Crossword Unclued

Crossword Lights

As most of you would know, the series of white squares in the crossword grid, into which answers are entered, are called "lights".

Do you also know why they are called "lights"?

No, it isn't because white squares are light in colour. (This is what I thought once upon a time)

Val Gilbert's book A Display Of Lights (9) uses the word in its title. The accompanying description on Amazon carries an explanation, which further complicates the subject:

Answer: Crossword (a 'light' is a word for 'clue' in crossword parlance, so: a display of lights/display of clues/crossword)

This definition tallies with the dictionaries – Chambers has "hint, clue or help towards understanding" as a meaning of light.

But:

If light means clue, why are we using it to refer to the answer to a clue?

The key to this question lies in the grid's property of checking.

D. St P Barnard's book Anatomy Of The Crossword clears up the mystery [Chapter 2: Patterns and Lights]:

Surely, one may well exclaim, to obtain a solution and then to call it by a word which means a clue, savours mightily of Looking-Glass Land. The objection would be a valid one if a puzzle were to require the insertion of only one word, but an essential feature of the crossword is that each horizontal word shares two or more letters with certain vertical words and vice versa. The result of this arrangement is that each word in the pattern not only represents the answer to some verbal clue, but serves also as a literal clue to those other words that it crosses.

I might not have read Marc Romano's Crossworld had I not received it as a gift. The subtitle tells us that the book is about "one man's journey into America's crossword obsession". An unfamiliar author writing about the kind of crosswords I don't solve would not interest me terribly – or so I thought.

The idiom "don't judge a book by its cover" just got a literal endorsement: I opened this book's cover and I found in it much to enjoy.

Crossworld begins with the line:

This is a book about my yearlong journey into the world of competitive crossword solving – although saying that is a little like saying "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song about a girl or The Scream is a painting of a guy standing on a bridge.

This style of drawing extra-crossword parallels continues throughout the narrative: if that's your thing, you will find Crossworld an entertaining ride.

As a first-person account of the 2004 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), the book captures the feel of the tournament well and has many elements a competitive solver of other puzzles too will identify with. The rules of the Indian Crossword League or UK's Times Crossword Championship may vary, but the factors that make or break one's performance in these contests are universal: the trade-off between time and accuracy, the difference between solving online vs solving on paper / solving alone vs solving alongside others, the enormous cost of tiny errors. Most of all the shared thrill of being surrounded by crossword lovers at the championship venue.

The goings-on at 2004 ACPT are narrated with expansive detail, but there were times when I wished for a little less detail. I would not have missed them if the passages on point totals during the puzzle rounds ["Brendan finished the sixth puzzle correctly in nineteen minutes to earn 1,825 points; I finished in twenty-one, with one mistake, to earn 1,580. At 7,895 to 7,665, he was safely and irretrievably ahead of me overall." (p129)] or what the author ate after the tournament ["I ate some walnuts" (p164)] had been dropped, and the fascinating sub-chapter on the crossword mystery novel had been extended. This portion describes rare and out-of-print crossword whodunuts written a few decades ago and made me add a few to my book wishlist, notably John Garland's Crime of the Crossword (1940), for which Crossworld includes a complimentary précis by Will Shortz.

As in the film Wordplay, Will Shortz is a towering presence in Marc Romano's story. Crossworld presents him with great warmth and admiration, quoting and referencing him every few pages: his opinion on other setters' work, his influence that prompted Marc Romano to modify his coinage "cryptic creep" (the growing influx of cryptic wordplay in American crosswords) to "cryptic drift". A full chapter The Puzzlemaster in his Labyrinth gives us a tour of Will Shortz's library containing thousands of puzzle books and memorabilia.

One thing that pulls the book down is its overall structure. There are many tangential notes and back-references, mostly fun reading on their own, but they disrupt the flow of the outer story. The other is the narrator's focus on himself when turning the spotlight on others around would have made the book more appealing.

Crossworld is perhaps best read as a view to the puzzling landscape through the author's prism - what he sees might not always coincide with what we would see independently. For one, things are seldom "good" or "bad" in Marc Romano's world, they are "best ever" or "worst ever".

You'd think that a crossword competition would be a quiet and understated sort of affair, given that it features the largest collection of loners this side of the last Kafka family reunion, ...

This is like hearing a friend given to dramatized opinions – I would listen attentively, but I would not take everything he says at face value. I felt this strongest when he touched upon cryptic crosswords. If we consider quick crosswords and cryptics as two camps, Marc Romano is clearly in the former and I believe gets carried away when contrasting the two. Sample these:

…American-style puzzles require that every letter appearing in them has to be conected to at least two others, while British-style puzzles allow – in fact they prefer – there to be as many unchecked letters as possible.

Since cryptics are easier to construct than American puzzles, you don't need legions of freelance contributors, overseen by one all-powerful editor, to make sure one appears in your newspaper every day of the year. All you need is one guy reliably cranking them out for you (who might be the editor himself), …

The statement about cryptic checking is not true, which puzzles are easier to construct and how many contributors you need for them (one vs legions!) is not so simplistic to determine. He goes on to make a case that Americans struggle with cryptics because of less checking and "unfamiliarity with the minutiae of British life and society". I am astonished to read such reasoning from someone who "can usually complete the Times of London cryptic" (p47).

