Doctor’s Notes

When did you first encounter Azed? This month we launched the Clue Clinic Forum, a place for discussion of any and all things cruciverbal. The inaugural thread – asking for crossword-related anecdotes – prompted one visitor to recount the sequence of events which led him to attempt Azed for the first time.

I came across Azed in my teens, when my mother gave me a second-hand copy of Jonathan Crowther’s A-Z of Crosswords as a present. Familiar only with the Telegraph cryptic at that point, most of the puzzles in this book were beyond me – alien-looking barred grids, impenetrable preambles, clues listed in alphabetical order of solutions… Puzzle 6 was ‘Corgis in Castle’ by Azed. I tentatively pencilled in 4 entries before grinding to a halt. I had never heard of Chambers Dictionary and my trusty ODE did not contain words like “pagurid” and “tripudiate”. Still, I enjoyed reading Azed’s introductory remarks and perusing the profiles of professional setters, wondering if I might one day follow in their footsteps.

I set my first cryptic crossword over 20 years ago while at university. My early puzzles featured such inspired clues as “Gives fish in greeting (9)”, along with more convoluted offerings in which I merrily sacrificed both smooth surface readings and good cryptic grammar in favour of attempts at humour, in the hope of earning an occasional wry smile or compliment from a fellow student.

Thankfully, it seems I’m not alone. In A-Z of Crosswords, many of the setter biographies tell a similar tale. Early attempts are described as “dreadful” (Ian Mawby), “absurdly esoteric” (Andrew Bremner / Sabre), and “amateurish and quirky” (Brian Greer / Virgilius). Feedback from editors varies from “wonderfully polite rejection” (Sabre again) to “two pages of trenchant criticism… ‘unruly unching and weak clues’” (Jack Gill / Llig). Some aspiring setters “hammer[ed] away for … years” before finally being accepted by a publisher (Alun Evans / Axe). Others honed their skills in secret – compiling “two 100-puzzle collections” which “never saw the light of publication” (Richard Rogan / Aragon) – or abandoned the craft for periods of time “after a succession of rejections” (Eddie James / Brummie).

This month I made my debut as a setter for the Financial Times. Seeing my puzzle in print was a real moment of joy, and it prompted me to think back to those early attempts at setting and all the clumsy clues I wrote for Varsity – incidentally the same student newspaper where Azed himself started out. I added a story of my own from that time to the thread in the Forum and enjoyed reading the other cruciverbal anecdotes that have been posted so far. If you have a story of your own to share, I would love to hear it.

We want the Forum to be a place for general discussion, somewhere you can ask open questions, express opinions, and swap tips. Whether you want to tell us about your first encounter with a favourite setter, an early attempt at setting, or a particular puzzle that has stuck in your memory, we invite you to come and join the conversation.

Clinical Observations

Another bumper month with 5 barred puzzles in The Observer:

• Azed 2,782: Plain, 3/5 difficulty. Trickier than usual – in fact, it had been exactly a year since Dr Clue last awarded an Azed a difficulty rating of 3 – with plenty to discuss, as visitors raised a number of queries and quibbles. 
• Gemelo 43: Plain, 2.4/5. An unusual grid with two 5-letter entries containing no unches, but a satisfying solve nonetheless – only minor criticisms, with most of the comments focussing on Dr Clue’s breakfast choices…
• Gemelo 44: Plain, 2.5/5. Who knew an innocent-looking word like “after” could provoke so much discussion? Dr Clue examined several mental invisicommas and a rare case of dieresis – which thankfully cleared up quickly.
• Gemelo 45: Special ‘Special Mentions’, 1.8/5. Gemelo, we learned, is a huge fan of the Beatles, but you were not huge fans of this themed puzzle. 
• Gemelo 46: “Legendarily, one could pick up jumbo crossword, totally accurately, only taking seconds” – what about you? Let us know how you found this puzzle.

Comment Editing

A commenter recently observed that they were unable to include formatting in their comment, which prevented them from reproducing a particular clue accurately. Although it has always been possible to add limited formatting using HTML tags, this is a cumbersome and error-prone process. With the assistance of a couple of WordPress plugins, we have been able to equip the comment box with a toolbar featuring basic formatting buttons – bold, underline, italics, subscript/superscript, bullets, text colour, insert special character, insert link etc. We hope that you will find this useful.

Poll of the Month

Results of July poll

The question was “What is your view on solving crosswords on paper or interactively?”

47% of respondents said that they only solved puzzles on paper, while a further 28% prefer puzzles on paper but are happy solving interactively. The remaining votes were cast as follows:

I’m not fussed either way – 19%
I prefer to solve interactively, but paper is ok too – 6%
I only solve puzzles interactively – 0%

Doctor Clue counts himself among the paper-only brigade – in fact, his solving is limited to puzzles on A4 sheets. The blank areas are perfect for accommodating notes of all kinds, along with doodles should the going get really tough…

August Poll

This month, let’s talk about the Marmite of the cruciverse…