, but I now need to see and study the clues where the cryptic grammar went slightly awry, as observed by the maestro. There are still so many things to be learnt from his valuable advice and, moreover, there is no end to learning. I hope to continue to learn from him in future, too. And to Jane, yes I am pleased with my score, a slight improvement from 10.7% to 8.9%.

15. It was really enjoyable to slove. Thank you Sir 😊

    1. Welcome to the blog, Arka.

    2. Thank you so much, Arka, for finding the puzzle enjoyable and welcome to the blog.

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