Obsession rising

I was downtrailed. Not a single answer solved. The grid immaculate apart from a few feeble, misguided scribbles in miniscule letters. The Mephisto crossword humbled me three weeks ago, restricting me to three answers, but had given me an ounce of hope yielding 19 (of the 32) answers the following week. But this past week's left me confounded and grasping.

Studying the clues I didn't get revealed a glaring problem. The clues were designed for an educated, older British solver. A decent knowledge of Middle English (as you'd expect in Chaucer), Scottish vernacular and the history and people of note for Greater Britain are all required.

So guess who's reading Chaucer now...

Re-addiction

I've got back into dosing myself on the hardest of the hard cryptic crosswords (well, of those available in NZ). They are the Kropotkin crosswords which are in the Weekend Herald. When I'm high on them, I'll proclaim them as the most spectacular challenge to the intellect; and solving them as akin to godliness. Naturally they are neither, but such exaggeration is indicative of how much I'm enjoying them.

It is not just that they are a more difficult; it is that some of the answers are obscure words that you may not have even seen before. The compiler creates words occasionally. This week the answers that I have got so far feature: frescade, theeing, Frenchman's Creek, chorpoda and hircine; and last week featured: gormenghast, dilutee, trencherman, grimwig, neath and chinwag. Of the other answers, few are 'normal' words. Useful knowledge this week included knowing that 'inch' was another word for an island, 'fell' was an old word for a skin or hide, 'magister' is the latin for master, two greek letters (chi and mu), a Maori Major of the past and the names of indian tribes. Almost all the clues are so carefully crafted so that you can look at them for hours before they are unlocked. It is truly a puzzle that can keep you occupied throughout the week.

Currently I have four clues remaining, gnawing at me (from the 26 in the beginning). The only other person I know who does them has already got all 4 of them, indicating they are not completely impossible. The only saving grace is that I have got one he hasn't got. Anyway, just to demostrate a little of the wonder:

Correspond with me after letter got from overseas (5) Answer: CHI+ME 'Chi' is a greek letter, and to Chime in is to agree or to correspond!

Ravel - A french composer of hits about the first century (8) Answer: Un+sti(t)(c)h 'Un' being french for A and ravel not just being the name of a French composer but also a word meaning to undo! So intricate and well crafted.

I can't wait till Saturday to finally 'get' the remaining clues and get another set of the finest challenges.

The Crossword Trial

Last week I decided to give my crosswording skill a comprehensive test doing both Herald crosswords (straight and cryptic) everyday it was published and also the Kropotkin crossword on the weekend, to have some quantitative test of how well I can do them. I'll try it again later to see if I improve.

Here are the results:

Straight crosswords
Finish rate: 100% (6/6)
Error rate: 4 mistaken answers in 6 crosswords
Assistance: 2 answers provided from outside sources (A friend suggested vaunted for boasted, and also a comment from my mother made me realise a mistaken answer was something else).

Cryptic crosswords
Finish rate: 5 crosswords out of 6. Due to a mistake, one crossword was rendered impossible.
Error rate: 3 mistaken answers in six crosswords
Assistance: 1 answers provided using outside sources (I didn't know what a parvenu was).

I would have included timing to do them but I am often interrupted by work ;-) And besides some of them take me almost 24 hours to complete...

Kropotkin crosswords
Fortunately for my Crossword trial, I finished this crossword for the first time ever. That being said, I did have a lot of guesses, and occasional assistance. His clues are the most evil cryptics possible and the answers are occasionally words you'll never see anywhere else (not even on the internet). Last week I got one answer. I have to wait till next weekend to get the answers but so far I can say:

(out of 28 clues)
Finished
Error rate: At least 1 (I guessed an answer for a dressage movement, got it wrong, it was 'piaffe')
Assistance: Only to confirm answers

The evil of the clues are everywhere e.g.

• Charlie cutting the duck up - back end discarded while meditating (7,3,3) = C+hewing the [k]cud
• Is tenor featuring in opera? Order one to appear (8) = Is+op(t)era (the Order of termites, I found out later...)
• Queen with straight wrist - wife leaves - mate comes around (9) = (to get this I needed cockney rhyming slang, as another word for mate is China i.e. china plate = mate so...) Ch+[w]rist+ina, apparently there is a Queen Christina...
• Film someone eating around noon (a little bone) - had meal by the sound of it (6,2,5) = This is classic - 'Diner' insert the 'n' from noon, a small bone is 'a t bone' reduced to 'at' and sounds like had a meal is ate/'eight' = Din(n)er at Eight, a movie I found out, according to my mum...

I'll take it easy this week, but I'd like to try a few for speed.

Crypticity

I have crunched the weekend cryptic slowly with now only two half-clues remaining. At work, there is a teacher's aide who can do them. But we are completely different in solving style. He is intuitive whereas I am logical. He sees correspondences between meanings very well, and has a large vocabulary (he is good at straight crosswords) but cannot construct words out of clues.

He could solve whereas I couldn't the following clue:

Unlicensed recipient (6)

...which is "fences" (a person who receives stolen goods and on-sells them)

Whereas I could crunch this one (it took a while) which he couldn't even start:

Rams after five changes (6)

...which is "varies" (v + aries)

One of the strange things about cryptics is that you can clues without knowing the words, the weekend crossword I solved the clues for "laird" and "ciceroni" both of which I only learnt today.