Wednesday 5 November 2008

Too Much Of The Same Thing

repetition 
Overuse of a cryptic device in the same puzzle is so not stylish. The Hindu Crossword 9370 had me frowning on many occasions because of the repetitions. The piecemeal clue construction may be fine, but variety in the puzzle as a whole would be that much nicer.

GREMLIN and GOBLIN, BEDBUGS and BEDSORE – similar words, similar wordplay.

‘United Nations’ to stand for UN was used twice. In one such clue the solution itself was the word UNITED. Giving off a large chunk of the solution gratis in the clue is bad enough, but handing out the whole solution like this is a horror!

‘Second grade editor’ appeared twice, to give BED.
The fragment ‘IN’ of the solution is taken straight off the word ‘in’ from the clue, in three cases.
The substitution L for ‘left’ is used four times.

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2 comments

Chaturvasi said...

There is more to it than what you say.
21 A different diet, combined into one for the United Nations (6) UN ITED*
What is the def?
"combined into one"
What is the wordplay?
UN-ited (edit)*
But the clue as written does not give proper instruction for attaching ited to UN.
We have anagrind, anag. fodder/charade ind/ charade component.
The order is all screwed up.

Shuchi said...

True. I was focusing on one aspect that displeased, but there were others too.

Odd surface reading ("Be in at to help somebody", "Warning signal true after for Albert and the queen"!), for one.