Puzzling

Just in case the plethora of crossword magazines out there isn't enough for you — "More, more!" I hear you cry! — there are vast numbers of online crossword sites.   The Guardian  website has a huge collection of cryptic and quick crosswords, from over 30 setters.  They have an archive crossword search function, so you can easily locate puzzles by your favourite setter, type, or publication date. You can also sign up for the crossword editor’s monthly update email, and participate in discussions about each crossword in comments below each crossword. You can either solve them online, or download print versions to do with pencil on paper. The Puzzle Wizard series of magazines is  produced by the excellent independent Australian puzzle writer and publisher, Greg Parker. His  website includes a bunch of puzzles to solve online.  There are six crossword themes you can choose from Straight Crosswords, Movies, AFL, Cricket, Music, and Telev...

I'm very excited to announce my interview with Alan Connor, from The Guardian 's Crossword blog. You may recall that I indexed Alan's book, Two Girls, One on Each Knee , last year .  Alan raised the idea of interviewing me about my CrypticGuide app when I was writing his index — and it has finally come to fruition. CrypticGuide is an app that my husband and I developed over a year — it is a 'slender' cryptic dictionary, with around 7,000 cryptic definitions, abbreviations, indicator words, and homophones. It also includes an anagram solver and wildcard search. It is very much a work in progress, with new cryptic definitions being added to the app over time. If you come across any cryptic terms in your puzzle solving, which aren't in the app, please let me know, so we can include them in future releases! CrypticGuide is available on the App Store . It works on iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Unfortunately, at the moment it is only available for iOS, as ...

Image courtesy of dan | FreeDigitalPhotos.net I've finally got a new set of (easy) cryptic clues for you to solve. Just the thing for a chilly winter's day. So get a cup of hot <insert favourite hot beverage name here>, and a pen, and let me know how you get on! Shame about poison for humans (4,7) Row of bushes missing first side (4) Citrus Mole misbehaving in post office (6) American city’s sample of  tomahawks (5) Khan plays test in Uzbek capital (8) Adhesive from grated tapes (5) I will post the answers, with explanations, on Monday morning. Please don't give away the answers in your comments, just say 'I got it!' or similar — thanks :)

A new set of cryptic clues for you to try out. Dithering about narration topics (15) Wound’s nasty to the German editor (9) Frond cut short for meadow (3) Shallots regularly stuffed with seasoning (4) One who escapes north in ripped brocades (9) Let me know if you got them!

Some new clues for you to try! 1) Following Albert to the side (7) 2) Romeo left weird herbalists’ institute (9) 3) Greek character is against red Italian wine (7) 4) Flower occurs randomly (6) 5) Beyond a minor role (5) 6) Clever and dynamic mediator heads off (6) If you'd like to get my Nixie cryptics on a regular basis, I publish a new cryptic every fortnight (2 weeks) over at the Clue Detective Puzzle Agency . There's a special deal on at the moment, use the code NIXIE in checkout to get a 10% discount on membership.

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...

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...

I'm very happy to announce that I am now the regular cryptic setter for the Australian Clue Detective Puzzle Agency . They will be publishing one of my Nixie cryptic crosswords every fortnight, and I will be writing for their blog now and then. This is currently the only way to get my very latest cryptic crosswords on a regular basis. Membership to The Clue Detective Puzzle Agency is by annual subscription. There is a special deal on at the moment , until the end of August, if you're interested in signing up. They have a range of other sorts of puzzles, including clueless crosswords. Under The Sea II by Sir Joseph Noel Patton Why am I writing under the cryptic setter name Nixie? Firstly, a nixie is a bit of a bad and naughty fairy , liable to trick humans (What?!) ... and is female (women cryptic setters are rare) ... and Nixie is also close to my family nickname. So it seems apt to me! Hope to see you over there  :)

This is the Gemini Cryptic from The Canberra Times  of 6 August 2013. A quick reminder that this cryptic is from the UK (and isn't Australian). I'm trying a new thing here — I'll put the answer in white text within square brackets, and you can reveal it by selecting it. Give it a try --> [ Peek-a-boo! ]. This way you can have a good try of solving the clue without seeing the answer. So that you can have a chance at solving them, I won't underline the answer, and the 'description' after each clue is more of a set of hints, not a complete reveal. Hopefully this will be more fun for you! So, on with the clues! After yet another dose of CutePuppy™ from Griff. ACROSS 1) It's eaten with cream (7) = [ CRACKER ] Cryptic definition. A UK-centric clue, so dig out your list of British foods, and think of water biscuits. 5) Balance between September and October (50) = [ LIBRA ] A zodiac clue! Cryptic definition. 8) They filled up a form at t...