But there were other conclusions I agreed with totally. When talking of puzzles in different languages, Marc Romano says the ability to solve puzzles in a language is no measure of proficiency in that language. That made me think about the many solvers who complete Hindi crosswords based on cryptic technique and knowledge of the script alone, without having native fluency in Hindi.

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Fialka Cipher Machine During World War II, recruiters for Bletchley Park had looked for crossword solvers to join them, as it was believed that crossword experts would be good codebreakers. [The story is that in 1942, a challenge was issued to solve a Daily Telegraph crossword in under 12 minutes. Shortlisted candidates were invited for a live crossword test, after which six solvers were recruited.]

Bletchley Park's successes during the war proved that their crossword-inclined hiring policy worked. But have you wondered if this correlation was incidental? Interestingly, NSA's chief cryptologist William Friedman might have wondered so – in the treatise Military Cryptanalysis (originally dated 1938, 4th Edition dated 1952), under the heading "Mental equipment necessary for cryptanalytic work", he made a strong case against correlating cryptanalysis with crossword solving.

The present author deems it advisable to add that the kind of work involved in solving cryptograms is not at all similar to that involved in solving crossword puzzles, for example. The wide vogue the latter have had and continue to have is due to the appeal they make to the quite common interest in mysteries of one sort or another; but in solving a crossword puzzle there is usually no necessity for performing any preliminary labor, and palpable results become evident after the first minute or two of attention.

He went on to elaborate on the points of difference between the two skills (section I, p2).

Now try this: exclude that specific warning and replace 'cryptanalytic' with 'crossword solving', 'cryptogram' with 'puzzle', etc. in the manual's description of the "mental equipment". Do you also see that large excerpts of the text could pass off as a guide for crossword solvers?

I was especially struck with these parallels while reading Simon Singh's The Code Book, a narrative about the evolution of cryptography. In the hunt for structure and hidden meanings in text, in the battle of wits between codemakers and codebreakers, the similarities between cryptanalysis and crossword solving are hard to miss. A few examples of cryptanalytic techniques and their crossword parallels:

Frequency analysis

Every letter of a language has distinct character. The frequency with which the letter appears in text, the way it positions itself with respect to other letters in the alphabet, the types of letter clusters it appears in – all make the letter uniquely identifiable.

The frequency distribution of letters (singly or in sequences), a powerful tool for cracking substitution ciphers, has similar applicability in crossword solving – though we usually process this information instinctively rather than formally.

The appearance of more than one low-frequency letter (J K Q X Z) alerts the solver that the grid could be a pangram.

Longer letter sequence frequencies provide strong hints about possible answers in the crossword grid. Solvers watch for clusters like IN-, RE-, TH-, -ING, -TION in answers since they are occur commonly in English. When tackling a checked answer slot, say one that starts with ?H- or ends with -T?C, one can eliminate many letters from matching the ? because the resulting clusters do not appear in natural English words.

Wartime cryptanalysts exploited the knowledge that certain words occur more frequently in military communication than in normal conversation. Likewise, experienced crossword solvers are well up on crosswordese and expressions typical of crosswords e.g. phrases normally used with 'your' in the real world tend to appear with ONE'S in crosswords (e.g. PUT ONE'S FOOT IN ONE'S MOUTH).

Cillies

At Bletchley Park, the term cilly was used for predictable message keys that the cryptanalyst could guess based on the radio operator's habits: for example, an operator might have the habit of using consecutive letters such as QWE on the keyboard. Another type of cilly was the repetition of a message key by an operator, presumably the initials of a loved one.

Deciphering messages based on hunches about cillies is similar to cracking crossword clues based the setter's signature style. An Anax puzzle is more penetrable if you are aware that he often disguises verbal indicators as nouns, an AfterDark puzzle might unravel faster if you look out for something special in his grid.

Cribs

Cryptanalysts used the term crib to refer to any known or suspected plaintext in an enciphered message. They would foretell cribs from the time and source of a message (e.g. a 6am message from X station would be a weather report), and this knowledge would give them a way to break the rest of the code.

Guessing a crossword's theme and possible answers based on the date and setter/publication is similar to using a suspected crib in cryptanalysis. We apply such information all the time to figure out a puzzle even before we have read any clues. Factors like an out-of-turn appearance by a setter, a special date of publication or a crossword numbering milestone, give us ideas about what to expect in the grid fills.

Vigenère Cipher with Running Key

The Vigenère Cipher with running key (i.e. key as long as the ciphertext) was considered unbreakable when it was first designed. Codebreakers soon found that this cipher too, like its predecessors, does not guarantee security if the key has structure and consists of recognizable words.

The process of breaking the Vigenère Cipher with running key goes like this: start with a crib (e.g. the), refer to the Vigenère Square to derive the key and check if the derived key looks meaningful. If it does, fill in other gaps and proceed to derive the rest of the message by alternating between the plaintext and the key. If you reach an impasse (i.e. meaningless text in either the plaintext or key), backtrack and resume on another track till you end with meaningful key as well as plaintext.

