Rookie Corner 518

18 comments on “Rookie Corner 518”

1. Just what we like to find on Rookie Corner. A skillfully put together set of clues that are a real pleasure to solve. Our favourite was the homophone in 7d.
   Thanks Tyjer.

2. Very enjoyable – I would categorise it as being at the Campbell/Plumb end of the back page spectrum and I would imagine that CrypticSue’s tea/coffee had not cooled down to a drinkable temperature before she had completed the solve.

   I was beginning to have a Hmm over 14d as I know the answer as an adjective when the clue was ‘looking’ for a noun; but, buried in the definition in the BRB I saw that Old Bill Shakes was responsible (again).

   Smiles for 9a, 11a, 13a, 15a, 20a, 7d, and 19d and probably several more.

   Thanks Tyjer and well done and thanks in advance to Prolixic.

3. I thought this was very accomplished, Tyjer. It was a pleasure to solve, and a marked improvement over your previous Rookie puzzle (which was good but with a few rough edges).

   My only two (very minor) comments relate to 5d. It should be enumerated (5,5) and the definition is untrue!

   My top picks were 13a, 20a (I love it! 😉), 29a, 7d, 8d, 19d & 23d.

   Very well done and thank you, Tyjer. Thanks too in advance to Prolixic.

4. A very entertaining puzzle and proof that a crossword doesn’t have to be ultrahard to be enjoyable – thanks to Tyjer.
   I thought the homophones were especially well done.
   Amongst the clues I ticked were 11a, 13a, 20a, 29a and 19d.

5. My thoughts match those of the 2Ks and Gazza

   Thanks to Tyjer and, in advance, to Prolixic

6. This was a pleasure to solve, Tyjer, and your use of misleading punctuation made me smile as did the clever homophones.
   The only two that didn’t quite work for me were 19&23d but nobody else has commented adversely so perhaps it’s a ‘just me’ thing. Ticks here included 11,13,20 (yuck!) and 29a along with 7d.

   Many thanks and well done.

7. Thanks for that, just my type of Rookie puzzle.
   I have a full grid but two I couldn’t quite sort out; two hmms and two stand-outs in 7d and my pdm at 19d.
   Good low score tomorrow I suspect.
   Hope to see more soon.

8. Major enjoyment for me; thanks Tyjer. Some great clues, as already noted above and, as remarked upon by others, my favourite has to be the very clever 7D. ***** for enjoyment for me.

9. A very accomplished RC puzzle, Tyjer, a pleasure to have a look at over lunch. I think compiling a puzzle on the less ‘convoluted’ end of the spectrum allows the less experienced setter to spend time mastering the basics – construction, grammar, surface, variety etc – and you’ve done that very well. RD has noted the enumeration of 5D, but my only other comments were:

   8D: I liked the surface read and “skip 2 pick 1” construction but am never certain as to quite how much direction needs to be given to the solver when it comes to the odd/even/other letters being dropped;
   19A: Not sure about the use of ‘lifting’ here since ‘a’ does not feature in ‘steroid’, and the construction of the clue already suggests the “something” is “a steroid” … in which case the a is already in the right place;

   You had a very few surfaces which to me felt a bit odd or strained but otherwise a really good puzzle, thank you – I do look forward to your next grid. Podium places for me went to COTD 7d, with 29a, 17 & 25a.

   Thanks also and in advance to Prolixic

   1. MG, 19a. I took “lifting a” to mean “supporting/holding up/raising up/holding high a” – in a down clue. I could be wrong …..

10. Well done Tyjer, a real crowd-pleaser. Your homonyms were excellent and 7d is an absolute cracker. I have to agree with RD and MG re 5d (but it’s no biggie) and 8d is a hmm for me. Also, that lifting in 19d is (as MG says) a tad naughty. And you may get picked up for your two “ruineds” but they are used in different ways so, again, not a major problem. A couple of surfaces jarred ever so slightly; eg, I enjoyed 11a but it’s an odd read. But … it was a huge amount of fun and you can expect a pretty decent score, I reckon. Great job.

11. Welcome back, Tyjer.

    I definitely agree with Mustafa G that some of the surfaces were unconvincing but, overall, I think this puzzle is your best to date and certainly it is much superior to your last one. A very enjoyable solve. Many congratulations on the improvement shown.

    Thank you, Tyjer.

12. Thankyou very much for all the encouraging comments! And thankyou also for the past feedback that helped me to improve on my previous efforts. I have been paying attention not just to the feedback on my own puzzles, but also to the puzzles by other setters. I haven’t yet commented on somebody else’s work, partly because I usually get to the puzzles some time after they were posted, but have very much enjoyed both the Rookie Corner puzzles and the NTSPPs over the past weeks.

    Rabbit Dave is quite right about 5d. With regard to Senf’s comment on 14d, I justified it to myself because a particular line which uses the word came to my mind, but I admit it is hardly a famous one.

13. Pleased to see this one has received such a positive reaction. I too thought it an accomplished & very enjoyable puzzle to solve. The 5d enumeration, lifting at 19d & maybe a couple of surfaces were all I could see to quibble with. 7d&11a were my joint favourites & I also particularly liked 10,13&20a.
    Thanks Tyjer

14. Congratulations on producing a popular puzzle Tyjer. I agree with the overall view that this is a good puzzle.

    From a rookie’s technical learning point of view, I was particularly interested in 4d, as the word ’empty’ is asking the solver to empty more than one word. I imagine that is fine as no-one has mentioned it, so that is a useful device to note. Also in 8d ‘sometimes’ is being used in the sense of occasionally to indicate each 3rd letter. Chris Lancaster seems to suggest that ‘occasionally’ indicates alternate letters, but Alan Connor says that “very occasionally, the spacing between the relevant letters might be a bit wider”. So, again this seems to be fine, but it is nice to see confirmation of that on RC. I also notice that in 21a ‘bit’ is being used to indicate a letter in ‘rise’ (if I am parsing it correctly). I had a feeling people may differ on whether the precise letter should be indicated. Again no-one seems to have raised this and ‘rise’ is only a four letter word, so I take it this is generally fine. That reminds me of the question of whether ‘centrally’ can indicate more than just the middle letter (of a word with an odd number of letters), and I will be interested to see any comments on this in RC one day.

    1. Very much a layman myself, Mjölnir, but I’ve always taken the instruction ‘bit of’ as in 21a to mean just the first letter, definitely not “one of the letters in the word following”; in today’s Chalicea Toughie she uses “dose of” in the same way, to indicate just the first letter of ‘medicine’.

       On the subject of centrally, obviously the familiar use is the single middle letter when an odd number of letters, or the two middle letters when even; less commonly but not verboten – maybe it depends on the paper, the editor, even the desired difficulty level of the puzzle – the central 3 or more letters are indicated.

       Likewise emptying two or more words with the one instruction is not an uncommon usage – I see it not infrequently in The Times; rightly to me it does seem to be the case that if two words are hyphenated then it’s the first and last letter of the combined pair, not of both, as was the usage in this puzzle.

15. Thankyou, Prolixic, for the review.

    Mjölnir, my understanding is that it is conventional for ‘a bit of’ to indicate the first letter.

16. Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, and congratulations to Tyjer for achieving a near-perfect score.

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