There are a bunch of other  sorts of cryptic clues, which don't really adhere to any of the rules we've covered so far (damn it!). These are the cryptic definition  and &lit  clues. Cryptic definition clues These clues are sort of puns, or cryptic definitions for a word. They are sometimes called 'single definition' clues. They don't really have any wordplay, and as such can be quite tricky and hard to solve. These will often be the last clues you fill in, in a crossword, after you've got quite a few hints from the crossing over letters! These sorts of clues are also often indicated with an exclamation mark. Some examples: A wicked thing! = CANDLE (it has a wick) HIJKLMNO = WATER (H to O, or H 2 O) The ringmaster  = JEWELLER (he's the master of rings, clearly) Sleep soundly = SNORE (sleep while making a sound) So, you can see that these clues don't have the classic definition + wordplay form, but are more fun...

I've got a special treat for you today, two whole cryptic crosswords by me, for you to download. These are PDF files, which you can print out. The answers are included, too. Nixie Cryptic #1 Nixie Cryptic #2 Griff is tucked up in bed, and doesn't seem that impressed — but hopefully you will enjoy them!

Homophone cryptic clues are rather fun. But first, let's figure out what a homophone is. Homo  means 'same', and phone  means 'sound' — so homophones are words which sound alike, but have different meanings. I'm sure you know a ton of these: ATE & EIGHT. FLOUR & FLOWER. FOWL & FOUL. WRIGHT & RIGHT. And that's just for starters! When a cryptic clue uses a homophone, it tells you that the answer sounds like  some other word. The wordplay tells you this. Homophones must have indicator words that give a sense of something being heard, spoken, broadcast, or audible in some way. Here's a little example: Take bites noisily (6) Now, another word for bites  could be CHEWS. And, look, CHOOSE is also another word for take.  I think we have a winner! Noisily is the homophone indicator, it's telling you that if you say CHEWS aloud, it will sound like CHOOSE, which is the answer. One problem with homophone clues is that sometimes ...

Even Griff is amazed ... yesterday I was called by a lovely ABC radio producer, to ask if I would be the new weekly 'captive cruciverbalist' on Statewide Afternoons with Chris Coleman! I quickly said yes, and started immediately — you can now hear me on your local ABC radio throughout regional NSW (so not Canberra or Sydney, but everywhere else), on Wednesday afternoons, just after 2:30 pm. Each week I'll pose one cryptic clue in the session and chat with listeners about their answers, and pose a harder cryptic clue to ponder over the week. The harder clue gets discussed the week after. And so on! I also reveal secrets to solving cryptics, and generally chat about the mad world of crosswords with Chris. The harder clue is posted on the ABC NSW Facebook Page , and my sessions are available to listen to again on the ABC's blog , too.

Here we go again, my analysis of the clues in The Canberra Times' Gemini cryptic crossword. This is the one published on Thursday March 28th 2012. The definitions are underlined (except in double definition and cryptic definition clues). Across 1. Man of action? (8) = LITIGANT Cryptic definition. Someone who takes legal action is a LITIGANT. 5. A sticky appointment? (4) = DATE Double definition, cryptic definition. A DATE can be an appointment , and it's also a sticky fruit. 9. Little girl all round the house (5) = VILLA Abbreviation + reversal. Little girl  = VI (yeah, I know, it could be any  two-letter short name for any  girl's name! Not that fair.) + LLA ( all  run round , or backwards). 10. Rushing madly in great confusion (7) = TEARING Anagram indicated by confusion , the fodder is in great. 11. One in favour of the classics (7,5) = PERSONA GRATA Cryptic definition. This one w as hard! While we're familiar with the term 'person...