The snapshot below from The Code Book shows three routes a cryptanalyst might take to decipher a message with this approach. In the first, the plaintext is gibberish and cannot be right. The second looks possible but if we proceed on that route, it soon ends in deadlock. The last, with the plaintext string 'at the', seems the most promising – and it does turn out to be the right one.

Deciphering the Vigenère Cipher

The cipher's plaintext is analogous to crossword answers in one direction (Across or Down), the key to its intersecting answers in the perpendicular direction. When we use a grid-centric approach to solving, we essentially do the same as cracking the Vigenère Cipher: derive answers based on factors like enumeration (e.g. 4,2,7 might be NEXT TO NOTHING), and validate that they fit into the grid generating workable crossings.

In the grid below, without glancing at the clues, one can tell that something is not right with the filled-in Down answers as this grid will end in deadlock at 14Across. At this point the solver would revise the Down answers, just as a cryptanalyst would discard the key trial if it led to such a pattern in the plaintext.

Partly Solved Grid

While cryptanalysis shares its approach with crossword solving, some forms of encipherment have shades of cryptic clueing. Navajo, for example, which was based on a native American language and formally developed for secret communication by US Marines. This language had a complex structure which made it unintelligible to anyone who did not know the rules for parsing it. The code used creative substitutions for military terms (e.g. platoons = mud clans, mortars = guns that squat), similar to lateral clue definitions. Some words that could not be translated directly to Navajo were split and encoded using a phonetic alphabet or through homophones. Nicknames were added to the Navajo lexicon to refer to nations - Australia became 'Rolled Hat', Spain was 'Sheep Pain' – somewhat like rhyming slang.

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Having seen the work of Tony Chesterley before and his articles on how to write creative anagram clues, I was keen to get hold of his debut book - Cranium-Cracking Cryptic Crosswords, a collection of 40 cryptic crosswords set by him. I've spent the last few weeks solving a puzzle a day from the book and have enjoyed it very much.

It took me a couple of puzzles to get used to the setting style, gradually discovering that the California-based setter is liberal with his anagrams, loves the false capitalization trick and does not do cryptic definitions. [Apparently US cryptic crosswords stay away from cryptic definitions and other complexities like reverse wordplay.] The puzzles are about the Financial Times level of difficulty – a few starter clues, other clues of varied toughness, mostly accessible vocabulary. I occasionally stumbled over unfamiliar American expressions in the answers, which was a change from stumbling over unfamiliar British expressions. Such instances did not lessen the enjoyment of the puzzles, rather made me think "how could I not have known this?" This includes the word 'MacGyveresque' from the introduction.

Each puzzle has a whimsical title, drawn from the surface context of the puzzle's clues. It added to the fun to be battling Pill Bill or reining in Upward Nobility rather than solving Puzzle nos. 4 or 7. There is a distinct American flavour to the clue surfaces, so Yanks and Donners and states of America show up visibly in place of Tories and Cockneys and towns in Britain. The surfaces are thoughtfully constructed, smooth without compromising on the cryptic reading. Sample this:

Puzzle #14, 2A: Adolescent minor released from year-long sentence (8) _O_____L

The book opens with a four-page introduction to cryptic crosswords, allocating a few lines and an example each for the basic clue types. This section manages the difficult art of being compact and clear at the same time. For someone looking for a way to learn cryptic crosswords, the introduction is a nice starting point but I doubt that a new solver would be able to graduate to solving the following 40 puzzles straightaway. What might have helped is a few clues/puzzles with hints to pave the way to the actual puzzles. The good part is that all solutions are annotated, so a new solver who takes a peek at the back pages will learn not just what the answer is but also how it is derived.

Five puzzles from the book are available online. Have a look to get a feel of the book's contents.

About the author & the making of the book

Tony Chesterley started dabbling in setting crosswords about 15 years ago. The first puzzles he wrote were by hand and (he suspects) probably broke all bounds of solvability. He put the idea of serious cryptic setting on the shelf for years till getting laid off in 2008 gave him the time to write crosswords in earnest. He submitted his first puzzle to Alberich, who helped him polish it up and published on it his website. The book has an acknowledgment to Alberich and long-time U.S. setter Bob Stigger.

Tony started filling out his collection last autumn, writing and refining his puzzles over the course of the next few months, finally publishing his book in April 2012.

“Almost all the cryptics I've solved are from books, since so few U.S. newspapers carry cryptics these days,” Tony says. “The pool of American cryptics has gotten more and more sparse over the past ten years, and one of my motivations in writing this book was to help fill the void.”

The crosswords in this book have been created with pretty basic setting tools. Tony started with and still uses the freeware version of Puzzlers' Cave Crossword Compiler (unrelated to the professional-level software of the same name). He added Crossword Express to his toolbox when it became freeware, then its successor Magnum Opus which eventually went defunct.

Tony plans to buy Sympathy when he starts work on Cranium-Cracking Cryptic Crosswords Volume 2.

Solve These

In closing, I'll leave you with three more clues from C4 – enjoy.

Puzzle #10, 25A: Lady attending musical Summer, the last for Barry White (10) C___D_____
Puzzle #3, 25A: Twilight is returning to the screen (5) ____E
Puzzle #36, 16A: Swell! Mother takes hours getting prepared (8) __S___O_

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The Daily Telegraph: 80 Years of Cryptic Crosswords was published in celebration of the Telegraph crossword's completing eighty years of publication. Beautifully packaged in hardbound cover, this is a true collector's item.

