I love cryptic crosswords. They are an intellectual challenge both to solve and to compile. Both operations extend your grasp of English and power for lateral thinking. Moreover, as the last respectable bastion of the corny joke, they are entertaining. Where else can you call an organist a manual worker or a gambler a better?
Why not try your hand at one of mine? I change the example from time to time. I suggest you print off the page so you can fill in the grid. If you get stuck on a clue, click on its number for help.
No 110
Across |
Down |
|||
| 1 | Ruffle girl's hair (8) | 1 | European flower, supposedly blue (6) | |
| 5 | A peach pickled for a native American (6) | 2 | Spotted insect - and another (6) | |
| 9 | Messenger to slew ring unfortunately (8) | 3 | Fraud on dilapidated red French railway (7) | |
| 10 | Complaint about tortuous maze east of City (6) | 4 | Clear peel (5) | |
| 12 | You shouldn't get holes in this undergarment ... (6-5,4) | 6 | Tranquil ocean (7) | |
| 13 | ... covering for a looker! (6) | 7 | Neighbour of 5 wants hence yen translated (8) | |
| 15 | Clergyman is able to take in a small number ... (5) | 8 | No longer on the stage? Tough! (8) | |
| 18 | ... holding belief in tatty decor (5) | 11 | Enemy consumes revolting brown sauce (6) | |
| 20 | Drowsy secret agent swallows eel tail-first (6) | 14 | Scots girl makes ass lie around (6) | |
| 24 | Where the over-ambitious Underground worker gets his ideas? (5,3,7) | 16 | Clambers clumsily, perhaps, to do this (8) | |
| 26 | First and last letters found in endless brill in the country (6) | 17 | What to do when walls are recoated badly (8) | |
| 27 | Interrogates by removing underwear? (8) | 19 | Doorway to opportunity (7) | |
| 28 | Come out and point to combine (6) | 21 | Airier distillation following first placement on the plain (7) | |
| 29 | Not having received corporal punishment? (8) | 22 | Straight credit rejected (6) | |
| 23 | Employees' organisations shakily get together (6) | |||
| 25 | Some faster naval vessels are coming back (5) | |||
To see the solution to an individual clue click on its number and follow the link that appears at the end of the hint.
To see the solution to the whole puzzle click here.
In a cryptic crossword the clues are deliberately misleading. There are about ten types of cryptic clue. In most there is a synonym part which describes the solution and a structural part which tells you how the solution is made up. If you aren't familiar with cryptic clues, just try your hand at the example puzzle here. Clicking on the number of a clue will bring up a hint as to how it works. If you still can't solve it, a further click will give you the solution.
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