A Puzzle by duncanjwitham
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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. We do ask that you remember that for most setters this is a new experience, so please only offer constructive criticism.
A review by Prolixic follows:
Welcome to DJW with an excellent debut Rookie crossword. I get nervous when the setter describes a synonym as tenuous so this may be a point to watch in future crosswords. I think that the synonyms (particularly for welder, which is supported by the OED and the most up to date version for Chambers) used work though stuff is marginal. An interesting point is the use of dictionaries. The current published version of Chambers is the 13th edition but the on-line version is more up-to-date but you have to select the use of the current version. Is the use of a word only available in the on-line dictionary acceptable? With the exception of 1d, there were only a couple of minor points on the clues themselves. The commentometer reads as a highly creditable 2/30 or 6.7%
Across
1a Falsify papers, it added to Yankee intransigence (8)
RIGIDITY: A three-letter word meaning falsify followed by a two-letter word meaning papers, the IT from and the abbreviation for Yankee.
5a Advocate power and influence (6)
PREACH: The abbreviation for power followed by the
10a Jam ingredients (5)
STUFF: Double definition.
11a What police might do, enticed to being corrupt (9)
DETECTION: An anagram (being corrupt) of ENTICED TO.
12a Broadcast replay, essentially interrupting our glory (9)
SPLENDOUR: A four-letter word meaning broadcast includes (interrupting) the central letters (essentially) of replay all followed by the OUR from the clue.
13a Retrospectively honour New York Jet (5)
EBONY: A reversal (retrospectively) of a three-letter abbreviation for an honour or award followed by the abbreviation for New York.
14a Beat it, poet! Be quiet (6)
TIPTOE: An anagram (beat) of IT POET.
15a Home match ending with kick around over (7)
HOSPICE: The final letter (ending) of match and a five-letter word for a type of food additive with a kick around the abbreviation for over.
18a Difficult to rein in a horse that becomes tired (7)
HAGGARD: A four-letter word meaning difficult includes the A from the clue and the way a child might say a horse.
20a Remove clothes for party – quite revealing (6)
SKIMPY: A four-letter word meaning remove followed by the outer letters (clothes for) of party.
22a Give the nod following stylish entrance (5)
INLET: A three-letter word meaning give the nod or allow after (following) a two-letter word meaning stylish.
24a Run fast once liberated, separating to make doubly sure (9)
RECONFIRM: The abbreviation for run and a four-letter word meaning fast or secured include (separating) an anagram (liberated) of ONCE.
25a Regularly pay for replacement writer (9)
SUBSCRIBE: A three-letter word for a replacement player followed by a six-letter word for a writer.
26a Crazy when losing point leaves you pointless (5)
INANE: A six-letter word meaning crazy lacks (losing) one of the points of the compass.
27a It joins metal with wood (6)
WELDER: The abbreviation for with followed by a five-letter type of wood.
28a Seemingly satire, we got upset (2,2,4)
AS IT WERE: An anagram (got upset) of SATIRE WE. Whilst working in the surface reading, “got upset” reads slightly awkwardly – perhaps “may be upset” would work better for the cryptic reading.
Down
1d About time little sibling stands up to fight (6)
RESIST: A two-letter word meaning about and the abbreviation for time around a reversal (stands up) of a three-letter word for a sibling. I don’t think that this clue works. There is no insertion indicator to suggest that the word for sibling goes between the about and the time. Also as the word for the sibling is reads the same either way, the stands up is redundant in the cryptic reading.
2d Demanding porridge and gobbling just half (9)
GRUELLING: A five-letter word for gruel and the last half of the word gobbling.
3d The precise thing (8,7)
DEFINITE ARTICLE: An eight-letter word meaning precise and a seven-letter word for a thing.
4d Little support for youngster (7)
TADPOLE: A three-letter word for letter followed by a four-letter word for a supporting rod.
6d Scorn ticket site after mix-up, one’s not an idiot (6,9)
ROCKET SCIENTIST: An anagram (after mix-up) of SCORN TICKET SITE.
7d Cram in orifice containing type of acid (5)
AMINO: The answer is hidden (containing) in the first three words of the clue.
8d DIYers: Hammer at first and ultimately employ labourers (8)
HANDYMEN: The first letter of Hammer followed by the AND from the clue, the last letter (ultimately) of employ and a three-letter word for labourers. A small point to watch, there are quite a number of clues where you simply take a word from the clue to insert into the solution. Overuse in a crossword feels slightly unsatisfactory.
