In the example clues below, I explain the two parts of each: the definition of the answer and the wordplay – the recipe for assembling its letters. In a genuine puzzle environment, of course, you also have the crossing letters, which greatly alleviate your solving load. The explanations contain links to previous entries in this series on such matters as spelling one word backwards to reveal another. And setters’ names tend to link to interviews, in case you feel like getting to know these people better.
The news in clues
Last time we looked forward to new political names peopling our clues; leading the way is, not surprisingly, the one inhabiting number 10. Here’s Enigmatist …
5d A new face: Sir Keir and State both on the up (6)
[ wordplay: reversal (‘on the up’) of Sir Keir’s job & synonym for ‘state’ ]
[ reversal of PM & AVER ]
[ definition: a new face ]
… with a clue for REVAMP. Meanwhile another area of life is also about to get a new name and we can say goodbye to the England manager with Picaroon’s clue …
1a/20d Struggling in lead for England, Southgate’s developed complex (7,6)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘struggling’) of first letter of (‘lead for’) ENGLAND & SOUTHGATES ]
[ anagram of ESOUTHGATES ]
[ definition: developed complex (with ‘developed’ now an adjective) ]
… for HOUSING ESTATE.
Latter patter
From Hurley in the Times quick cryptic, a surface reading we must think of as purely abstract …
7a President, unexpected vote loser? (9)
[ wordplay: anagram of (‘unexpected’) VOTELOSER ]
[ definition: president ]
… and we need not specify which ROOSEVELT when writing in our answer. The surname is so familiar; it took me pitifully long to twig that the earliest ROOSEVELTs must have had something to do with fields of roses.
American presidential surnames are a suitably diverse bunch. There was a time when many in Ireland were keen to make a claim for the origin of “Biden”, though in the three weeks between the wretched debate and the candidate’s withdrawal, enthusiasm surely dipped for calling dibs on all things Biden.
My favourite tale in this field is also the subject of our next challenge. Here’s the entry from Henry Harrison and Gyda Pulling Harrison’s Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary, on the origin of a certain name:
So, reader: how would you clue KENNEDY?
Cluing competition
Thanks for your clues for BEANO. Of the references to what we might call human comics, I especially enjoyed Jacob_Busby’s “A slice of Eric Morecambe, a notable comic” and Croquem’s “Comic Frankie Boyle is funny, not like Fry!”
The runners-up are MarkGraf’s efficient “Vote against party” and Patjberry47’s beckoning “Party? Head on over!”; the winner is “Where Gnasher might be found chewing a bone”, for which the original author Notgethithatonharry has gallantly agreed to share honours after a suggested tweak from AyeAyeBooks.
Kludos to both. Please leave entries for the current competition – and especially non-print finds or picks that I may miss from broadsheet cryptics – in the comments.
A ray of hope
It is often said and not just by me that the Guardian crossword pages are the only remaining decent place on the world wide web and there’s no better example than the enterprises of Spanishscot in the comments around the quick puzzles in the early 16,900s.
Clue from elsewhere of the fortnight
Not a cryptic this time, but a short entry from the Telegraph’s series of American-style puzzles (described here), a clue to which I’ve added a letter count (which some might render as “(1,1,1)”):
Sort of benefit claimant (3)
Nominated by Smylers, who adds:
Not because there’s anything particularly special about that clue on its own, but for its appearance in that publication, which has been known not always to give the most positive impressions of benefit claimants to its readers. Readers of whom many are retired but may not have thought of the clue applying [to] them – for the answer was OAP. Kudos to Colin Thomas (known elsewhere variously as Twin, Prime, and Agenor).
Keep ’em coming!
131 Words for Rain by Alan Connor can be preordered from the Guardian bookshop
