208 replies to this topic

[jim palmer]

Is the question mark part of the clue, or yours?

Anagram of 'a lot like a', anyone?

Had a better idea for a cryptic clue.

'African spirit, a lot like a' 7,2

Laetoli ka

[linda.ff]

Nope. It's ABUNDANCE. A BUN DANCE. Meaning "a lot" maybe A BUN DANCE isn't that much like A CAKE WALK, but it was the best I could do.

[Latin pianist]

Has anyone tried the Latin Crossword in the Times ? My neighbour passed me on hers with a few clues done and amazingly I completed it with a little help from the internet looking up quotations. It's sort of cryptic eg I heard a car with power, answer audivi. Something a bit different, anyway.

[agricola]

Yes I tried it with partial success !  My Latin is very rusty so this might spruce it up a bit.

[Aeolienne]

From the Grauniad: Cryptic crosswords for beginners

[GMc]

A group of us used to do these for all the papers in the coffee breaks at med school.  The secret was that there were plenty of people whose parents did them and taught them the tricks of the trade.   Then they can explain as they go along and then you get better.    But even then if they change the regular compilers you can be thrown off a fair bit.  There are bits of Latin thrown in even if you aren't doing the Latin one  - quotes, abbreviations and Roman numeral code!  It takes a while to pick the anagrams (I mean which letters you are trying to arrange not the actual solution once you have the letters). 

[Latin pianist]

When I was young, my father used to solve the Telegraph cryptic and put in all the letters that couldn't be got from another clue. Then I solved it, until I could do it without help. He then did this for my sons, one of whom does cryptic crosswords now.

[fsharpminor]

I was taught the basics by my mother using the one in the' ### Bits'.  I did (or attempted) the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Times ones for some years , but not so often these days. Since the advent of Sudoku, I usually do these first so dont have time to start the crosswords.

[linda.ff]

I was taught the basics by my mother using the one in the' ### Bits'. 

tut 

[Aeolienne]

I'm stuck on the last clue:

 

It's a crime to make letters strike-bound (9)

 

_R_C_M_I_

[fsharpminor]

I'm stuck on the last clue:

 

It's a crime to make letters strike-bound (9)

 

_R_C_M_I_

Looks like an anagram of Its a crime. But I cant see it !

[Latin pianist]

Want it to end in mail for letters. Only crime I can think of is blackmail but doesn't fit letters and not sure why black would be strike bound.

[linda.ff]

Want it to end in mail for letters. Only crime I can think of is blackmail but doesn't fit letters and not sure why black would be strike bound.

Could the answer which gave us the R be wrong?

 

To black something sort of implies that it's been outlawed, like blackballed or blacklisted.

 

The only anagram of "it's a crime" is armistice

 

If it weren't for the probability of "mail" being at the end, I would have thought it was a word for letters, surrounded by a word for strike, or hit.

[Aeolienne]

Latin Pianist and Linda.FF's suspicions are correct. The R is - was - from Get a dirty look and stagger back (4), which I had as REEL but I now realise should be LEER. Woot!

[fsharpminor]

Then it must be Blackmail