Not being a regular Telegraph crossword solver, I might have given this book a miss had a thoughtful friend not gifted it to me. I am glad I got to read it.

The book contains 80 crosswords in all, one to represent each year of the Daily Telegraph crossword's existence during 1925-2005. Interspersed with the crosswords is a narrative by Val Gilbert, editor of The Daily Telegraph crossword for thirty years till her retirement in 2006.

The book is organized into sections decade-wise, starting with 1925, the year when the first Daily Telegraph crossword was published. Each section has its own preface – this is the part I most enjoyed: Val Gilbert ties together news of the decade with changes within the Daily Telegraph setting team, evolution of the crossword's style and popularity, anecdotes and personal reflections on these matters in amusing ways.

Sample an excerpt from 1945-54:

…civil servants, like compilers, were developing a language all their own. In the post-war years there was an outbreak of officialese that could verge on the incomprehensible. The only similarity between a good cryptic clue and official gobbledygook (as it came to be called) is that both challenge the reader to make sense of it, the main difference being that that the good clue does it with wit!

We follow the progression of the cryptic crossword through the economic depression of 1929, the World Wars I and II, the advent of crossword software, 9/11 and beyond – and marvel at the influence of external climate on our pastime. In the chapters about the early decades, the narrative does an additional job of warning solvers of the rawness of cryptic technique. The first-ever Telegraph crossword of 30 July 1925 looks nothing like the cryptic crosswords of today. Those were the days when clues like "A muddled life" = ILFE made it to print, two-letter words were accepted, definitions and indicators could be missing.

Each crossword is captioned with a news headline from the day it appeared in print. I'm not sure if the choice of the crossword was made according to its quality or the significance of its date of publication. In any case, those 80 headlines give an interesting, if highly subjective, sketch of the world's recent history. [Since the book is by a British author for a primarily British audience, I will not dwell on the point of choosing only these two events related to India as captions: Partition of India announced (3 June 1947) and India attacks Pakistan (6 September 1965).]

The most riveting parts of the book are the anecdotes. The famous case of the coded D-Day crosswords is demystified, and there are others I hadn't heard about before – a woman who left her will scrawled on a crossword; a rich man, full of disbelief over the superfast solving times claimed by people, who issued a challenge to solvers to finish a puzzle publicly in 12 minutes. Then there are illuminating behind-the-scenes insights: technological advancements change the process of typesetting and compiling post-1985; the appearance of the crossword in the paper is affected by cost-cutting measures in 1939 - and a bomb scare in 1992!

Also fun are the tongue-in-cheek references to the Times crossword. The Telegraph makes it a point to rub in their seniority:

In January 1930, The Times finally succumbed and published its first crossword puzzle. Meanwhile The Daily Telegraph compilers, with their five-year lead, were now exploiting to the full the double meaning and the illusory pun.

…and take credit for their editor's prowess :)

In January 2003, Richard Browne’s last puzzle appeared in The Daily Telegraph - he had been appointed crossword editor to the Times (trouble is, of course, that the Telegraph trains them so well!).

The crosswords themselves aren't uniformly entertaining. I enjoyed the ones from the last decade, and tried one or two each from the previous decades but didn't feel enthusiastic enough to attempt all. Many of the clues aren't fair enough by the standards we follow today, and though that didn't interfere with my enjoyment of Afrit's work, here the older puzzles didn't click for me.

The final puzzle in this book is a special one, and pretty good – the crossword is made of clues sent in by solvers. This was published on 30 July 2005, the 80th anniversary of the Telegraph crossword.

I had expected bigger biographies about the crossword setters; surely they deserved more space in a book celebrating their creations? I now find that Val Gilbert has devoted a separate book for the setters: A Display Of Lights (9): The Lives and Puzzles of the Telegraph's Six Greatest Cryptic Crossword Setters.

Looking at the interactivity the Telegraph encourages with its readers, I am not surprised at the enormous popularity of their crossword. I dare any Hindu crossword solver not to feel a pang of envy on reading these words by the Telegraph crossword editor (p.194), about their search for a new crossword compiler:

Six new compilers were used in as many weeks and solvers were invited to assess the puzzles that appeared during this time. Not that the Telegraph solvers have been backward in informing the paper what they thought of its puzzles. But in this case, I was actively asking their opinion.

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book All this talk of books in cryptic crosswords reminds me of a particular book setters love to write clues for. The book is such a frequent find in crossword grids that solvers have begun to pencil it in blindly whenever they see the word "book" and a 4-letter enumeration next to it.

One might think that, with repeated usage of the same word, setters would have run out of creative ideas for clueing it. Apparently not. This book clearly has potential - one keeps coming across fresh wordplay for it despite its ubiquity.

Here are some clues I like - many refer to the protagonist/plot than the book itself. Can you guess which book it is? Of course you can. Enjoy the clues :)

Guardian 25009 (Paul): One withdrawn from silent act, coming up with a novel (4)

Independent 1089 (Quixote): Proposition in line at front of famous book (5)

FT13668 (Falcon): Novel set in Salem, Massachusetts (4)

Guardian 25379 (Philistine): She caused some mayhem, matchmaking (4)

FT 13364 (Loroso): She had a little problem matchmaking (4)

Times 23963: Titled heroine from log cabin? (4)

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harry-potter A selection of clues that refer to Rowling's magical world. Crack them, crossword wizards.

