A Puzzle by Wilman
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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.
Welcome to Wilman with their debut Rookie crossword. For a first crossword this was well executed though, as may be expected, with its rough edges. In terms of the construction of the clues, there were not many issues although repeating one of the solutions was not a good move. Some of the resulting surface readings of the clue were somewhat bizarre and this is definitely something to concentrate on if future crosswords. The commentometer reads as 3.5/30 or 11.67%.
Across
1a Use a gas to reshape pork product (7)
SAUSAGE: An anagram (to reshape) of USE A GAS.
5a Reportedly you drag a boat by dock in heaven (6)
UTOPIA: Homophones U (you) – TOW (drag a boat) and PIER (dock).
9a He has a half-full glass, topless, vomit and spit all over the place (8)
OPTIMIST: An anagram (all over the place) of OMIT (topless vomit) SPIT.
10a Bloke with current air-conditioning fan, and a big one at that (6)
MANIAC: A three-letter word for a bloke followed by the abbreviation for current and the abbreviation of air-conditioning.
12a Period where one may cross cryptic words? (7,5)
ENGLISH CLASS: A cryptic definition of a sort. I suspect that few if any solvers would arrive at the solution from the clue and would have used the checking letters to arrive at a possible answer and still (as many commentators were) be bemused at the meaning of the clue.
15a A Spanish bishop was in the military without being seen (10)
UNOBSERVED: A three-letter Spanish word for one followed by the single letter abbreviation for bishop and a six-letter word meaning was in the military. The Spanish word is the word for one, not a. Whilst you can use A to indicate one or I in a clue, here this then requires a further step of getting from A to one to the Spanish word. Two step processes should be avoided.
17a Tower of London in which nobody has won tic-tac-toe (3)
OXO: Cryptic definition. This tower was constructed with windows shaped like the stock cube’s name to circumvent the planning restrictions that would not have allowed the company to have advertising for their product on the side of the building.
19a Prisoner regularly ignored clowns (3)
CON: The odd letters (regularly ignored) in the final word of the clue.
20a This drowsiness mixed with temperature may result in consolement (10)
SOMNOLENCE: A compound anagram where an anagram of the solution plus the abbreviation for temperature might give the word consolement. Therefore to find the solution, simply remove the T from consolement and make an anagram of the remaining letters.
22a Ancient historian organising typologies with G&T (12)
EGYPTOLOGIST: An anagram (organising) of TYPOLOGIES GT.
26a Intensifying typeface allowing legibility in compositions, primarily (6)
ITALIC: The first letters (primarily) of the first six words of the clue.
27a Cheerfulness of lad taking in university before dream fails to begin (8)
BUOYANCY: A three-letter word for a lad includes (taking in) the abbreviation for university and is followed by a five-letter word for a dream without the first letter (fails to begin).
28a Helps out, getting hold of a hundred for American tramp (6)
SCHLEP: An anagram (out) of HELPS includes (getting hold of) the Roman numeral for 100.
29a Sugababes’ composition without basses may be a banger (7)
SAUSAGE: An anagram (composition) of SUGABABES without any letter B (without basses). Having two solutions the same (see 1a) seems to be an oversight in checking the solutions. The only time where this would be allowed is where there some thematic element to the crossword that requires the duplication of solutions. I cannot see any justification for it in this crossword.
Down
1d Bottoms up! Quite the opposite: just a little bit (4)
SPOT: Reverse (up) a word that is the opposite of bottoms.
2d Towards, as our ancestors might say, cycling heart of county (4)
UNTO: Cycle around the letters in the middle (heart) of country. Our ancestors cannot now say anything, might have said would be better.
3d Scold admin: replacing 1 with 0 is close to childish (8)
ADMONISH: The word ADMIN from the clue with the I changed to O (replacing 1 with 0) followed by the IS from the clue and the final letter (close to) of childish.
4d Characters in Grease love to stand in the studio (5)
EASEL: The answer is hidden (characters in) in the third and fourth words of the clue.
