Owing to various unfortunate contingencies, the management here at TftT only just learned of the publication of these historical puzzles. They are being published to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the very first Sunday Times puzzle in 1925, and are accompanied by an article by Sunday Times puzzle editor (and founder of TftT) Peter Biddlecombe.
We will try to get blogs for these puzzles out as soon as possible, and they will be posted as soon as they become available. However since the very first puzzle from 1925 is not a cryptic, but more like the modern Concise, we will not be blogging that one.
The bloggers should be able to point out the differences between modern puzzle conventions and what was current 50, 70, and 90 years ago. The present puzzle is almost in tune with modern practices
| Across | |
| 1 | They run away like Oriental runners with long strides (7) |
| ELOPERS – E + LOPERS. A clue that would pass today, although they probably be online runners. | |
| 5 | She’s mad, deranged, ruined! (7) |
| SMASHED – Anagram of SHE’S MAD. | |
| 9 | Weave a new net beside the port perhaps (7) |
| ENTWINE – Anagram of NET beside WINE. However, if we allow A = I, then you have an anagram of I NEW NET as well – I’m not sure if this was intended. | |
| 10 | Food for blockheads? (7) |
| NOODLES – A double definition. | |
| 11 | Queen has a friend — one in North London (9,6) |
| ALEXANDRA PALACE – ALEXANDRA + PAL + ACE. Here ‘one’ is doing double duty as both part of the cryptic and the literal, which would not be allowed today. | |
| 12 | These subjects demand work in spasms (6) |
| TOPICS – T(OP)ICS. | |
| 14 | Lad takes a hint when disturbed out East (8) |
| THAILAND – Anagram of LAD + A HINT. A clue like this would be considered pretty loose nowadays, although it might pass in a competing newspaper. | |
| 17 | Irishman disturbs the peace of these good and loyal subjects (8) |
| PATRIOTS – PAT RIOTS. | |
| 18 | Empty the cases of the New York group? (6) |
| UNPACK – U.N. PACK. | |
| 21 | He isn’t needed when changing the helium into a weapon (5,7,3) |
| LIGHT MACHINE GUN – Anagram of CHANGING THE [he]LIUM. This clue would be considered to be lacking an anagram indicator by today’s standards. | |
| 24 | From that time on, about to be free from pretence (7) |
| SINCERE – SINCE + RE. | |
| 25 | Work with very large total animal (7) |
| OPOSSUM – OP + O/S + SUM. | |
| 26 | The breaking of an oath by the adjudicators (7) |
| PERJURY – PER JURY. | |
| 27 | Keep up support! (7) |
| SUSTAIN – A double definition, which would be considered too close nowadays. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Get lean this way — it’s simple and effective (7) |
| ELEGANT – Anagram of GET LEAN. ‘This way’ would not be considered much of an anagram indicator by current standards. | |
| 2 | Straightaway, in danger (2,3,4) |
| ON THE SPOT – Double definition, a good one. | |
| 3 | The boy, little by little, takes on a girl (5) |
| ERICA – ERIC + A. Eric is the hero of a 19th century didactic children’s book, Little By Little. This work has faded into obscurity, and would not be used now. | |
| 4 | Ready first to go next? (6) |
| STEADY – Ready, STEADY, go! A well-disguised cryptic hint that would still work, especially in Mephisto where things are a bit wilder. | |
| 5 | Take a tanning! (8) |
| SUNBATHE – Cryptic definition, which would probably be considered a bit easy by today’s standards. | |
| 6 | It spells trouble to restrict worship (9) |
| ADORATION – ADO + RATION. Perhaps a little loose, but you still might see it today. | |
| 7 | Henry takes on a master of the game (5) |
| HALMA – HAL + M.A. This clue would get the editor’s red pen today, as it lacks precision in both the cryptic and the literal, and they don’t quite match up. We would say something like ‘Prince with advanced degree creates a game’. | |
| 8 | Diana’s to move in some direction? Swell! (7) |
| DISTEND – DI’S + TEND. | |
| 13 | Where’s the drink? In a cruet, love — and it’s a cocktail! (9) |
| COINTREAU – Anagram of IN A CRUET, O. There’s no anagram indicator, and the literal or literals don’t really work. | |
| 15 | Leg gets broken in an eastern continent, but it causes no pain (9) |
| ANALGESIA – AN A(anagram of LEG)SIA. The literal might be considered a bit awkward. | |
