Rookie Corner 543

28 comments on “Rookie Corner 543”

1. An enjoyable pangram that mostly flowed smoothly for us with 1a and 7d vying for top spot on our podium. The only thing that eluded us was how the wordplay for 23a works.
   Thanks Rahmat Ali.
   In the process of writing this, the penny finally dropped for 23a. More clever than what we were looking for.

   1. Thank you so much, 2Kiwis, for finding the pangrammatic puzzle enjoyable.

2. An enjoyable pangram that, for me, was reasonably straightforward.

   Smiles for 1a, 23a, and 1d.

   Thanks Rahmat Ali and thanks in advance to Prolixic.

   1. Thank you so much, Senf, for finding the pangrammatic puzzle enjoyable, like the 2Kiwis.

3. This was another very enjoyable puzzle, Rahmat Ali – yet another pangram! 1a was my favourite.

   There were two old chestnuts (30a & 4d) and two clues involving obscure GK for me (28a & 27d). The answers to 7d & 19d were new to me too, but both were fairly clued and easy to confirm in the BRB. The two definitions in 25a are rather too similar for my taste, but this is a very minor point.

   You have a lot of good ideas and a clear understanding of wordplay construction. May I suggest you now work on polishing your surfaces, some of which read rather strangely?

   Many thanks, Rahmat Ali, and thanks too in advance to Prolixic.

   1. Thank you so much, Rabbit Dave, for finding the puzzle enjoyable as also for your very kind comments and valuable suggestions. As suggested by you, I’ll try my best to work on polishing surfaces.

4. I can do no better than add ‘ditto’ to the comments from RD but would add that, along with more polished surface reads, it would be nice to see a little humour enter into your compilations.
   Many thanks for this latest puzzle which shouldn’t trouble the commentometer unduly.

   1. Thank you so much, jane, for liking the puzzle. I agree with your suggestion that there should be some humour in my compilations.

5. Thanks for the puzzle Rahmat Ali. Enjoyable and mostly straightforward. Favourites for me were 10a, 23a and 15d.

   Another ditto for RD’s comments, although I think the German film in 27d is probably fine. I’d never heard of it myself, but (with checking letters anyway) the answer is pretty obvious from the description, and it’s at the level of German you’re expected to have to solve cryptic crosswords.

   Thanks again, and in advance to Prolixic.

   1. Thank you so much, duncanjwitham, for finding the puzzle enjoyable and mostly straightforward as also for your other comments.

6. Another fine puzzle, RA, which I think represents continuing progress/improvement from your goodself. There were plenty of really good clues and the concise ones are my personal preference. Just one observation (possibly idiosyncratic to me only), perhaps you are being a tad too helpful/specific/transparent with some clue definitions and could be a little more vague/brief/cryptic. For example. 12a: maybe “Northern canoe”; 3d: maybe “parliamentary records”. Nice to see you managed to get “pusillanimous” into a crossword clue!

   1. Yes, I forgot to mention 18a. As S says, “urn” would probably suffice – or something more indirect/whimsical like “Putin’s kettle”.

   2. *Did anyone notice I committed the “sin” of tautology in my original comment (deliberate of course).

   3. Thank you so much, Jose, for liking the puzzle as also for your other valuable suggestions.

   4. My very first puzzle to Rookie Corner published on its 500th anniversary also had the word ‘pusillanimous’ and in that puzzle, too, you had encouraged me a lot through your kind comments.

7. Welcome back, RA.

   Your puzzles are always entertaining to solve but I’m not sure that you worry sufficiently about the surface readings? I hope that does not sound too harsh as I admire anyone for whom English is not their first language being able to produce a cryptic puzzle. 1d, 8d and 14d were probably the three least convincing surfaces for me and they had competition for places! More 30 Across required, methinks.

   “In” was repeated as an insertion indicator and “is to inspire” in 23d seems the wrong way round or Yoda-esque, at best. I think RD is spot on about the old chestnuts, as is Jose about certain over-embellished definitions. “Canoe” in 12a would suffice in 12a, as would “urn” probably in 18a, but perversely you have just used “book” to define 21a !! I think that the desire to keep producing pangrams does tend to throw up obscure words like 22d, but you seem wedded to that concept. Finally, can someone “sizzle” in light rain? I would have thought the opposite would apply, no?

   Well done on producing another RC submission, RA. Many thanks.

   1. Thank you so much, silvanus, for finding the puzzle entertaining to solve as also for your other valuable suggestion not to unnecessarily elongate the clues. I was aware of the connection between ‘sizzle’ and ‘drizzle’, but I thought one could sizzle in light rain if one is unwell.

