Cryptic crossword compiler

Facebook’s a handy little site - I know it has its detractors. My crossword collaborator (everyone must have one!) has been on holiday for the last few weeks, but she texted me to discuss this Saturday’s fine Araucaria crossword. Texting proved a touch laborious, so we switched to Facebook chat! We’d finished it within about the hour.

Amongst the clues were some tremendous specimens: German decapitated by neighbour (7) was very neat. and we enjoyed working out why our answer to Homes for Chinese in Yellow Pages (10) was correct.

Have a look and see what you think: http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/prize/25095.

I particularly liked the two really really long clues, though I could find no record of a play called The Head That Wears a Crown. Any help identifying that would be most welcome!

Looking forward to next weekend’s as it’s the August Bank Holiday, one of those times we can confidently expect a 20×20 Araucaria (or Paul?) special. There are benefits to the end of summer … and of course my Kindle arrives at the beginning of September!

Araucaria’s at it again - some lovely clues to enhance Saturday morning. I give you: St Peter, etymologically, to scrub the deck (9). I love it when it takes me more than a day to solve a clue - and that was worthwhile. It does make me wonder - am I getting more stupid when it takes me that long to get one clue? Or is it Araucaria’s deviousness? Probably both. I did like the theme, too - though I’m not really a fan of 9 10 4s.

Other clues that pleased me greatly were: Buy wildly into lawyer for president (5) and Start of play on island with flexible toy (6,3). Sweet.

I won’t spoil it - have a look at the August 7 Prize Crossword for yourself!

I felt like I had stepped back in time, to the days of crosswords in The Times with obscure literary connotations. Yes, the ‘royal four’ in Pasquale’s Prize Crossword was truly flummoxing! After getting the fairly obvious clue One of 4 offering protection - shield - I thought we were onto a heraldic link. How wrong I was …

It wasn’t until I’d been talking to my co-conspirator for an hour on Monday night that we realised that it had something to do with Masters of the King’s Music (see what I mean about The Times? What’s that doing in The Guardian???). Hence spelling Cusins wrong! Luckily, there’s always Wikipedia to help

Apart from that, there were some elegant clues, such as:
Group of nine men, one mad - not a leader amoung them (6)
German vessel sunk by block of ice almost (8)
Like some fiction I start to read in French - no good (9)
… all of which impressed by massively leading me up the garden path at the outset!

Where you might see aileron move? That can be frightening (9) should have been easier, but how was I to know that an ‘aileron’ is not a made up word? Could have asked the L of my L who - though thinking crosswords are a huge waste of time - is a glider pilot. But I didn’t want to involve him …

If you want to see the whole puzzle, go to the online version here. And come back and tell me what you think.

… and despite my lack of respect for the Telegraph crossword this clue has been brought to my attention (thank you, Trevor!): See odd perennials sprouting (5,3,5). At first glance it looks like an anagram, but how could ’see’ be 5,3,5? I am used to ’see’ indicating ‘lo’ and anything to do with vision, but the clue is beautifully misleading. It’s A see. And my ecclesiastical knowledge is limited so I had to look it up: and Rippon and Leeds IS a holy see!Well done, that Telegraph setter!

Suggest you move to the Guardian …

It can sometimes take a while, but we’ve finally finished Araucaria’s latest - and there were some damned classy clues in this weekend’s! Favourites were Student groups seize firm amid loud applause - they’re up to the neck in revolution (11) , though I would say it was (4-7). There were a couple of other times that we thought he was making up words, but it was an altogether lovely puzzle.I’ll put some clues in here once the answer’s been published (not wanting to encourage cheating!); it was a nice thing to have on a rainy weekend!

Hey, it’s a Bank Holiday here in the UK, which means only one thing - yes, a supercharged cryptic crossword from master-setter Araucaria from the Guardian. So there goes the weekend!

We’re having great weather in the UK just now - no idea how long it’ll last. A lot of people are heading to the beach, and what better place to get down to a challenging cryptic crossword than by the sea!

I’ve been inside writing about systems for improving your memory, and I’ll put some more information about that on this site shortly … keep ‘em peeled! But now that’s done it’s time to Note slapdash 80s number 1 (5). 

Very funny, hang on till the end of this Two Ronnies sketch …

… but one that made us feel uneasy:

Creator of romance in politics (7)

Battled through Saturday’s Araucaria from the Guardian - when I say battled, the main problem was with not knowing that ‘trope‘ is a figure of speech. Even with my clever-clever masters’ degree in Applied Linguistics I had never heard of a trope. So this clearly demonstrates once again that cryptic crosswords are much easier than standard puzzles. Given the crytic clue it became clear that there the word had to exist.Well the clue was ‘River reduced into drink (figure of speech) … ‘ - what else could it be?

For my favourite clue (and the one that made us slightly ill), look at the ‘favourite clues’ section!