| 16 | Gets a try in a scrimmage by careful planning (8) |
| STRATEGY – Anagram of GETS A TRY. The use of in a scrimmage as an anagram indicator is creative – I like it. | |
| 17 | Gains ground, but stops! (5,2) |
| PULLS UP – Double definition, but the first one is apparently only found in large dictionaries. | |
| 19 | Sink in disorder with one chap who’s a member of the family tree (7) |
| KINSMAN – Anagram of SINK + MAN. The excess verbiage in the cryptic would probably be pruned by a modern editor. | |
| 20 | Picks off new growth (6) |
| SHOOTS – Double definition, and a good one. | |
| 22 | One ruined beyond recovery — one in the time of King George? (5) |
| GONER – G(ONE)R. We would probably not allow G.R. to be clued by the time of King George – G.R. is King George himself! | |
| 23 | Lack of approving signs in corners? (5) |
| NOOKS – NO OKS – yes, they had this chestnut 50 years ago! | |
Comments on some …
1A – not quite right for today as I don’t think many xwd eds would allow “like” as a linkword rather than the beginning of a def for an adjective
9A – I think the “a” is just part of a “a new” as an old-style anag indicator
11A – I think it’s most likely that “in North London” was intended as the definition, like “out east” for THAILAND later.
3D – The full title of the 1858 book by Frederic Farrar is “Eric, or, Little by Little”. I’m pretty sure “little by little” has indicated ERIC in Times (and probably ST) crosswords in TfTT’s lifetime, as well as my solving experience going back about another 3 decades.
V. enjoyable. I agree, “… almost a puzzle in tune with current practices”, more so than ones I remember doing from about 1970 a few years ago which seemed very “loose”.
I’ d forgotten the book and couldn’t parse the ‘little by little’ bit of 3d which is explained in the notes on the site and by Peter B. above. I did notice the apparent lack of an anagram indicator in LIGHT MACHINE GUN. For 9a, ENTWINE seems OK as initially parsed; if I NEW NET was allowed for the anagram fodder and ‘Weave’ for the indicator +/- doing double duty as the def, ‘beside the port perhaps’ wouldn’t fit in. Maybe a bit vague, but for ALEXANDRA PALACE, I just had ‘in North London’ for the def, as indicated by Peter B. At 13d, COINTREAU is a liqueur, not a ‘cocktail’, so ‘it’s a cocktail!’ would do as the anagram indicator with ‘(Where’s the) drink?’ as the def.
STEADY was my favourite; I was almost glad to see that ‘Ready’ wasn’t “money” or similar as it usually is these days. I look forward to doing at least two of the earlier ones over the next week.
Thanks to vinyl1 for the blog and to Peter B. for his article and for resuscitating these puzzles
I think the anagram indicator might be it’s a cocktail…?
Thanks very much for blogging chaps! I wonder who the setter was?
According to what I’ve seen about ST crossword history …
In 1975, Barbara Hall was a setter of Sunday Times crosswords, but she didn’t become the crossword editor until 1977. It seems that the previous editors were a couple called Derek and Elizabeth Jewell, who are credited as in ST crossword books produced in those days – Book 1 in a Penguin series, published in 1975, the front page has “Compiled by Elizabeth Jewell, with solver’s guide by Elizabeth and Derek Jewell”, and if, like the present-day books, the puzzles are from a few years earlier, the book may not include any from Barbara. Whether anyone else was contributing puzzles then, I don’t know, and I had an indication from Barbara that Derek was the setter out of the two. My honest guess is that they worked together. They were still the writers of the solvers guide content in the last of the cryptic books Barbara produced, in 2006.
Thank you Peter. Very interesting.
Very enjoyable and none too difficult, taking me about 12 minutes. It was about this time that my father introduced me to the Sunday Times crossword and when I was home from school in Barnard Castle he let me have a go first and then helped finish it.
Having tried some classic puzzles before I wasn’t sure I’d finish this, and set about it in a relaxed fashion while watching Vera on t’telly. I was quite surprised to finish in significantly under an hour with my only real uncertainty being HALMA, as I’d forgotten the game existed. Now encouraged, I may roll up my sleeves and concentrate rather harder for the earlier puzzles!