8. On first reading, I thought I couldn’t do this.

   I have, though, now finished – with only a little assistance for 7 and 27 down.

   I like this setter because, if you like, he sets in a different dialect from some of the usual people.

   I am only a simple solver, 2.5 stars about my limit, but thank you Rahmat Ali.

   1. Thank you so much, Simon, for liking the puzzle.

9. Thank you Rahmat Ali. As always we enjoyed your puzzle. The penny still hasn’t dropped on the parsing for 23a, doh moment yet to arrive! 22d was new to us and we didn’t know 7d but Google did! We look forward to your next one and to Prolixic’s review tomorrow.

   1. Thank you so much, Hilton, for finding my puzzle enjoyable. I look forward to sending to RC another puzzle soon.

10. Many thanks for the review, Prolixic. I’m not sure how Rahmat can ever fully compensate for the fact that he’s compiling puzzles in a foreign language but I applaud his attempts to do so, most of us wouldn’t even try!

    1. Thank you once again, jane, for your very kind comment that I am compiling puzzles in a foreign language and that you applaud my attempts to do so. On the other hand, I am also not sure how much more time I am going to take to brush up my clues with really good surface reading, although I am trying my best.

11. My sincere thanks to Prolixic for his splendid review. I am now getting to better realise what a good surface should look like. I agree with the maestro that in 12a, to and fro in place of Orient and Occident would have definitely been better and saved the surface reading from becoming clumsy and that in 19d, ‘at Cannes’ reads clumsily. I also liked some words suggested by Jose, such as ‘northern canoe’ or ‘Putin’s kettle’. However, I observe that the answer to 7d should have contained an apostrophe i.e. FIDDLER’S GREEN, but I am not aware whether the compiler software would show it as (7’1,5). In 27d, the clue does describe a German film ‘Drei’ based on a throuple. I saw the movie in 2012 at Max Mueller Bhavan, Kolkata where I was then learning German. But now, I am beginning to think that I have to learn afresh the use of ‘in’ as an insertion indicator. I was having the notion that insertion indicator such as A in B should be confined within the limit of wordplay. Based on this, although I have used ‘in’ in 18a, 1d, 14d and 19d, I think insertion indicator such as A in B is ‘putting … in’ (and not only ‘in’) in 18a and ‘engaged in’ (and not only ‘in’) in 19d. There is no ‘in’ as insertion indicator in either 1d (wordplay is confined to ‘Physician sizzled endlessly’) or 14d (wordplay suffices in ‘rescue around time’). That finally means, there is not a single ‘in’ in this puzzle as an insertion indicator. My previous puzzle (RC 538) also had no ‘in’ as an insertion indicator and in the previous to my previous puzzle (RC 530), I had mentioned “I now note that my next puzzle that I have already sent before this publication is not exhibiting even a single clue with ‘in’ containing that feature!” So if these are not in order, I now need to meticulously unlearn and relearn the criteria required by ‘in’ to fulfil to role of an insertion indicator.

    1. Hello again,

       I’m sorry, but you are simply wrong that “in” does not feature as an insertion indicator. For example, in 18a, you are asking the solver to put eggs (Ova) IN the other parts of the wordplay (“putting in”); in 3d you are asking the solver to put ANS inside (“within”) HARD; in 19d you are asking the solver to put QUE inside (“engaged in”) MA’S + R.

       Whether it be “engaged in”, “put in”, “found in”, “located in” or merely “within”, all of these (and many other variations thereof) are still fundamentally just “in”, i.e. the same insertion indicator. I aim never to include more than one of these in any of the puzzles I submit for publication.

       1. Oh, thank you so much, silvanus. Things now seem clearer to me. You have explained about insertion indicators in vast detail and so well. In fact, if you had written just the first sentence of your second paragraph, I would have fully understood and wouldn’t have asked for anything more. All throughout, I had felt in a different way. For instance, if a single word ‘in’ alone features as the insertion indicator in one clue and again ‘in’ alone features as the insertion indicator in another clue, only then ‘in’ is said to be repeated, otherwise not. Although I was aware of the many variations being fundamentally just ‘in’, I took them to be different insertion indicators. But today, your explanation helped me to unlearn and learn afresh what could be called as insertion indicators. It was a great learning. Thank you once again.

12. Thank you Rahmat for another great review. It was so much enjoyable to solve this crossword. I really amazed that how one parson can be so much talented in so many languages. Have learned some more new words as always. Take love.

    1. Thank you so much, Arka, for solving my puzzle, that was reviewed by Prolixic, and finding it enjoyable as also for your other kind comments. It’s not that difficult to learn multiple languages that comes with determination, perseverance, dedication, hard work and sincerity.

Comments are closed.