9d Stiffen road bridge (6)
STARCH: A two-letter abbreviation for a road followed by a four-letter word for a bridge.
16d Compromise a politician and tell tales about Larry perhaps (9)
IMPLICATE: A single letter meaning a followed by the abbreviation for a politician and a three-letter word meaning tell tales around a three-letter animal of which Larry (of Downing Street fame) is an example.
17d Links discovered to cause of deforestation? (8)
CHAINSAW: A five-letter word for a series of links followed by a three-letter word meaning discovered.
19d Criticise after both sides of debate go off track (6)
DERAIL: A four-letter word meaning criticise after the first and last letters (both sides) of debate.
20d Victory when next in line abandoned by soldiers (7)
SUCCESS: A nine-letter word for the next person in line to inherit without (abandoned by) the abbreviation for Other Ranks (soldiers).
21d A morning with European salesperson is brought up (6)
AMPERE: The abbreviation for the morning hours followed by a reversal (is brought up) of the abbreviation for European and a three-letter word for a salesperson.
23d Mudslinging artist departs open-minded (5)
LIBEL: A seven-letter word meaning open-minded without the abbreviation for a member of the Royal Academy (artist).
Hi everyone, hope you all enjoy it.
The missing enumeration for 21d should be getting fixed soon, but it is just (6).
We made good progress on the top half and then slowed considerably when we got below the equator.
Plenty of good clues here with some well disguised definitions (like 21d) as well as clever wordplay (like 15a).
Enjoyed the solve.
Thanks duncanjwitham.
Welcome to Rookie Corner djw but I suspect that you are not a ‘true’ Rookie. As the 2Kiwis said, plenty of good clues with well disguised definitions. A very pleasant end to my cruciverbaling weekend.
Smiles for 1a, 24a, 3d, and 19d.
Thanks djw and thanks in advance to Prolixic.
Welcome to Rookie Corner, djw, with an assured debut, which I suspect is not your first cryptic crossword. I did enjoy the solve and there were a lot of interesting ideas on show.
I have no major issues and just a few very minor comments:
10a – I am not sure that the answer is strictly synonymous with “ingredients”. None of the 20 definitions in Chambers quite fit the bill for me.
14a – I think that “go quietly” would be a more accurate definition than “be quiet”.
27a – The answer is a person nor a thing, so i would suggest replacing “it” with “he”.
1d – I think the reversal is technically OK but perhaps slightly weak as the “little sibling” part is a palindrome.
My top picks were 5a, 13a, 18a, 3d, 16d, 19d & 21d.
Many thanks, Duncan. Please submit more like this. Thanks too in advance to Prolixic.
10a. Surely “ingredients/the answer are synonymous in the sense of material/matter?
27a. The answer can be the equipment/machine, not necessarily the person that uses it.
Would you say “eggs, milk and flour are the stuff I use to make a pancake”? I wouldn’t.
Re 27a, see my reply to you under Gazza’s post.
I would say “sand, cement, gravel and water are the stuff/ingredients needed to make concrete”.
Re 27a, also see my reply to you under Gazza’s post.
Thanks for the feedback Rabbit Dave.
10a – I did agonise over whether it was a good enough synonym or not, and it’s definitely a little bit tenuous at least. I suppose it’s falling under the “any matter or substance” definition in Chambers. I’ve seen your example below and I absolutely would say something like “I have the stuff to make a cake” though (maybe it’s a regional thing?).
14a – That’s fair comment, although personally I think the surface reads more nicely with “be quiet”.
27a – Chambers lists “a person or device that welds” for welder, so I think that’s fine here?
1d – Originally that clue was a reversal of the whole word, so the palindrome was a smaller part of it, which would have been fine. I reworked it so it was only a partial reversal which improved the surface reading a lot, but maybe left a slightly over-engineered bit of wordplay in there. I liked the “stands up to fight” bit, and wanted to keep it if possible.
3 of those are comments are basically precision of definition/wordplay vs surface reading, so maybe I’ve gone a little to far towards the surfaces in some of those cases. Food for thought for the next one.
Thanks for replying so promptly, Duncan. I stress that my comments were only very minor and they did not detract from my enjoyment of what was a very good crossword.
You may well be right about the regional use of “stuff”. I would never consider using it in the way you (and Jose) describe.
