c4countdown

Now that Phil's crossword puzzle has come to a close I bring you the 3rd instalment of the popular competition. However me being shit at cryptic crosswords I'm sure you'll find my clues really simple, and please PM me if you've think I've made a constructive error or some sort of cryptic no-no. Same rules as before: All answers are names of people on this forum (both names), DONT DISCUSS ANSWERS IN THIS THREAD. PM THEM TO ME Deadline is a week today at 10am. The prize... why a VFSMB of course!

Its out of 20 points. 1 mark for each correct answer and one mark for each reasoning which you must explain.

1. In a mix with Italian flying
2. Blunt deer perhaps
3. Pub essentially confused acorns
4. Metal holy man with Spanish sea front
5. Mr Jackson pared expert
6. Stacey's optimistic pal
7. A knee bump mostly over to end Summer help
8. Gay realm components
9. Blacken pork pie concerning one unmarried lady
10. One I blend by hand, mango purée without doubt.

Well done Dinos, have already got two but they look tough to me. I might not enter as I worked out the prize is a "Very Fine Statuette of My Bollocks" which, frankly mate, you can stick.

Oops I meant to post this in Games and Puzzles. Charlie could you move it for me? Also I probably should have mentioned for those who didn't partake in previous competitions, its out of 20 points. 1 mark for each correct answer and one mark for each reasoning which you must explain.

Good luck with this but as Phil's follow-up showed we may be heading towards overkill with the cryptic threads.

David O'Donnell wrote:cryptic threads

Is that a description of what you wore for your Countdown appearances?

Phil Reynolds wrote:

David O'Donnell wrote:cryptic threads

Is that a description of what you wore for your Countdown appearances?

Stick to the puzzles.

David O'Donnell wrote:Good luck with this but as Phil's follow-up showed we may be heading towards overkill with the cryptic threads.

Aye probably. Only a couple of replies (some people just saying they've found their own name etc) atm Kai is winning with 4 points. Comp still on tho. Get your entries in!

Just a reminder that this competition closes tomorrow at 10am so get your entries in. Don't be put off if you dont think you know that many answers as Kai is still winning with 4 points so anyone could still win the VFSMB!

Also if I dont get many entrants I may get very upset and will turn to becoming an internet sexual predator

ps After review, I've amended clue 9 by one word.

Time's up! And the winner is... Ian Volante with 8 points! Kai is 2nd with 4 points. This concludes the list of entrants!

Answers:

1. In a mix IAN with Italian flying VOLANTE
2. Blunt deer perhaps FRANK RODOLF
3. Pub INN essentially IS confused acorns CARSON
4. Metal TIN holy man BISHOP with Spanish sea front MAR
5. Mr Jackson MICHAEL pared WALL (Spanish) expert ACE
6. Stacey's optimistic pal GAVIN CHIPPER
7. A knee bump mostly over MUBEEN to end Summer help JUN AID
8. Gay realm components GARY MALE
9. Blacken CHAR pork pie LIE concerning RE one A unmarried lady MS
10. One I blend EOIN by hand, mango purée without doubt MONAGHAN (anagram without d).[/quote]

Crikey - no wonder I didn't get very far. Some of the clues were highly misleading, I'm afraid; and one or two I don' t understand at all. Specifically:

2. Blunt deer perhaps FRANK RODOLF

Don't get this one. How do you get "Rodolf" from "deer"?

5. Mr Jackson MICHAEL pared WALL (Spanish) expert ACE

Eh? Where did it say in the original clue that "pared" was supposed to be interpreted as a Spanish word?!

7. A knee bump mostly over MUBEEN to end Summer help JUN AID

Hmmm. "Summer" as an indicator for "June" is pretty dodgy (most of the month of June is in Spring, not Summer).

9. Blacken CHAR pork pie LIE concerning RE one A unmarried lady MS

How do you get "ms" from "unmarried lady"? Ms. is a title for all women, whether married or not.

10. One I blend EOIN by hand, mango purée without doubt MONAGHAN (anagram without d)

I've never come across "d" as a recognised abbreviation for "doubt".

