13 thoughts on “Rupert’s Cryptic”

  1. Thanks for the plug!

    And I apologise to Gayle for letting her comment languish in the moderation queue so long. You wouldn’t believe the amount of spam that blog gets.

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  2. I loved the surface of 10D, and the wordplay .. when I got it. Very funny. A great ‘discovery’ as DA would say. Should pass it on. Thanks Rupert for the crossword, and AS for posting… a nice way for Trippers to end the year with Rupert’s gems, and a collective chuckle.

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  3. Hi,

    I’m relatively new to cryptics, and both Rupert and Gayle have really helped me pick up some of the basic skills. Thank you.

    Last night I had a couple of clues come flying into my head from somewhere and thought I would share them. In particular, I thought Rupert might enjoy the first one below.

    1 Hope anew for mechanical marvel: heard, almost seen (between 2 and 4) relieving himself without end (next to ring) (4 letters, 2nd letter requires some discretion)

    2 Newton provided Christian imprimatur to corporation mentioned in riddly classic, shortly collecting 20th century thinker (8, 7)

    Hope you enjoy my feeble attempt at following DA

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  4. Have been struggling with the left side for most of the day on and off. Not helped by putting in a wrong answer for 9A. Astle is an anagram of Steal!!!
    Think I’m on the right track now as my new answer gives me a 1D that actually fits.

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  5. Thanks, grant. Any chance of a couple of hints?

    If you want more opportunities to flex your setting muscles, you should check out DA’s blog. He posts a word of the week, which several of us try to devise a clue for, and roughly weekly he’ll have a more structured setting/solving contest.

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  6. Thanks Rupert.

    I wasn’t aware of DA’s blog. I’ll reserve my amateur cluemanship for that forum in future.

    Regarding my clues, both have a science fiction association. The first in the clue and the answer. The second in just part of the clue. The 20th century thinker is a famous philosopher/peace activist.

    Regards,

    Grrant

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  7. Hey Rupert! I just printed this off this morning and completed it with a couple of logical hiccups…I’m overseas on hols.

    I was most chuffed to see 16A! Thanks!

    I had some issues with some of the clues but I don’t want to repeat the feedback above for no good reason…

    A great grid and a top effort getting the regulars involved.

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  8. I just read the above and so could I suggest a few things?

    24A: maybe ‘side’ not ‘sides’ as it’s not strictly a swap.
    8D: I don’t think the ‘e’ is a tail
    14A: I don’t get it
    17A: I don’t get the required gap when I’m saying it. Just saying.

    But a great effort!

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  10. 24A: Fair point
    8D: Not on it’s own. “R” is the tail. Arguably “ER” is the tail, too. I thought tails neatly conveyed the idea of letters at the end of the word.
    14A: City and state are separate. Award is something students used to get.
    17A: The gap between poem and speaker? It only works if you treat the two consonant sounds as one.

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  13. Thanks for all the feedback, folks. Hopefully it filled some of the void between DAs. I have another one (unthemed) scheduled to go up on Wednesday.

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