Regarding 27a, Chambers is always my first port of call on definitions, and if that doesn’t provide clarification move onto Collins. Unless I am desperate need of a visit to Specsavers, I can’t see the definition that you have given in either my hardcopy of Chambers or using the Chambers app. In view of that I checked Collins, which only gives the person doing the welding. I must admit I didn’t consider using Screwfix as a dictionary as suggested by Jose.
I am definitely looking forward to your next compilation.
That’s how I took your comments Dave and I’m glad you enjoyed it. If anything, I’m finding it slightly amusing that “welder” and “stuff” are the two main controversies. I was half expecting someone to query the A in 21d, or the American surface reading of 13a.
Anyway, welder (as a device) is listed in the online version of Chambers:
https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=welder&title=21st
I have no idea how this version compares (in authoritativeness) to the hardcopy or app editions. A few other places have the device/machine listed too (Merriam-Webster does, although that might be American I think, Wikipedia does), but most of the British dictionaries don’t seem to list it. Honestly it never really crossed my mind that it didn’t mean both person and device, and when Chambers online confirmed it I went with it.
And while we’re doing deep dictionary dives, my battered old hardcopy of Collins has “the raw material of something” listed for “stuff”, which I think is reasonably close to “ingredients”, or at least closer than anything in Chambers.
The Screwfix website was just a convenient example to illustrate the very widespread use of “welder” as a device/machine. My brother has owned various welders over the decades (since the 70s) and still does small welding jobs today. Maybe not listed in most dictionaries, but its use in the English language can be found all over the place. Here’s another random example:
https://www.mobileweldinglondon.co.uk/best-welder-for-beginners/
Welcome to Rookie Corner Duncan – like others, I suspect this isn’t your first crossword
Many thanks to you for the enjoyable crossword and, in advance, to Prolixic
A very accomplished debut pitched at just the right level – many thanks to Duncan.
Apart from 27a where the ‘It’ should surely be He (or She) I thought it all worked well.
Top clues for me were 1a, 12a, 13a, 20a and 19d.
G. I was wondering, maybe the”it” (and the answer) is the equipment/machine that executes the welding rather than the person using it?
Jose, according to Collins, “a welder is a person whose job is welding metal”.
That may be so, but in the trade a machine that is used for welding is called a “welder”:
https://www.screwfix.com/guides/tools/welders-buying-guide
Mr CS has a welder (which he did buy from Screwfix) and when he uses it, he’d be a welder rather than, for example, a gardener
But the “It” in the clue is referring to a device/machine not a person. It’s the welder (machine) that actually joins the materials toghether – the person using it is called a welder simply because he/she is operating/using the thing. The debate is essentially about whether a “welder” can be an inanimate object and not a person.
Thanks for the comment Gazza. I’m glad you said it’s pitched at the right level, as that’s probably the thing I find the hardest to judge – they all seem very easy when you know how the clue works, so it’s very tempting to start piling on extra bells and whistles to make it harder.
As per my reply to Rabbit Dave, Chambers lists “a person or device that welds” for welder so I think it’s OK?
Which edition of Chambers gives that definition? My 13th edition doesn’t say that.
It’s in the online version:
https://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=welder&title=21st
A splendid puzzle, DJW – very enjoyable. But surely not your first ever? Plenty of fine clues and I’ll pick 20a as my favourite. I can’t detect any technical issues, but then I’m no expert.
Thanks for all the lovely comments everyone, I’m glad you all seemed to enjoy it.
You’re all right in that it’s not my first crossword, but it’s the first I’ve shared in public anywhere. I made my Mum a hand-crafted cryptic crossword for her birthday during lockdown (when I couldn’t get to actually give her a present) and that’s become a bit of an annual tradition now. While setting one of those, I stumbled on Prolixic’s guide to setting crosswords and that’s been an absolutely invaluable resource. So big thanks to Prolixic for that, and in advance for the review
Welcome to the Corner, Duncan. What a lovely way to get into compiling – I’m sure your mum was delighted.
Enjoyed solving this, just a couple of surface reads that troubled me eg 15a, and I was another who wanted the 27a to be a person.
Top clues for me were 5a & 4d.
Thank you and I hope we see more of your work in the near future.
Welcome, Duncan.
A very creditable debut indeed, a nice balance of different clue types, pretty good surface readings and it’s clear to me that your use of Prolixic’s guide has served you well. I’m not sure why you went for “a” to clue I in 16d, when “current” or “international” could have been used, but I had very few other quibbles really. My favourite clue was 19d.
