The Times How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords. Tim Moorey
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу The Times How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords - Tim Moorey страница 5
Название: The Times How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords
Автор: Tim Moorey
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Развлечения
isbn: 9780008285593
isbn:
ANAGRAM CLUE: President saw nothing wrong (10)
For the remaining group of four, it’s usually a case of informed guesswork rather than indicators. This may seem unreasonable and impossible for the novice solver but I aim to prove that this is not really the case.
In the meantime, this may be a good time to point out that trial and error and/or inspired guesswork are part and parcel of good solving. This is reinforced by the clueing practice of all good setters whereby the clue type will nearly always become clear on working backwards from the solutions. Indeed, when a solver sees the solution the following day, he or she should only rarely be left thinking (as Ximenes put it):
“I thought of that but I couldn’t see how it could be right.”
We will now proceed to examine in detail all clue types and their indicators, with one and sometimes two examples of each type.
3: Clue Types and Indicators in Detail
“Give us a kind of clue.” W.S. Gilbert, Utopia Limited
Until Chapter 8, we’ll keep it simple with regard to clue types. In later chapters we will see that the clue types can and often do overlap, involving more than one sort of manipulation of letters or words within any one clue.
The first eight clue types
We will now examine each of the eight clue types in detail, together with their indicators, and offer some example clues. To give yourself solving practice, you may wish from now on to cover up the bottom part of the diagram that contains the solution and wordplay.
The first eight types are shown in the circular chart below, and we shall take each in turn, working clockwise from the top.
1. The anagram clue
An anagram, sometimes termed a letter mix, is a rearrangement of letters or words within the clue sentence to form the solution word or words.
The letters to be mixed (the anagram fodder) may or may not include an abbreviation, a routine trick for old hands but, as I have observed, a cause of some discomfort for first-timers.
ANAGRAM CLUE: Mum, listen for a change (6)
This next example is an anagram clue with a linkword:
ANAGRAM CLUE: Fish and chips cooked with lard (9)
The third example is one wherein the anagram fodder goes well with the definition to form a remarkably accurate whole:
ANAGRAM CLUE: The new stadium designed for a football club (4,3,6)
For is a linkword here in the sense that the wordplay is to be arranged for the answer. The essential point for indicators of anagram clues is that they show a rearrangement, a disturbance to the natural order or a change to be made. There are very many ways of doing this, some reasonably straightforward but others requiring a stretch of the imagination. For example, words and phrases related to drunkenness and madness have to be taken as involving disturbance so that stoned, pickled, tight, bananas, nuts, crackers and out to lunch could all be misleading ways to indicate an anagram. I am often asked for a comprehensive list but, because there are so many, unfortunately there is no such list, though the Chambers Crossword Dictionary (see here) has a large list of anagram and other indicators. The table that follows on the next page is designed to expand on the various categories of rearrangement by giving a few examples of each overleaf:
TOP TIP - ANAGRAMS
Early crosswords did not indicate an anagram; solvers were required to guess that a mixture of letters was needed. This is universally regarded as unfair on the solver so that there will always nowadays be an indication of an anagram.
2. The sandwich clue
A sandwich can be considered as bread outside some filling. Similarly in this clue type, the solution can be built from one part either being put outside another part or put inside another part.
This is an example of outside (with an abbreviation to be made in wordplay):
SANDWICH CLUE: Simple mug holding one litre (6)
This is an example of inside with a clear instruction as to what’s to be done:
SANDWICH CLUE: Family member put us in the money (6)
Note that about has multiple uses in crosswords (see Chapter 10).
3. The homophone clue
In this type, the solution sounds like another word given by the wordplay. The clue is often fairly easy to recognize but it may be harder to find the two words which sound alike.
HOMOPHONE CLUE: The Speaker’s feeble for seven days (4)
Indicators for homophone clues:
Anything which gives an impression of sounding like another word such as so to speak, we hear, it’s said acts as an indicator. This extends to what’s heard in different real-life situations; for example, at home it could be on the radio; in the theatre it could be to an audience; in the office it could be for an auditor.
4. The hidden clue
A hidden clue is arguably the easiest type to solve. That’s because the letters to be uncovered require no change: СКАЧАТЬ