Times 24823: Spooner’s composer, more popular as subject of film? (5,6)

FT13209 (Alberich): For a spell, he can be relied on to pester one at the wheel! (5,6)

Guardian 25106 (Araucaria): Fictitious prison where king has a veto on extremes (7)

Guardian 25076 (Araucaria): Pass up Harry Potter coin for extra security (7) L_____T

Guardian 25123 (Mudd): No wizards should get face and legs jumbled up (7)

No HP knowledge required for solving these (edited on 3-Mar-2019):

Sunday Times 4359: Herb Draco Malfoy initially scattered round a muggle's head (8)

Times 27285: Potter stars rush around, keeping track (10) N_____Y__N

I got to know a day late that the Independent had a Potter-themed crossword on July 15. Archives aren't available so we can't see the crossword any longer – from the answers it looks like this would have been fun for Potter fans.

Try another themed crossword from the Guardian archives – Guardian 24043, by Paul.

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Chaturvasi (Rishi) reminisces about specialist dictionaries that he has relied on in the past decades for compiling crosswords. Our guest author is a published crossword setter.

crossword-books Anax’s post the other day mentioned some crossword software within which one can get results for given word patterns to go into the slots in the grid.

Before the development of crossword software or mere word pattern search software, we had books that listed in a straightforward or elaborate manner words classified by length or position of letter(s) or both. No doubt these were prepared with computer aid but before the wide use of the Internet.

This article, written in a nostalgic mood, recalls some specialist dictionaries which I collected from my initial days of crosswording. When I turned a setter, at hand were aids whose potential I may not have realised fully at the time of purchase.

The Modern Crossword Dictionary

It so happens that the first book that I obtained on April 29, 1968 - within a month of my taking up job as a newspaperman - still happens to be my favourite. It is The Modern Crossword Dictionary compiled by Norman G. Pulsford (A Pan original, 1967). The entries are arranged in alphabetical order according to the number of letters in them. What I like about this book is that it has phrases in the first section, while words appear in the latter section. Let’s say you want a 15-letter phrase beginning with the letter B. You turn to B–15 and find listed under it phrases from BARE-FACED NELSON to BYZANTINE SCHOOL. The Words section lists words only 3 to 9 letters. If you want a 10 or more-letter word beginning with B you will have to look elsewhere.

Cassell’s Crossword Finisher

The next book is Cassell’s Crossword Finisher compiled by John Griffiths (Cassell, 1975) which I bought on July 19, 1976. Despite the title, it’s as good for a person who sets out to compile a crossword rather than the solver who desperately wants to finish off the unfinished crossword. This book, obviously put together by a computer expert, helps us to pick up words based on any one or two known letters in a word. Suppose we want a 7-letter word for ?O?N??? we go to the relevant section and find we have a choice of several words from BONNILY to YOUNGER. Geographical proper names are marked with an asterisk and personal proper names with a plus sign. Proper names include first names, mythological names and a selection of surnames of, amongst others, artists, writers, composers and statesmen. Only words are given, no meanings or further details as these are outside the purview of dictionaries of this kind.

Longman Crossword Key

A book that I have used most before the advent of crossword pattern search software is Longman Crossword Key ed. by Evelyn Marshall (Longman, 1982). The book lists words not only by length but also by letter position.

If, for instance, we want a six-letter word whose third letter is e (??e???), we turn to the section for six-letter words. Then we find ‘position = 3’ and look through the letters printed in bold type until we come to ‘e’ as the third letter. There we find words from ‘acedia’ to ‘wretch’.

This use of bold type for a letter in a known position makes it very convenient to scan the list and move from ??a??? to ??e???. I would have preferred to have the words in upper case.

The Crossword Completion Dictionary

An unusual dictionary is The Crossword Completion Dictionary compiled and devised by R. J. Edwards (Stanley Paul, London, 1983), which I acquired on January 17, 1985. Words are grouped according to length and arranged in alphabetical order from the end of each word. In the 3-letter section, words ending in ??A are first, followed by ??B, ??C, ??D and so on to words ending in ??Z. Suppose we need a 9-letter word that has the letters ??????A?D, we first go to the section --------D in the chapter Nine-letter Words, then look through the seventh-letter column for the letter A and find in the relevant area words from DISREGARD to HAPHAZARD.

Bradford’s Crossword Key Dictionary

A book which I got during a visit to the USA in 2004 is Bradford’s Crossword Key Dictionary ed. by S.M.H. Collin and P. H. Collin (Peter Collin Publishing, Teddington, Middx., U.K., 2000).

Suppose we need a word that is 8-letters long, with C as the fifth letter and C as the last letter. We turn to the chapter for 8-letter words; to the section that has these words organised by the fifth letter, look down the list till we find words with C and look within this group for words that have C as the last letter. We have words from ANARCHIC to GALACTIC.

