As previously promised, for new solvers the following notes are based on my early attempts in 1960 to solve bar crosswords.
Most sets of bar crossword clues contain a small number of starter clues – easier offerings designed to give you a start and typically 6 to 8 in number. In this blog I have marked the starter clues (S). When I was a new solver I disciplined myself to always read through the whole clue set to find and solve first as many starter clues as possible. I never got involved with the other clues until I had done that to the best of my ability.
As I read through the clue set I also marked any clue I thought was an anagram and returned to them immediately after doing the starter clues. There is a technique that one acquires to solving anagrams of obscure words using ones knowledge of English and the dictionary. This became easier as my experience and vocabulary both increased.
By these means when I came to the more difficult clues I already had letters in the square to help decipher the definitions and tricky word play. I started with the clues where I now had the most letters in place. For each clue I devised a hypothesis of the clue’s construction and then used that to try to relate to the letters in the grid. Take as a simple example 4D in this puzzle.
My hypothesis was that a word meaning “cut moulding” surrounds a word meaning “picture” to give “cut back hard” I was looking at C???IC?D. I guessed that PIC=picture and that the final ?=E, so I wrote C??PICED on a gash piece of paper and looked at it. Clearly COPPICED was worth a try and sure enough Chambers gave me “cope”=cut moulding. Job done. If one hypothesis didn’t produce results I would look for another until I found the answer. That approach once produced an excellent result for me, but that’s another story.
Bar crossword setters are fond of using obscure abbreviations (such as “is”, “has” or “us” all = “s”) so I also created a list of the abbreviations that appeared in clues and had it next to me when solving. I also did a lot of hunting through Chambers, a thesaurus and a rudimentary crossword dictionary (no internet in those days).
Take the down clue “Railroad going over local river in old colony (4)” (from Mephisto 2446). With no helping letters this is close to unsolveable for a beginner unless you have very specialist knowledge. However, I have E?E?. My hypothesis is that letters meaning “railroad” are over letters meaning “local river” to give an “old colony”. I know that “E” does not equal “railroad”. I also know that I’m almost certainly looking for two letters (there are only four in all). A quick look in the dictionary at EA then EB then EC and so on gives me EL=an elevated railroad. Along the way I learn that EA= dialect (=local) for a river (this little word is worth remembering, incidentally).
Thus I have ELEA, which to my disappointment is not in Chambers! But I spot that “Eleatic” is and it means belonging to ELEA, an ancient Greek colony – bingo! Learning to appreciate Chambers is all part of the enjoyment. For fun see if you can find “Queer Cuffin” (a JP) in the 10th edition of the good book.
I hope some of that is of some value to somebody. As ever, don’t hesitate to ask any questions and never give up!
Jimbo.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 3 | ACETIC,ACID – A(S)CETIC,ACID; an ascetic was an abstainer from everything I enjoy; S=a little square; ACID=keen; proper name for vinegar (pickle was a giveaway here)(S) |
| 10 | ALLOYS – AL-LOYS; AL=aluminium; LOY=a spade with a footrest; see “allays” in Chambers (C) |
| 11 | NATANT – NAT-ANT; tan=oak bark; tumbling=turn over=reversal indicator; “swimming” is definition (C) |
| 12 | COOPER – two meanings; a mixture of beers (porter and stout) and the man who puts bracing rings around barrels (C) |
| 13 | EMUS – hidden word (th)E MUSt(ard) (S) |
| 15 | BERIBERI – BER(I)BER(I); a Berber is from N Africa (S) |
| 16 | THEIR – T(he)-HEIR; THEIR=belonging to him (which may not be acceptable usage according to Chambers) (C); |
| 17 | RINSING – RIN(SI-N)G; (S) |
| 19 | HOW,COME – H(O-WC)OME; HOME=goal; O=nothing;WC=without charge |
| 24 | AFFRONT – A-F-FRONT; (S) |
| 26 | LOADERS – (ordeal)*+S(hift); to charge is to load; LOADERS are machines that load. (C) |
| 28 | FATAL – FAT-A-(beautifu)L; term means the end; “critical” is definition |
| 29 | ABROGATE – (tea or bag)*; (S) |