6d European country trades Capital Fort when dissociated in a hypnotic daze (6)
TRANCE: The name of a European country with the first letter (capital) swapped for a T (fort). Not all editors would accept a lift and separate clue where the solver has to split the clue to get from fort to for T without some indication in the clue that a split is required. When reviewing, I am generally lenient about Rookie setters’ surface readings, but there are limits. As a sentence in its own right, this is meaningless.
7d Leading singer is on the radio before the Queen of Pop (5,5)
PRIMA DONNA: A homophone (on the radio) of PRE (before) followed by the name of the queen of pop.
8d Account user snubbed Head of Department as usual (10)
ACCUSTOMED: The abbreviation for account followed by an eight-letter word for a user with the final letter removed (snubbed) and the abbreviation for department.
11d Back on the ocean like a seabird (6)
ASTERN: A two-letter word meaning like followed by a four-letter name of a seabird.
13d The noises of ducks around a lake illustrates fake medical treatments (10)
QUACKERIES: The sound a duck makes around a four-letter name of one of the great lakes of America.
14d Hurt singer can in America (New York) change (6,4)
JOHNNY CASH: A four-letter word for a toilet (can) in America followed by the abbreviation for New York and a four-letter word for money or change.
16d Rifle cocked excessively in trolley now and again (6)
ROOTLE: A reversal (cocked) of a three-letter word for excessively inside the even letters (now and again) of trolley.
18d Praise you in thanks (5,3)
BLESS YOU: A five-letter word meaning praise followed by the you from the clue. Try to avoid clues where a word from the clue is used in the solution.
21d Band undress before final part of performance (6)
STRIPE: A five-letter word meaning undress followed by the final letter (final part) of performance.
23d Gurgling sounds coming from bear drunk by fringes of grass (5)
GLUGS: A three-letter word meaning bear inside (drunk by) the outer letters (fringes) of grass.
24d Leader of an empire in California (4)
INCA: The IN from the clue followed by the two-letter state abbreviation for California.
25d Norm‘s exemplar kind character (4)
TYPE: Quadruple definition though perhaps the middle two a little too similar.
Thanks Wilman for an entertaining end to my weekend of cruciverbalism and welcome to Rookie Corner.
Smiles for 1a/29a, 17a, 11d, and 18d although 1a should probably have a Definition by Example indicator as pork is not the only meat used in the product.
Thanks again and thanks in advance for the wisdom of Prolixic.
Welcome to Rookie Corner with what, as we seem to say a lot these days, I would imagine is not your first crossword
More like this please. Thanks to you and, in advance, to Prolixic
Welcome to Rookie Corner, Wilman, with what I thought was a promising debut.
Although I did enjoy the solve, many of your surface readings made little or no sense, and there were several cases where some very good wordplay was let down by the surfaces.
A few specific comments:
12a – I can’t parse this.
15a – “Uno” is Spanish for “one” not “a”.
2d – I would have preferred “have said” rather than “say”.
4d – Although it’s needed for the surface, I am not sure if “to” works as a link word between wordplay and definition.
6d – I can see that the wordplay elements are all present, but I can’t quite understand how this clue works.
18d – This is a little weak with the second word of the answer appearing in the clue.
My ticked clues were 26a, 1d, 7d, 8d, 11d and the quadruple definition in 25d. Also, well done on including the American indicator in 28a.
Many thanks, Wilman, and well done. Please pay heed to the various comments on here and to Prolixic’s wise words. I look forward to your next offering.
Welcome to Wilman and thanks for an entertaining puzzle with some imaginative clueing.
I’ll try to ignore the 5a ‘homophone’!
I don’t fully understand 12a and I thought that the inclusion of ‘you’ in 18d made it rather weak.
The clues I liked best were 27a, 1d, 7d and 14d.
Do take account of Prolixic’s advice. I’m looking forward to your next puzzle.
Welcome to Rookie Corner, Wilman.