Each page has a top line indicating the length and letter position. (In the above instance the page will have 8 LETTERS > LETTER 5 at left flush and □ □ □ □ ■ □ □ □ at right flush.) However, the fifth letter in each of the words in the list itself is not in bold.

Of all the books that I have mentioned above, only one, The Modern Crossword Dictionary, provides in the first section an alphabetically ordered list of phrases, tabulated according to the number of letters they contain. This is of great help to compilers when they look for phrases to be inserted in long slots as they start grid-filling.

You can imagine why that book was a favourite of mine. Another book that I acquired subsequently, The Crossword Phrase Dictionary,compiled and devised by R. J. Edwards (Stanley Paul, London, 1981) excelled itself – in it the phrases are arranged not only by number of letters in the phrase, but by the length of the individual words.

I may also mention The Oxford Paperback Crossword Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2000) which lists words and phrases of a given length. However, the compilation being that of Modern House Books Ltd rather than an editor, the list has odd entries such as ‘usurp the place of’ or ‘put one’s mind to’ – phrases which are quite unlikely to be entered in a crossword grid, what with those prepositions at the end.

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The answers to the questions first – most of you got them right, congrats.

What was Afrit's real name?
Answer: Alistair Ferguson Ritchie

Solve this clue by Afrit:
Pretty long weapon, but for a knight it should be a lot longer (5) L___E
Answer: LANCE. With LOT added, it becomes LANCELOT, knight of Round Table fame.

The entries for #2 led to a situation that I had not foreseen. Some of you posted the answer right but the annotation wrong. Technically an answer with correct annotation is better than without, but since the question had not been specific about this, the entry was considered as long as the answer was LANCE.

Likewise, variations on Afrit's real name – Alistair Ferguson, Alistair Ferguson Ritchie or A F Ritchie - were all fine.

At the end of the sifting and counting, 55 entries went into the pool including double entries for verifiable retweets. The draw was done with random.org.

Watch the draw live in this video (email readers – please visit the blog for this):

We now have the name of the lucky one to bag the prize, the rare cult book Afrit's Armchair Crosswords.

Please join me in congratulating our winner - *drumroll* Balaji! The winning entry:

winning-answer

Balaji: Please write to me at shuchi [at] crosswordunclued [dot] com with your mailing address. The book will be on its way soon. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thanks again to The Crossword Centre and Rendezvous Press for sponsoring the contest, and to everyone of you who participated and spread the word about it.

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crossword-unclued-contest-win Diwali is round the corner, so I thought of doing a giveaway for my readers as a little firework to celebrate.

Enter a simple contest, and you could win a copy of one of the best books I've read this year: Afrit's Armchair Crosswords, a vintage collection of crosswords set by Afrit. [Read my review of the book.]

The contest is open worldwide. Yes, even the mystery visitor from Bermuda on Colonel Gopinath's blog can participate.

The prize is kindly sponsored by The Crossword Centre and Rendezvous Press.

The Contest

Answer these two questions:

What was Afrit's real name?
Solve this clue by Afrit:
Pretty long weapon, but for a knight it should be a lot longer (5) L___E

How To Participate

Post your answers in a comment on this post.
Mention your name in the comment. Anonymous entries will not be considered.
Only one comment per person. Each comment will be counted as one entry.
Tweet about this contest to get a double entry into the lucky draw. To qualify for double entry, mention the direct link to your tweet in the comment on this post. [Tweet now].

Entries close on Friday 15th October 2010 midnight IST. Comments will remain unpublished till the contest is over.

The winner will be picked by a computerised draw. The result will be announced in the following week.

Post your answers in the comments section and do spread the word about the contest. Remember to share this post on twitter and double your chances of winning Afrit's book.

Best of luck to you!

Update: Please mention the exact link to your tweet in the comment along with your answers.
e.g. http://twitter.com/amrith10/statuses/26528054806 is the link to @amrith10's tweet.

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Expectations ran high as I started to read Tim Moorey's How To Master The Times Crossword. Excited as I was to have my own new copy of the book, I also wondered if it will match up to the glowing praise I had read of it.

I need not have wondered. Tim Moorey's book does a magnificent job of explaining the nuances of the Times cryptic crossword in an eminently readable style. Whether you are a new solver taking your first steps towards cryptic crosswords or an experienced solver wanting to raise your game, this is THE book for you.

Inside The Book

The 218-page hardcover volume is divided into four parts – Crossword Basics which covers the clue types, indicators and tips for very new solvers; Mastering the Times Crossword with advanced tips; Practice Time with lots of clues and 12 full grids to try; Appendices including a list of crossword abbreviations.

One of the most commendable aspects of this book is its positive, friendly tone. Many guides read like impersonal instruction manuals, or else have so much of the author's personality in them that they obscure the knowledge they're trying to impart. Tim Moorey's book falls into neither trap – his voice is like that of a mentor genuinely interested in helping us learn. He says in the introduction:

I would not wish to be seen as laying down rules on solving; there are really no such things. Ultimately, everyone finds their own way of doing crosswords and my hope is that I will help you to find yours

Graphs and visual cues are used to explain clue types and the breakdown of clues. If you are familiar with the Times crossword, you will marvel at how easy and accessible the author makes the Times clues look.