Good effort Dinos but if you set another one I shall look upon it with a more sceptical eye I'm afraid!

Phil Reynolds wrote:How do you get "Rodolf" from "deer"?

Umm... Rudolph?

Phil Reynolds wrote:Eh? Where did it say in the original clue that "pared" was supposed to be interpreted as a Spanish word?

It didn't. That would give the game away. I thought the rest of the clue was pretty self-explanatory and both entrants solved this one.

Phil Reynolds wrote:Hmmm. "Summer" as an indicator for "June" is pretty dodgy (most of the month of June is in Spring, not Summer).

Oh go on! Let us have June! Summer's short enough as it is anyway!

Phil Reynolds wrote:How do you get "ms" from "unmarried lady"? Ms. is a title for all women, whether married or not

As opposed to Mrs

Phil Reynolds wrote:I've never come across "d" as a recognised abbreviation for "doubt".

Admittedly neither have I, but I was struggling for a flowing anagram of MONAGHAN so had to add a D but didnt know how to signify this, and what are cryptic clues if not open to a personal touch?

Thanks for your comments though. I'm always keen to learn cryptic techniques from people who actually know what they're doing

Dinos Sfyris wrote:

Phil Reynolds wrote:How do you get "Rodolf" from "deer"?

Umm... Rudolph?

So Rudolph, not Rodolf. And Rudolph was a reindeer, not a deer.

Eh? Where did it say in the original clue that "pared" was supposed to be interpreted as a Spanish word?

It didn't. That would give the game away.

Yeah... that's what cryptic clues have to do, albeit cryptically.

How do you get "ms" from "unmarried lady"? Ms. is a title for all women, whether married or not

As opposed to Mrs

No, that would be Miss, which is the title for an unmarried lady, which is what the clue said.

Thanks for your comments though. I'm always keen to learn cryptic techniques from people who actually know what they're doing

If you're genuinely interested in writing cryptic clues, and in particular in what constitutes a "fair" clue, this link that Gary posted in the Cryptic Forumites 2 thread has some really good advice. But mainly at this stage I'd concentrate on getting the factual element of your clues right!

I have this theory that only drama teachers call themselves Ms.

(I appreciate that this (probably) isn't true, but still)

I prefer the liberal interpretation of cryptic crosswords to the real one, as described in the aforementioned link. This way seems to be a lot more challenging.

Jon O'Neill wrote:I prefer the liberal interpretation of cryptic crosswords to the real one, as described in the aforementioned link. This way seems to be a lot more challenging.

It's not about liberal or restrictive, it's just about making the questions fair. If there's more than one jump between the clue and the answer, the space of possibilities is so large that it's very difficult to work out whether you got the right answer, even if it's in front of you. Which is just not very fun.

Anyway I think your opinion is devalued by the fact that you don't actually do cryptic crosswords...

People managed to get 8 out of 10, so they can't have been that hard. Maybe in a crossword where the field of potential answers isn't something like 700 I would think that clues like this were too hard.

Maybe if the clues were more fun I would do them.

Jon O'Neill wrote:People managed to get 8 out of 10.

Was actually out of 20 points so I guess people struggled a bit. I put it down to my level of thinking being way higher than all you amateurs. Never mind I'll start a useful tips thread to solving my puzzles...

Dinos Sfyris wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:People managed to get 8 out of 10.

Was actually out of 20 points so I guess people struggled a bit. I put it down to my level of thinking being way higher than all you amateurs. Never mind I'll start a useful tips thread to solving my puzzles...

Good recovery after you dismantled my argument.

Clue for my name.

One I blend, in Irish county.

Nice, but I prefer mine, even if the "without doubt" is a bit dubious. It flows nicely and the comma is an excellent example of misleading punctuation in crypticism (if I do say so myself)

Dinos Sfyris wrote:

Jon O'Neill wrote:People managed to get 8 out of 10.

Was actually out of 20 points so I guess people struggled a bit. I put it down to my level of thinking being way higher than all you amateurs. Never mind I'll start a useful tips thread to solving my puzzles...

I only did the easy ones because I knew the score I had to be was low