A mostly sound debut from a technical perspective and there were many clever constructions, but quite a few of the surface readings were not particularly convincing, e.g. 5a, 17a, 3d and 6d. I didn’t like the inclusion of the same solution in two different places and, to compound the felony, both were clued the same way, i.e. as anagrams. I tend to agree with many of RD’s observations as well. Top clue for me was 11d, weakest clue undoubtedly 18d.
Many thanks for an entertaining puzzle, Wilman, I’m sure that your next puzzle will be even better.
Thanks all for taking the time to solve the puzzle and share your incredibly helpful advice.
12a is, in hindsight, a somewhat weak cryptic definition with ‘cross’ in the sense of come across.
Re 18d, again with the benefit of hindsight and with your useful inputs I can appreciate this was a fairly lacklustre clue.
Thank you again for all your other points raised – they have been duly noted, and I tend to concur with everything mentioned that’s easy to miss in the setting process. I await Prolixic’s breakdown with anticipation, so thanks in advance for this.
Welcome to the blog
Welcome to the Corner, Wilman, with a puzzle that contained some good ideas but not always showcased to the best advantage. Please do pay careful attention to the words of wisdom from Prolixic and the other experts on here and I’m sure your next offering will be vastly improved.
Top clues for me were 17a & 11d and I’m another who couldn’t understand how 12a was supposed to work.
Many thanks for standing up to be counted.
Thanks for the puzzle Wilman, I enjoyed solving it. I think everyone else has pretty much summed it up for me – there’s plenty of good ideas but it’s a bit rough round the edges. 11d is a very nice clue, I liked 1d, 7d and 21d as well. I did think it was going to be a bit anagram-heavy at first, with 5 in the across clues, but there’s none in the downs at all.
Thanks again, and thanks in advance to Prolixic.
I’ve not looked into Rookie Corner for a while. Glad I did this week as there were some interesting clue constructions, e.g. 6dn. I didn’t finish, though, having been beguiled by the snooker on TV and then a bank holiday invasion by the family. I spotted early on that the first and last across answers were the same and wondered if this presaged a theme, but inthis case I agree with Prolixic’s comments.
Anyway, welcome to Rookie Corner; I’ll have to look out for your next offering.
Thanks to Prolixic for the review.
In 6d I took ‘when dissociated’ to be the indication that ‘fort’ needs to be split.
On 6d, so did I. I have seen definition ‘when’ wordplay, but not the other way around. As Prolixic didn’t mention it, perhaps it is ok the other way around. If ‘when dissociated’ is part of the wordplay, the clue reads as wordplay in definition, which strictly speaking is the wrong way around. So I wonder if that has lead to the diverging views.
Coming to this a little late, but wanted to thank Wilman for their generally enjoyable puzzle. Similar notes/observations to those expressed above. Only other comment I would add is that 14d is a bit niche – I solved it from the cryptic but the definition meant nothing to me until I googled Johnny Cash + Hurt. I felt it was a bit much to expect the solver to recognise a song title and know who had covered it.
For me the honours went to 26a, 8d & 11d, but there really was a lot to like in this puzzle. Thank you Wilman and I look forward to your next crossword. Thanks also to Prolixic.
Thanks again to all who took the time to share your highly valued advice, especially to Prolixic for their extensive and enlightening review.
Apologies if I led anyone down the garden path with my meat-based duplication – I’ll avoid this in future.
Gazza – your explanation for 6d was what I intended, but I can understand how it can be misinterpreted (and the Capital Fort is a Bulgarian building, but I see that the surface is still fairly convoluted and nonsensical).
Mustafa – Spotify tells me that Hurt is Cash’s most popular song (although I wouldn’t have been able to name the singer if asked, so perhaps it was a bit unfair).
I greatly appreciate all the kind words, and even more so the constructive criticism – I might have to have another crack at a puzzle at some point down the line, after the imminent exam season is over.
Thanks once more to Prolixic, and to everyone else in this thread.
Many thanks for the review, Prolixic, most informative as ever.