The book uses slightly different terminology for clue types such as all-in-one for &lit and sandwich for containers. These terms are perhaps less intimidating for a new solver, and well-used on the Times blog even if not elsewhere.

The practice clues and puzzles have some handholding in the initial stages – definitions are italicized, clue types mentioned. Thereafter you are given full grids to attempt on your own.

My favourite sections of the book are in Part 2: Mastering the Times Crossword – a solving sequence in which Tim Moorey takes us through his solving of an entire grid, and a setting sequence in which he walks us through the process of creating clues. I enjoyed comparing notes with Tim Moorey's solving sequence – mine was rather different but eventually I had the same last few blanks as he did. The setting sequence is a fascinating insight into the setter's mind as he writes clues for the grid (Tim Moorey is a setter for the Sunday Times crossword).

Each chapter begins with a nice quote relevant to crosswords – extracts from books and magazines, also an excerpt from a 1934 letter by PG Wodehouse to The Times.

In the end is a treat as Tim Moorey calls it – a puzzle that is hailed as one of the best ever to be published in the Times. As with the rest of the book, here too the author shows consideration for solvers at different levels of solving ability. The clues for this puzzle are published in three formats – one is exactly as it appeared in the Times, the second with definitions italicized and the third with definitions italicized plus indicators underlined.

Is this any good for a non-Times solver?

Absolutely. Most of the book applies to any cryptic crossword, not only the Times. Whatever is specific to the Times - such as the no living persons rule - is clearly mentioned.

I suspect that by the end of this book, you will convert into a Times solver even if you are not one today. The clues used as examples in the book showcase the cream of the Times stable. Many of the clues were chosen in the past as the 'Clue Of The Week', a feature of The Week magazine.

What do you think of the book?

I'd love to hear from other readers, especially new solvers. Did you enjoy the book, did it help you improve your game?

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“You need not mean what you say, but you must say what you mean”

Afrit's injunction to setters, which beautifully sums up the essence of cryptic clues, first appeared in his 1949 book Armchair Crosswords. This book is rare today and had been out of print for several years. With the efforts of Derek Harrison and Rendezvous Press, its publication was revived in 2009.

I have recently finished reading/solving the puzzles in Afrit's Armchair Crosswords. Sharing with you some background about the book and my impressions of it.

Who is Afrit?

Afrit is the pseudonym of crossword compiler Alistair Ferguson Ritchie (1890-1954), a predecessor of Ximenes. He set puzzles for The Listener (which, the book says, "were extremely difficult, often securing no correct entries") and easier ones for The Sketch. In 1949 he published 40 of these puzzles in the collection called Armchair Crosswords.

Inside the book…

This is a slim 104-page volume, with a preface by Ximenes and a foreword to the new edition by Derek Harrison.

Then follows Afrit's introduction – a landmark essay on the ethics of crossword composition. The bulk of the book is its 40 puzzles, the solutions to which are listed towards the close of the book. At last is an appendix to this edition – a write-up about Afrit, and some rare photographs of him.

The Famous Introduction

Armchair Crosswords is best-known for its introduction, in which Afrit talks about cryptic crossword rules – words, their arrangement and types of clues.

Having read quotes from the introduction here, there and everywhere, I had expected the text to be more expansive. On first look I was rather taken aback to find it only three pages long.

After reading it, I'm surprised no longer. This is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to cryptic crosswords but an expression of their philosophy. Afrit's prose has an epigrammatic quality; sentences like "Words can be divided into two classes – those which are hard work for you, and those which are hard work for the composer" stick long after you've read them.

Afrit was perhaps the first to set down rules for clue fairness. He says:

…[the setter] may attempt to mislead by employing a form of words which can be taken in more than one way, and it is your fault if you take it the wrong way, but it is his fault if you can’t logically take it the right way.

Afrit's ideas were later expanded by Ximenes in his 1966 book Ximenes on the Art of the Crossword.

The Grids

Afrits-Grid-Portion Most of the grids are 14x14 blocked. One of them has six black squares in a row, symmetrically positioned in the four directions, with the word BEAUTY written across each row. There are five 12x14 grids that use a mix of blocked and barred styles.

One aspect of the grids that is odd by modern grid design standards: at many places, two letters occur side-by-side and they don't form a clued word. This was initially very distracting but I soon learnt to ignore such letters.

The Clues

Afrit's clues are quite unlike what we're used to in modern cryptic puzzles, and can be bewildering at first. Solving gets easier after cracking the first few clues. (Checking is very good, which helps.) The trick is to read the entire clue and identify what it means, rather than mulling over each word in isolation as we might do with modern cryptic clues.

To give you an example:
You won't get fat out of this, though the char-lady does (6) CLEANS

"the char-lady does" is the definition, and you won't get FAT out of this => you will get LEAN.

This clue - and many others in the book - do not meet the Ximenean standard of having wordplay for every letter in the answer, and at the other extreme, many give out large portions of the answer as-is in the clue. Other forms of unXimenean-ness such as indirect anagrams are also to be found.

In an age when we place a high premium on economy of words, Afrit's clues strike you for their unabashed wordiness. Clues are sprinkled with "you see"s and "of course"s, definitions run into several words and a word count of > 15 per clue is not unusual.

