If you found this blog useful and you’d like to say thanks you can click here to make a contribution. Thanks for looking at our blogs!

BLOGS BY TOPIC

BLOGS BY AUTHOR

BLOGS BY YEAR

A personal take on the best dozen Times crossword clues from the last 5 years

Part ten of a thirteen-part series of blogs

In addition to computer training, Andy Brown is also an addict of the Times Crossword. In this blog Andy takes a break from blogging on software to list his 12 favourites clues from the last 5 years of puzzles.

Posted by Andy Brown on 11 December 2017

You need a minimum screen resolution of about 700 pixels width to see our blogs. This is because they contain diagrams and tables which would not be viewable easily on a mobile phone or small laptop. Please use a larger tablet, notebook or desktop computer, or change your screen resolution settings.

4th position (from puzzle number 26734)

Construction clues can be quite contrived, but are the staple of many cryptic crosswords. But get them right, and they can make the solver sit back in admiration. Consider this clue:

Possible description of wife, with clothes on: large (6-3)

It's all down to the surface reading, of course. Here we have a perfect snippet of text, which (like all good clues) puts an image in the solver's head which bears no relation to the answer (in this case COMMON-LAW).

Even experienced solvers could spend a minute or two trying to work out why this answer is correct (even though the answer so obviously fits the letter count and the definition Possible description of wife). The insight you'll need is that the , in the clue should be read as COMMA. Thus the clue divides into two parts:

Part	Clue	Notes
Definition	Possible description of wife	COMMON-LAW
Wordplay	comma with clothes on: large	COMM-ONL-AW

Oh, and you'll need to know that L is a common abbreviation for Large, and W for With!

This blog has 0 threads Add post