Puzzling

My marketing and promotions department (me) told me that I should do a little plug for our CrypticGuide app . Plug plug plug ... This is an app that took us over a year to develop — my husband had to do vast amounts of tricky iOS database programming, and I had to write the vast database of info! So, what is  it? It's a handy little cryptic dictionary — so you can enter a word from a cryptic clue, and if it's in our database, CrypticGuide can tell you that there's an abbreviation arising from that word, or maybe it's an anagram indicator, or has some funny cryptic meaning, or is a homophone. So, in the example here (which shows the iPad version), if you type in the word 'about', you'll see that the word 'about', found in a cryptic clue, could lead to a few cryptic synonyms (circa, on, a fight), a range of abbreviations (A, C, CA, RE), and a bunch of cryptic indicators (anagram indicator, container indicator etc). Unlike other cryptic...

It's clue writing competition time again!  Griff is eagerly awaiting your entries! Write a cryptic clue of your very own, using an anagram, for the answer word INTERCHANGE.  Write your clue, and then post it in a comment below this post. Don't be scared, you can do it. It's even fun (honest)! Your clue can be silly, weird, funny, serious, whatever you like. It needs to read well, like a mini phrase or sentence (not just a random assortment of words stuck together). Creativity and clue accuracy are what I will be looking for. Here are some tips to help you get started.  Remember that the basic anatomy of a cryptic clue is: Wordplay + Definition = Answer or Definition + Wordplay = Answer So — (a bit of wordplay) (definition) (rest of wordplay) is  not  allowed. The definition has to sit at the start or end of the clue, and not be interrupted by the wordplay. In an anagram clue, the Wordplay = the fodder + the anagram indicator  (or i...

Certain perils lurk when constructing puzzles, especially word searches. Woolworth's 'find a word debacle'  last week was rather spectacular, with the f-word appearing in a children's activity book. And let's face it, the offensive word in question is so glaringly obvious in the grid that I doubt the puzzle was proofread at all — and I found four other rude words in the grid, when I entered the grid into my software and scanned it (and no , I'm not going to tell you what they are! You rude thing). This  has happened to others too , and no doubt will happen to others in the future. Due to the nature of grids of letters, a great deal of words are accidentally created in the grid, after the chosen words have been placed. These cause a problem if they are duplicates of words from the puzzle's word list, or if they are offensive or inappropriate terms. In even a small word search puzzle, there will typically be well over 100 3-letter words accidenta...

Here are the answers to the first set of Nixie cryptic clues: 1) Gulps down birds (8) = SWALLOWS. Double definition ( gulps down + birds ). 2) Worker has loud grievance (4) = BEEF. Charade of BEE ( worker ) + F ( loud ). A 'beef' is an informal word for 'complaint'. 3) Endless blaze leaves a tree (3) = FIR. A deletion clue; take FIRE ( blaze ) and remove its end (last letter) to get FIR, a type of tree . 4) Relation at the ABC? (6) = AUNTIE. Cryptic definition; Aunty ABC (and Aunty BBC) is the informal nickname for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 5) Mourn appropriately if making livery (7) = UNIFORM. Anagram of mourn if.  The anagram indicator here here appropriately.   Livery is a type of uniform. 6) Cable tram stuffed with unrestrained glee (8) = TELEGRAM (a cable ). Container ... TRAM with an anagram ( unrestrained ) of GLEE. 7) Émigré Patrick went after former wife (5) = EXPAT. PAT ( Patrick ) goes after EX ( former wife ). Con...

I have decided to close my 'Twitface' accounts (Twitter and author's page on Facebook) in the interests of less stress, and more simplicity in my life. I will still be posting cryptic clues that you can solve here, and will be updating this blog more frequently too. I look forward to continuing conversations with my friends from those other social networks – welcome! Here's the first batch. Let me know how you get on in the Comments, and I'm happy to provide hints if anyone needs them. I will post answers in a few days  :) ______________________________________________________________________ 1) Gulps down birds (8) 2) Worker has loud grievance (4) 3) Endless blaze leaves a tree (3) 4) Relation at the ABC? (6) 5) Mourn appropriately if making livery (7) 6) Cable tram stuffed with unrestrained glee (8) 7) Émigré Patrick went after former wife (5) ________________________________________________________________________

All too often it just seems impossible to find a way into a cryptic crossword. To help you make a start, and maybe even solve it all, here are my ...  Top Ten  Eleven Tips for Solvers Use a pencil and eraser, rather than pen. Read through all the clues before trying to solve any. You don't have to start with 1 Across! Mark in any multiple words or hyphenated words on the grid, with a dividing line drawn onto the grid (see the photo below). These are the clues where the letter number is something like (3-4) or (2,4,3). See if you can spot some anagram clues. Most cryptics will have at least a couple, and possibly many more. Read my blog post on anagrams to learn how to spot them. The longest words in the grid are often clued with anagrams, so check these clues carefully. Look for possible 'hidden word' clues, while some cryptics have none, there's usually 1 or 2 of these in an average grid. Here's my blog post on how to find and solve hidden word clu...