Cryptic crosswords

[rich p]

Anyone else a fan?
I do the Guardian Saturday prize one every week.
I suppose it makes my ribbing jigsaw afficionados thread a bit of a cheek!

I do the occasional quick one too for a bit of stimulation

 

[Aperitif]

Everyman in the Observer - but I haven't bought a paper for ages - have done it online but it is never the same!

When I played cricket it was the Telegraph + horses on Saturday and then Sun Tel. Obs. and Sunday Times - a collective effort, anything to avoid scoring or 'umping'.

My mate Chris used to come and watch and he was a Gradiuna afficionado...I have never dealt very well with that paper's x word.
Didn't someone called Auracaria(Sp.?) set puzzles for them circa 1990 - tough stuff.

 

[rich p]

Araucaria ( aka John Graham) is the king of crossword compilers and is still the Graudians top man at 80 years plus. He must have a fantastic brain and is the 'inventor' of some new variations in compiling such as the alpabetical ones and themed ones.
I'll stop now before I bore even myself!

 

[rich p]

Here is one of his famous ones......


Poetical scene has surprisingly chaste Lord Archer vegetating (3, 3, 8, 12)
which yields "The Old Vicarage, Grantchester". This is the title of a poem by Rupert Brooke. The anagram wittily includes a topical reference to Lord Archer who was the vicarage's current owner and was lying low there at the time following a sex scandal


...chaste Lord Archer vegetating is an anagram (surprisingly is the key word) of The Old Vicarage, Grantchester

 

[Aperitif]

Not worthy <bows down> but I fancied Mary. Is that an anagram for owt?

 

[gbb]

Saturday Telegraph prize cryptic for me....
Funny you raised this subject, i used to be a cryptic fanatic, but after some years not doing them, i lost the knack. I started again 3 weeks ago, completed the Telegraph cryptic two weeks ago, missed last weeks and have just completed todays[/S yesterdays !!!

One of my favourite crypic clues ?
Important thing the secretary must do when the boss is'nt there ?

Answer anyone ?.

 

[ColinJ]

Saturday Telegraph prize cryptic for me....
Funny you raised this subject, i used to be a cryptic fanatic, but after some years not doing them, i lost the knack. I started again 3 weeks ago, completed the Telegraph cryptic two weeks ago, missed last weeks and have just completed todays.

One of my favourite crypic clues ?
Important thing the secretary must do when the boss is'nt there ?

Answer anyone ?.

(How many letters?) All of them!

 

[Dormouse]

Saturday Telegraph prize cryptic for me....
Funny you raised this subject, i used to be a cryptic fanatic, but after some years not doing them, i lost the knack. I started again 3 weeks ago, completed the Telegraph cryptic two weeks ago, missed last weeks and have just completed todays.

One of my favourite crypic clues ?
Important thing the secretary must do when the boss is'nt there ?

Answer anyone ?.

How many letters and words?

I did the cryptic puzzle in the Saturday Torygraph this morning for the first time in ages as well.

 

[rayw1604]

I used to do the Times crossword, Mephisto in the Sunday Times magazine and the Listener crossword in the Saturday Times, which was my own personal 'Holy Grail' - if I could do that, I was really chuffed. I actually won a few prizes with the first two, but never actually succeeded with the latter, even though quite a few were sent.

However, I haven't actually bought a newspaper for years now, as I get all my information/news from the Internet, and as somebody else mentioned, it's not the same doing it online.

My favourite clue was from a Listener crossword:-

Ruth Rendell's first English detective (7)

Any takers?

 

[gbb]

(How many letters?) All of them!

Sorry all
11 letters...one word

 

[gbb]

Saturday Telegraph prize cryptic for me....
Funny you raised this subject, i used to be a cryptic fanatic, but after some years not doing them, i lost the knack. I started again 3 weeks ago, completed the Telegraph cryptic two weeks ago, missed last weeks and have just completed todays[/S yesterdays !!!

One of my favourite crypic clues ?
Important thing the secretary must do when the boss is'nt there ?

Answer anyone ?.

The moments gone..

The answer was significant...broken down cryptically...sign if i cant

 

[ColinJ]

Oh, I thought it was similar to the overladen postman joke!

Important thing the secretary must do when the boss isn't there?

I ask "How many letters?"

Answer: (S)he must type - All of them!

 

[Speicher]

My favourite clue was from a Listener crossword:-

Ruth Rendell's first English detective (7)

Any takers?

Wexford

 

[rich p]

Ruth Rendell's first English detective (7)

Any takers?

Remorse.

very good!

 

[Fnaar]

There's a knack to cryptic crosswords.... and I don't have it. I look at a clue like (making this up) "Vicar's nodules - take the biscuit!" and they just annoy me.