Many clues use puns on misspelling, incorrect grammar or speech. I loved such clues.

If Peeping Tom had knowed more, he'd have – well, not got the Pip! (8)
Very insidious drug; you may have heard a bhad report of it (5)

The answers are SEEDLESS and BHANG.

Special mention for Puzzle No. 25 which has clues in couplets (in Afrit's era, kororareka's rhymes would surely have stood a chance as cryptic clues).

One such clue for the word REFUSE:

"I don't do this" just means "I will,"
And "Rubbish", too, would fit the bill (6)

I could not solve the extra clue of "True Lover's Knot" in this puzzle, and don't understand it even after seeing the answer. (The answers are not annotated. For some clues, I wish they were.)

Closing Notes

Cryptic crosswords have come a long way since the days of Afrit. Modern clues are tighter, more sophisticated, yet the discerning eye cannot miss the wit and talent behind the puzzles in this book. Going through Armchair Crosswords was an experience similar to watching a great film or reading an excellent book from a bygone era. The intercuts may be choppy, the language archaic, but that does not dim the brilliance of the work.

"The genius of Afrit merits a wider audience", says Derek Harrison in the book's foreword. I could not agree more. I hope you will pick up this book too and enjoy it as much as I did.

Solve These

Two clues from Afrit's collection. Try solving. Answers tomorrow.

Most trees are after the Fall; certainly Adam and Eve were before the Fall (8)
You may not agree with him, but he will consider your taste. He has the wherewithal to write in water (8)

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Sandy Balfour writes in his book "Pretty Girl In Crimson Rose (8)":

A setter can only set the clue. It takes the solver to complete its meanings, and the meanings are different for each of us. The clue itself will have only one answer, but the associations that each solver can bring to that answer are as many and varied as there are solvers.

Most writings about crosswords look at the game from a standpoint of logic. "Pretty Girl In Crimson Rose (8)" stands apart for its philosophical, almost poetic view of cryptic crosswords.

The book isn't absolutely about crosswords. It is about Balfour's life, his relationships, his travels across the world, his sense of exile. He picks up the skill of solving cryptic crosswords along the way, and finds his experiences resonate through clues. Sometimes they reflect the turmoil he is going through, sometimes they trigger memories, sometimes deliver profound lessons.

The story of his life enmeshes with anecdotes about crosswords, and it's creditable that the dual narrative flows without seeming bumpy or forced.

I can see the low blue shapes of the Swartberg mountain range. It seems to me that all there is between us is distance. It is very familiar. I have been here before. I have travelled both ways along this road.

What happens in a reversal is this. Somewhere in the clue there will be an indicator…

Spread across the story are remarkable cryptic clues, some of which have acquired cult status of sorts today. A feeler:

The real reason for the meeting of Volkswagen and Daimler (6, 6)
Archer triumphant as storyteller (11)

You also get to know a bit about crossword setters from the UK, such as the very well-organized catalogue of clues maintained by Rufus, or Pasquale's not-too-high opinion of Araucaria's clueing technique. Conversations with setters are most entertaining, like one in a pub in which Paul and Enigmatist talk in puns.

A very unusual, beautifully written book. For crossword regulars it is one to keep.

Check out Sandy Balfour's website and the book reviews on Amazon.

A Nitpick

Sandy Balfour says:

In this respect I am a good traveller. I can discuss baseball with Americans in much the same way as I can discuss kabadi with the citizens of Bangalore, or cricket with the Australians.

Unfortunately, bringing up kabadi in a conversation with the citizens of Bangalore will only draw blank stares. To bond with people of this city, choose the same sport that you would with the Australians. Talk cricket.

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Are you in the habit of solving crosswords in the bath, dozing off and accidentally dropping puzzle books into the water, causing untold damage to your precious books?

Then you might pick up a tip or two from crossword fan Ivan Greenburg. He has exactly this problem and has devised an innovative contraption to save his puzzle books from such mishaps. [Thanks to crossword center for mentioning this in their newsletter, that's where I heard about it first.]

The device is called 'The Araucaria Counterweight Book Saver', named after its inventor's favourite setter. Read more about it with annotated pictures here on the Chamber's editors' blog, clishmaclaver.

For those who don't keep track of the Guardian crossword, Araucaria is the pseudonym of Reverend John Galbraith Graham MBE, probably the most popular setter on the Guardian crossword team. He is best known for his themed puzzles, clever long anagrams and non-conformance to rigid Ximenean standards.

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What do you think of this clue?

Skelton reported that this landed in the soup (4,4)

Not easily solvable, but anything more portentous than that?

This clue had a critical role to play in a Jeffrey Archer short story. It led the hero to take his own life!

Read "Old Love" from Jeffrey Archer's short story collection A Quiver Full Of Arrows to know more.

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A collection of crossword references, solving guides and other crossword-related paraphernalia. (Description excerpts from amazon.co.uk)

Crossword References

Ximenes On The Art Of The Crossword
D. S. Macnutt, crossword setter for the 'Observer' 1939 - 1971, was Ximenes, the father of crosswords, and wrote this book to make crosswords more enjoyable and rewarding to solvers. His principles of crossword composition, with the notion that being fair to the solver is of paramount importance, have become the foundations for crossword setters.