| 31 | DISS – two meanings; corruption of disrespect used in street slang; Algerian real grass (C) |
| 32 | IN,LOVE – (on veil)*; unimaginative clue; (S) |
| 33 | CLOSET – CLOSE-T(elephone); a press=a cupboard or shelved closet; nice construction (C) |
| 34 | ODIOUS – (comm)ODIOUS; commodious=old word for convenient; comm=commentary |
| 35 | DENOTATION – blast=detonation then change “ton”=fashion into “not”; “what a word means” is definition |
| Down | |
| 1 | JACK,THE,LAD – JACK-(had let)*; JACK=detective; I don’t see the cockney connection (S) |
| 2 | CLOTHO – C-LOTHO; lotto=bingo then change “t” to “h”; one of the Greek Fates with Atropos (scissors) and Lachesis (spinner) |
| 3 | ALOE – (b)A(l)L(o)O(n)E(d); (S) |
| 4 | COPPICED – COP(PIC)ED; to COPE=to cut a piece of moulding (third definition in Chambers); to coppice is to cut back hard (C) |
| 5 | EYEBROW – two meanings; see “penthouse” in Chambers – nicely misleading (C) |
| 6 | IN,BRIEF – IN=on good terms with; BRIEF=barrister (S) |
| 7 | CABIN – CA-B(ubbly)-IN; CA=cases; IN=fashionable; to cabin is to hamper in action; nice construction (C) |
| 8 | CAME,IN – CA-MEIN(t); CA=Consular Agent; meint=ming=old word for “to couple” (C) |
| 9 | INURNS – I-NUR-N-S; I=one; NUR=knur=a hard ball of wood; N=and; S=(hu)S(sey); definition is “puts ashes away” (C) |
| 14 | SIGHTLIEST – S(IGHTL)IEST; an anagram of “is set” around an anagram of “light” (S) |
| 18 | SERAGLIO – SER-AG(L(ove))IO; SER=series; AGIO=money-changing; a harem (C) |
| 20 | MARANTA – MA(RANT)A; MAA=goat’s bleat (baa is a sheep); arrowroot, which is related to ginger (and banana!) (C) |
| 21 | EFFENDI – EFF-END-I; EFF=the letter “f” (euphamistic as in f-off – see Chambers); END=completion; a Turkish title of respect (C) |
| 22 | MOBILE – MO-BILE; MO=more (a little extra); MOBILE (look under “mob” in Chambers) is 17th century word for a mob (C) |
| 23 | PARSON – P-ARSON; P=priest; (S) |
| 25 | NAEVUS – N(AE-V)US; SUN=star; V=five; EA=a drainage channel in The Fens; all reversed; definition is “spot”; nice clue (C) |
| 27 | EGRET – EG-RET; RET=spoil by soaking (worth remembering) |
| 30 | BOON – BO-ON; OB=outside broadcast; NO=Japanese drama; all reversed (S) |
Tom B.
Got in a terrible muddle with denotation – and just could not see it . Being obsessed in equal measure with ‘definition’ ‘conotation’ (spelt wrongly i know) and could not see past these two even with checking letters, for which i then had doubts.
Enjoyable though – and thanks for the tips.
I don’t think I consciously looked for ‘starter’ clues or anagrams. I do remember learning tips like “many rock names end -ite”, and picking up various clichés like EA, EL and KA (“genius”). If the possible wordplay for a clue suggested some part of an answer, I think I used to write it down and try out various options as to where it might go. The Greek/Latin basis of many technical terms means you can spot similar things to the -ite ending. I think I used the ‘hypothesis’ method early on – I still do now.
One lesson not to forget: no matter how improbable a word looks, if the wordplay fits, look it up – there really are words starting ct- or sb-, for instance. Words can be hard to find in C but they’re getting better at including x-refs like “queer cuffin – see cuffin” (not there yet, so remember to look up both ends of a two-word phrase). And scan “nearby” stuff like eleatic for Elea. The x-refs now cover one of the worst horrors – an African word (a currency, I think), whose plural was formed by adding something like E- to the beginning of a word beginning with a very different letter, M I think.
My tools for early attempts were a copy of Chambers, plus Chambers Words, which helped to speed up the process of checking possibilities. Nowadays, the CD-Rom version of Chambers plays that role. There was a time when I think I used books like Chambers Backwords too.
If you’re into crib sheets, it’s worth collecting the IVR abbreviations into a list by country name.
Although these puzzles are good for long lazy Sunday afternoons, they’re also good candidates for solving in bursts. If you spend an initial hour or two and then you’re not making much progress, leave the puzzle alone for a while and come back to it.
Another hint should be fairly obvious: the higher degree of checking means you’re more likely to get answers from checking letters when the grid starts to fill up.