Congratulations, Duncan, I’m sure that a low Commentometer score awaits and I hope we’ll see another puzzle from you soon.
Thanks for the comments silvanus.
I can certainly tell you why “current” wasn’t used – up until very late on, it was being used as part of the definition for 21d, and even with that changed, I’m not sure I want people thinking about currents when there’s only a few clues between 16d and 21d. “International” would certainly work nicely though, bar maybe making what’s already the longest clue even longer.
Just an observation re 16d. Using “international” instead of “a” would mean that the clue still comprises 9 words. Though, the new word would be 13 times longer than the original one – but that doesn’t count. :-)
Thank you, Duncan, for an enjoyable puzzle to accompany my lunch. Very accomplished, and consequently very few comments to make –
27a – I questioned the “it” of 27a but like you justified it on the basis of the equipment rather than the user;
1d – doesn’t quite work for me and it felt as though you had sacrificed the coherence of the clue for the surface read;
16d – ‘a’ for One (or I) would not be accepted by some editors, eg The Times, I believe
Re the debates above, 10a worked for me, especially when widening the use of ‘ingredients’ beyond merely a recipe for food; 14a I took as an instruction, in which case ‘tiptoe’ = ‘be quiet’ is fine; not sure why you thought there would be adverse comment about 13a, again fine for me.
Lots of excellent clues, very good surfaces, a nice variation in clue types, admirable self-control on the deployment of anagrams, and you avoided any runs of similar clue types following on from each other.
Great puzzle and I certainly look forward to your next one!
Many thanks, and also of course to Prolixic
What a great puzzle! It took us a while – but an enjoyable while. We couldn’t initially work out the extra A in 21d but Google helped with that. We also wondered about the ending on 27a but as we loved reading all the comments above that clue/answer produced we are going to have that one plus 21d and 10a as our favourites. Thank you for the entertainment and we look forward to your next crossword duncanjwitham. Thank you also to Prolixic.
H, 21d. I’ve just realised after reading your comment. The A is the clue definition, being the symbol for the answer. I completely overlooked that originally.
Just as a footnote to the Weldergate issue. My BRB (13th Edition) does list welder (n) but doesn’t give any definition or description at all, so of little use on this occasion. My SOED also lists welder (n) with the definition: a person or machine employed in welding.
Thanks for the review Prolixic. I must admit, I’m personally quite fond of the “inserting a bit of the clue into the answer” device. I like the hidden-in-plain-sight aspect of it, but if other solvers find it unsatisfactory then I’ll definitely tone it down a bit next time.
Regarding 1d, the way it’s intended to work is that you reverse both the T and the SIS as a single unit, giving RE + SIST, so there’s no need for an insertion indicator. As Rabbit Dave pointed out though, it is still pretty weak given that the bulk of it is a palindrome anyway.
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, always interesting to read your opinions of a Rookie’s clues.
Late to the party. Enjoyed this one and have no major complaints.
Parsed 1d as you intended, so it works for me. I don’t think the palindrome matters. ‘About’ and ‘time’ are standard; ‘Little sibling’ can’t lead to many combinations of letters. It’s just about putting them in the correct order, so if the cryptic reading doesn’t quite seem to work then I think you can probably count it as having sown a small amount of confusion in minds.
27a. I also think of that as the person, so using it in the sense of the name of a tool is just cunning. I suppose there might be a pedantic question about whether an inanimate object ‘joins’ or ‘can be used to join’, but there are probably dozens or hundreds of examples of usage like this.
Two very minor quibbles.
‘gobbling just half’ was maybe a little weak. Even then, I smiled at the answer and it was nice not to see ‘fish’ used again.
3d, 21d, 28a felt a little samey in terms of having an unexpected word as the definition. Once every other crossword might be a better strategy to maintain the surprise.
Favourites – 14a, 9d for the simplicity and 23d.
I’ll look forward to seeing another effort from you.
Hi from Canberra Australia. I found this very satisfying to complete. In particular I appreciated that I did not need to know anything about obscure UK geography, British TV personalities, politicians or sportspeople etc who are not known outside of the UK. I have no comment about how the clues are structured as I don’t construct cryptic crosswords myself. I admire anyone who can put together a decent cryptic puzzle, which this was.
You’ve expanded your alias from what you’ve used previously so this required moderation. Both forms of your alias will work from now on.