Crosswords! The New Quick-cryptic, and Guardian Cryptic 28,880

The Guardian just launched a new cryptic crossword format, and it’s a beauty.

It’s the Quick-cryptic, and it’s a small-ish, cryptic crossword that operates on a small subset of tricks. And, because this is designed as a gateway drug, it tells you which tricks it’ll be using. It drops on Saturdays and I’ll be following it even though I’ve been doing cryptics for years - because frankly in any skill it’s ALWAYS good to refresh and strengthen your fundamentals from time to time.

I tried out the new Quick-cryptic last night. As a relatively experienced solver myself, I cleared it in under ten minutes, and then immediately tried it out on two novices.

The first cleared it with minimal assistance, the second needed a little more help but still got there.

The first was my dear friend Happy Singer, and after finishing the quick cryptic, wanted more. So I pointed him to this week’s Quiptic. He managed to knock that one over too, and moved on to the Monday cryptic.

That one took a little longer, but by morning, and with a couple of small hints, that was completed too. A relative novice, three cryptics done in under 24 hours. A result!

I’d say that’s a win for the new Quick-Cryptic format, and I’m quite taken with it.

Myself, I finished those three and revisted some older, incomplete, crosswords in my Crossword Genius app. I landed on Guardian Cryptic 28,880, of which I’d finished a mere few percent. I went on to complete it while trying to drop off to sleep. Spoilers most definitely follow. I’m not going to explain every answer, but I will explain some of the most fun clues and describe how I reached the full solution. Don’t expand unless you want the crossword spoilered!

Guardian 28,880 most definitely has a theme, and if you grew up in the UK, you may - possibly - spot it in short order.

I did not - in fact - spot it in short order, despite my upbringing and despite getting 20a quite early on.

20. Clothes with broader design (8)

This one is a combination, an anagram and an augment. You're looking at an anagram of "broader", as indicated by "design", but with the added wrinkle of adding "w" from "with". This is a nod to the common abbrevation of "with", such as in "w/water" or "w/cheese".

WARDROBE

Nice. Good start. But one answer is not getting us anywhere. Continuing onwards. I also, early on, got 5d

5. Writer, 'a god', pens introduction to Ulysses (6)

What's going on here then? Well, the word 'pens' can mean 'fences in' or 'traps'. 'introduction to Ulysses' immediately suggested to me that there's a 'u' in there somewhere. So we've probably got a 'u' penned inside something that means "a god". How about... Thor? A.. u.. thor.

AUTHOR

OK, so that's good. We've got WARDROBE and AUTHOR. At this point I should perhaps have suspected a theme, and perhaps I would have, had I gone much further. For some reason, though, I left the puzzle idle for a chunk of time after my first session, but not before I got 17a. Once you know the theme, you might see why I went off the scent, but I think this is a goody.

17. (10010050 + 1) ÷ y? It might make your head spin (7)

Baffling, no? Can't be a reference to binary, what with that 5 in there. Well, it can be a good idea when you see numbers in a clue to remember your roman numerals. In this case what you're looking at is 100,100,50 + 1 - or C,C,L + ONE - CCLONE. When you've got that, it's divided by Y, giving you...

CYCLONE

And that was pretty much how I left it. For something like eighteen months.

Coming back to the puzzle last night, I tabbed through a few clues looking for a crack into which I could jemmy my brain and twist. The key was 26 across.

26. 5 British chessmen found here (5)

"British chessmen" elicited a picture in my head. The Lewis Chessmen, clearly that's the answer! But wait... what's that 5 doing there at the start? Let's look up at clue 5d, which we solved earlier... Author? Let's fill in this clue...

LEWIS

...and have a little think. Author. Lewis... Wardrobe? THERE'S A THEME.

This was indeed the crack that allowed me to force open the entire solution. Obviously, the theme is Narnia. Knowing this, I could attack some other clues.

16. 510 -- Number of the beast?

Back to roman numerals here. L for 50, I for 1, an O for that zero, N for number and you've got the

LION

3. Season well, including new thyme -- explain recipe for starters (6)

First letters, as indicated by 'for starters'

WINTER

22. Hillary and Donald finally married in nude? Revolting! (6)

Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Everest. Donald finally = D Married = M, put those *in*... nude revolting = EUND

EDMUND

27. Fleece follower's family (9)

Sheep's kin

SHEEPSKIN

And from there the entire edifice fell into place, and in the end I'd spent a little over 55 minutes, spaced out over a couple of months of being baffled, with the majority of clues falling into place in the last ten or fifteen minutes. A very fun crossword, a classic in fact. And a nice little lesson in how sometimes one single piece of inspiration will turn an entire puzzle on a dime.

Whether you’ve gone for the spoilers or not, thanks for reading. It’s nice to be blogging again on a smaller, more friendly web. And if you liked this post, feel free to ping me a message on Mastodon and let me know, because if it’s useful or fun, I’ll happily do some more.

 

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